OUGD404 - Design Principles: Printing Enquiry

Prior to university I had lots of experience with printing, as I used to get a lot of work published through the business I worked for. This made me think I could possibly use their services for my 10 page spread publication. Although I have a print slot booked in for when we return, I think it might be cutting it a bit fine waiting until then. So I decided to call Flexipress up and ask them about binding facilities, as we had only ever used them to bind hundreds of publications at once, therefore I had no idea about cost etc. I went to see them and they showed me what they had to offer, however to do perfect binding it would have cost me close to £50, as they have to set the printer up for the one publication, which is time consuming and costly for them. Therefore I have decided since this to print at home, as I have just bought a new printer which allows me to feed a wide variety of stock through it. This will be more cost effective and I will be able to have it finished before going back to college.

OUGD404 - Design Principles: 10 Colour Experiments

When carrying out my colour experiments I found that doing added research along the way was extremely beneficial. This helped me in particular with the contrast of extension and it gave me a good idea of what to do for my experiments.

Contrast of extension. This has to do with how you use the color—particularly how much of each color. Research has shown that different combinations of complementary colors become balanced when used in different proportions. Itten and other color theorists list those as shown in the following illustration.

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OUGD404 - Design Principles: Peer Reviewing

Below is the double page spread I displayed on my laptop screen for the purpose of peer reviewing. It is one of my initial layout ideas for my 10 things about graphic design publication. I have tried to maintain simplicity and professionalism and hope that this is noticed by my peers.

 

 

The feedback I recieved is listed below:

• Simple, readable, like minimal use of colour. Good incorporation of + sign into the grid
• Modernist? Clever use of the + I really like that, not sure what else to say
• Good simplistic approach but too much blank space in my opinion, consider moving title down?
• Really nice, simple layout. Look at making the text block and remove hyphens so it is neat
• I like the simplistic style, quite bold and eyecatching
• Like the simplicity and use of the symbol and RGB in the left hand corner
• Maybe too simple with the negative space on the left
• Really like the minimalistic design of this spread. Combined with the bold use of black it is suggestive of its informative nature. Another image would work well on the left hand page to balance with the text on the right hand page perhaps

I am really pleased with this feedback and think it is very helpful and constructive. I will definitely take this into consideration when I come to making alterations and improving my designs. I could definitely take all of these suggestions into account when improving work.

 

I think the only negatives to this process were the fact that not everyone received at least four constructive comments. This could maybe make some people feel a bit disappointed. On the other hand many people received a lot more feedback which would have been extremely beneficial when making alterations and improving work in the future.

OUGD404 - Design Principles: Research

We have been asked to research the following and blog the results as a reference for the future. I found definitions very easily and have also listed some examples. The measures, rulers etc for example provides me with additional information which may be useful if I have any issues when working on InDesign and using specific tools relating to measurements.

Greeking

 

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Folio numbers

 

 

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Ligatures

 

 

 

 

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Measures, rulers and boxes

Change rulers and measurement units

You can change measurement units for the on‑screen rulers and for use in panels and dialog boxes; you can also change these settings at any time and temporarily override the current measurement units as you enter a value. By default, rulers begin measuring from the upper-left corner of a page or spread. You can change this by moving the zero point.
Changing the measurement units doesn’t move guides, grids, and objects, so when ruler tick marks change, they might not line up with objects aligned to the old tick marks.

Rulers in a document window

A.

Labeled tick marks

B.

Major tick marks

C.

Minor tick marks

You can set up different measurement systems for horizontal and vertical rulers. The system you select for the horizontal ruler governs tabs, margins, indents, and other measurements. Each spread has its own vertical ruler; however, all vertical rulers use the same settings you specify in the Units & Increments preferences dialog box.
The default units of measure for the rulers are picas (a pica equals 12 points). However, you can change custom ruler units and control where the major tick marks appear on a ruler. For example, if you change the custom ruler units for the vertical ruler to 12 points, a major ruler increment appears every 12 points (if such display is possible in the current magnification). The tick mark labels include your customized major tick marks, so when the ruler reads 3 in the same example, it marks the third instance of the 12‑point increment, or 36 points.

