Design Tips for Everyone 




What Black is Black?

Many new designers think that using K= 100 in CMYK will result in a perfect black. Although you can get away with setting your K to 100 for black text, large areas of black should be set to ‘Rich Black’. Try using C=90 M=60 Y=30 K=100 — it will produce a much richer and noticeable black.

Text Tips.

Photoshop is a Raster based design program and it great for producing interesting and stylish text effects, but when it comes to typing out larger bodies of text or articles remember that you cannot beat Vector based software like Illustrator, Quark or InDesign. 
This is because Vector images and text will always remain sharp and crisp regardless of the size or resolution of the publication.

Make sure your body text is a single color and not CMYK!

Unlike backgrounds and images it is best to make your text K = 100. This is to assure there are no registration issues when printing and the text will remain crisp.


300 Dpi for Print Ready Images or Photos!

A big mistake made by many designers is forgetting to make all design files and photos that are to be printed 300DPI (Dots Per Inch).   72DPI is fine for web and digital graphics but  300 DPI is the required resolution for the majority of printing companies such as Acts Co.

Also, when working with images that are 72 dpi in print, don’t assume you can just increase the resolution or size of the image and everything will be fixed. The image will appear pixelated and of lower resolution once printed.

Don’t Abuse or Overuse Filters.

Filters used in correct situations can be handy and useful but even though they’re “fun and easy” this doesn’t mean they make you look professional and experienced.

Overusing and misusing filters can easily make you look like an amateur so use with care.


Logos in Photoshop Are a No No.

When designing new Logos and company identities Photoshop is not the best program for choice.
Vector based design programs such as illustrator are much more versatile this is because vector images are easily scalable and retain consistent clarity no matter how large or small you scale them. Allowing you to be able to reuse the same graphic for many different applications.

Careful with Embossing & Drop Shadowed Type

 

We are all guilty of using those cool little drop shadow and beveling tools that come with our design software but..

This is the biggest dead giveaway of an amateur. This goes along with forbidden; rainbow gradients, reflections, comic sans.  You should avoid this where possible as they can turn a great publication into a design disaster in just a few clicks of the mouse button.


No Double Returns.

Do you hit the ‘return’ or the ‘enter’ key twice between paragraphs or after headlines?

Using two spaces makes it possible to end up with a blank line at the top of a column plus it leaves way too much space between each paragraph - it looks disconnected.

Watch your Spaces After Punctuation

Adding 2 spaces after a sentence, not a great idea.

This is a very bad practice and is not correct - Using only one space is the correct way.

Using Boxes Behind Text

Just because you can, doesn’t mean you have to. Try something else, use a dramatic headline, use your white space, use a different font, reverse your type, use pull quotes, etc. Can you see in the above picture how the surrounding white space makes the text stand out on its own? You can use these in the correct places however be careful not to over use it.

Indents

Do you use half inch indents?

This is bad practice and is the old way (back in typewriter days). The standard is one em space which is a space as wide as the point size of the type. This is approximately two spaces, not five.

Hyphens For Bullets

Hyphens are so easy but they are not the way to go!

This is a typewriter habit and is unprofessional. Try using dots or dingbats.

Oversized Font

Bigger is not always better.

For most typefaces, 12 point is a tiny bit too large for body copy. Compare a 10, 11 and 12 point passage of text and tell me which one looks more professional. Try adding an extra 1 or 1.5 line spacing or leading as well. Notice the difference in the two examples above. The red is the default 12 auto leading and the green is size 11 with 2 points of leading.

Do you underline?

Never use the underline feature, it is a law. Only for hyper links on the web is this allowed. Underlining was a way for typewriters back in the day to Italicize text because they couldn’t set italics. Underlining and italicizing text at the same time is the most redundant thing you can do in life but rules can be broken but not to the point of over doing it!

ALL CAPS

DO NOT USE ALL CAPS!

All caps is more difficult to read and this is because we recognize a word not by its letters, but by the shape of the whole word. When text is in all caps, every word has the same shape so we have to read every letter by itself. All caps is fine sometimes but when you are conscious of using it and why. Try using bold, using a different typeface or using reverse text.

Bad Gramma & Speling

Not spell checking your work and not using the right grammar. One of the hardest aspects designers seem to face.