| Grey
clutter
One thing that inhibits you from appreciating a newsletter
is when it’s too cluttered to read – what is
termed as ‘grey pages’. This usually is because
there is too much type and not enough white space to visually
break it up. Contrast your headlines from the text –
make them bigger, bolder or a different typeface. Prevent
your text from being too close or bunched up with sufficient
line spacing. Add more space before the headlines and create
larger margins to let your newsletter breathe. Look at your
page with screwed up eyes to check for contrast, and therefore
reduced grey!
Lack
of white
Newsletter design needs to consider how important white
space is to aid readability. Don’t be afraid to have
big margins at not only the sides but at the top and bottom
as well. You don’t have to fill in every inch on the
page – if you have too much information, either condense
it down by summarising it, save some for another issue or
create some more pages.
Column
clues
Play with the vertical space such as the number of columns
and their gutters (the spaces between), and vary their width
accordingly to the text content – narrow for newsy
material or special ones for pictures and captions, wide
for feature issues that require a more leisurely reading.
Avoid justifying the text as this creates bad word spacing,
and the ragged right edge provides appropriate white space
for eye navigation.
Typical
type
Don’t use wide columns with small type, or narrow
columns with large type – adjust so the eye can read
it comfortably. Take care with the punctuation such as proper
quotation marks and em-hyphens, and try to prevent splitting
up names and dates at the end of lines. Widows and orphans
(first and last lines of paragraphs that are left on their
own) should be avoided – I know that newspapers do
them, but that is no excuse – they need to be accompanied
by at least another line, achievable by suitable editing. |
Boxes
and backgrounds
Don’t put your articles into boxes or even a border
around the whole newsletter page, this is like a barrier
or fence that herds everything into one space – a
newsletter should flow throughout the whole publication.
Promoting certain special offers or notices in boxes for
impact is acceptable, but use sparingly, otherwise they
will become clutter. Be careful when reserving-out text
(white on black or colour), as it is much more difficult
to read and should be treated the same way as boxes. Make
sure the contrast between fore and background is very high,
or it will become illegible (again test by the squinting
method).
Unnecessary
usage
Try not to let your pictures straddle over columns –
ideally they should be within the column confines and set
against the left border – otherwise this will result
in unsightly and unreadable text wrapping. Don’t butt
up the text against your pictures, allow enough spacing
to set them off and distinguish them from the article –
they should be relevant and have a contrasting informative
caption describing them. Careful use of hyphens will avoid
excessive differences in line length, yet don’t allow
automated hyphenation to make your article look ridiculous.
Create your own spaces in between bullet points and text
– automation usually makes them far to wide.
Colour
coordination
A white background with black text is best. Reversing it
may be fashionable but is highly illegible. Dark spot colours
are better, and tints will provide variations for highlighting.
Don’t use bright red or yellow text on a white background,
they will just melt. Be careful of using contrasting colours
together such as red and green, they can become ‘jumpy’
and unreadable. Creating colour headlines won’t make
them stand out more, reserve the spot colour to highlight
other areas of your newsletters such as ‘drop quotes’
or tinted box backgrounds. |
