Graphic Arts Magazine July / August 2019 | Page 30

Creative & Design
The nuts and bolts of long document design
The design and layout of a long document is just as important as the content within
it. There are many considerations that designers must be aware of in order to
accomplish a successful design – and with the help of great layout software (such
as Adobe InDesign) – the process is much easier.
Considerations
These can include bleeds and type
safety (to avoid problems caused by
misregistered cuts), minimum image
resolution (to ensure the highest quality
reproduction) and colour considerations
(for accessibility requirements, such as
ensuring enough colour contrast
between elements for good visibility).
Since text is one of the main elements
of long documents, the fonts used must
be selected carefully. The design and
layout should enhance the text, rather
than distract readers from the words
written on the pages. Good typography
remains invisible to readers and can be
accomplished through proper font
selection, which ensures that the
typeface and size are a good fit for the
intended use and audience. Fonts
should be both readable and legible,
keeping accessibility at the forefront. In
addition, designers must be aware of
legal restrictions that may be embedded
in some fonts. Margins are another
important consideration as they create
negative space that boosts visibility.
The final trim size is also important and
should be determined at the beginning
of the design process. The size must
remain consistent throughout the
document. This is especially important
for printed products, where the document
size may have to adhere to a printer’s
guidelines and requirements. Finally,
designers must always create a long
document with the end in mind and be
aware of the intended binding style. For
example, for a perfect-bound book, the
margins must be set during the design
stage to accommodate for grind off. In
addition, processes like foil stamping
and die cutting must be visible on the
f ile and designers must adhere
30 | July / August 2019 | GRAPHIC ARTS MAGAZINE
religiously to the printer’s or finisher’s
specs and guidelines.
Helpful Adobe InDesign tools
Adobe InDesign is industry-leading soft-
ware for good reason, as it has many
user-friendly tools and features to help
make long document layout easier and
more efficient. Below are some of the most
useful tools for long document design.
Links Panel. Image resolution can be
carefully tracked in the Links Panel.
Here, designers can ensure that all
images have the correct resolution to
achieve high quality reproduction. If any
scaling is done in InDesign (which
should be avoided) the image’s ‘actual
PPI’ will remain constant. However, the
‘effective PPI’ will change, increasing if
the image is scaled up and decreasing
if the image is scaled down. It’s the latter
situation that can cause issues with quality
in the final printed output. A designer
should resize all images to their final
desired size in Adobe Photoshop and
relink the image via the Links Panel.
Master Pages allows designers to create
a ‘template’ of a page’s layout that can
be applied to multiple pages in a docu-
ment (to avoid setting up each page
individually). This makes the process
more efficient, but is also helpful for
establishing consistent text locations
(such as page numbers), as well as con-
sistent positioning of other repeated
page elements. If any changes are made
to the master page, the software will
automatically update all document pages.
Paragraph and Character Styles make
text formatting easier and more efficient.
These styles include formatting details,
like the typeface and size, as well as
justification and hyphenation options.
Similar to the Master Pages, the styles
are applied to the text and, if there are
any changes to the formatting (such as
the size), making the changes within the
Paragraph or Character Styles panel will
automatically update all text that has the
style applied to it.
The use of helpful software such as Adobe
InDesign can make long document
design faster, easier and more efficient,
while producing great results within
tight deadlines.
Samantha Nunziato is a Ryerson
University student majoring in Graphic
Communications Management (GCM).
With a passion for the graphic arts and a
love for books, she participated in GCM’s
Book Production and Publishing class
where she honed her craft for long
document design.
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