Vertical ruler using inches (left), and custom 12‑point increments (right)

Setting custom ruler increments in the vertical ruler is useful for lining up a ruler’s major tick marks with a baseline grid.

Show or hide rulers

In Normal View Mode (View > Screen Mode > Normal), choose View > Show Rulers or Hide Rulers.

Change measurement units and rulers

1. Choose Edit > Preferences > Units & Increments (Windows) or InDesign > Preferences > Units& Increments (Mac OS).
2. To change the origin of the zero point, in the Origin menu under Ruler Units, do one of the following:
   
   • To set the ruler origin at the top-left corner of each spread, choose Spread. The horizontal ruler measures across the entire spread.
   • To set the ruler origin at the top-left corner of each page, choose Page. The horizontal ruler starts at zero for each page in a spread.
   • To set the ruler origin at the center of the spine, choose Spine. The horizontal ruler measures in negative numbers to the left of the spine and positive numbers to the right of the spine.
3. To change the measurement system used for rulers, dialog boxes, and panels, choose the desired system for Horizontal and Vertical, or choose Custom and type the number of points at which you want the ruler to display major tick marks.
   If you specify a measurement system other than points, the Increment Every baseline grid value is still displayed in points. This makes it easier to match text size and leading values, which are displayed in points.
4. To change the value you want used for text size, choose Points or Pixels from the Text Size menu. This option is especially useful when you’re designing a document for the web.
5. To change the value you want used for stroke weight settings, choose Points, Millimeters, or Pixels from the Stroke menu. This option is especially useful when you’re designing a document for the web.
6. To change the value you want used for calculating points, specify the desired point size per inch for Points/Inch.
7. Set any of the following Keyboard Increments:
   

   Cursor Key

   Controls the increment for the arrow keys when nudging objects.

   
   

   Size/Leading

   Controls the increment for increasing or decreasing the point size or leading using the keyboard shortcuts.

   
   

   Baseline Shift

   Controls the increment for shifting the baseline using the keyboard shortcuts.

   
   

   Kerning/Tracking

   Controls the increment for kerning and tracking using the keyboard shortcuts.

   
   

8. Click OK.

You can also change ruler units by right-clicking (Windows) or Control-clicking (Mac OS) a ruler and choosing the units from the context menu. By right-clicking or Control-clicking at the intersection of the horizontal and vertical rulers, you can change the ruler units for both rulers at the same time.

Override default measurement units

You can specify a unit of measurement that is different from the default.

Highlight the existing value in a panel or dialog box, and type the new value using the notation in the following table:

To specify:	Type these letters after the value:	Examples	Result
Inches	i in inch "	5.25i 5.25in 5.25inch 5.25”	5 1/4 inches
Millimeters	mm	48mm	48 millimeters
Centimeters	cm	12cm	12 centimeters
Picas	p	3p	3 picas
Points	pt p (before value)	6pt p6	6 points
Picas and points	p (between values)	3p6	3 picas, 6 points
Pixels	px	5px	5 pixels
Ciceros	c	5c	5 ciceros
Agates	ag	5ag	agates

 

Change the zero point

The zero point is the position at which the zeros on the horizontal and vertical rulers intersect. By default, the zero point is at the top left corner of the first page of each spread. This means that the default position of the zero point is always the same relative to a spread, but may seem to vary relative to the pasteboard.
The X and Y position coordinates in the Control panel, Info panel, and Transform panel are displayed relative to the zero point. You can move the zero point to measure distances, to create a new reference point for measurement, or to tile oversized pages. By default, each spread has one zero point at the upper left corner of the first page, but you can also locate it at the binding spine, or specify that each page in a spread has its own zero point.

Adjust the zero point

When you move the zero point, it moves to the same relative location in all spreads. For example, if you move the zero point to the top left corner of the second page of a page spread, it will appear in that position on the second page of all other spreads in the document.

Do one of the following:

• To move the zero point, drag from the intersection of the horizontal and vertical rulers to the position on the layout where you want to set the zero point.
  
  
  

  Establishing a new zero point
• To reset the zero point, double-click the intersection of the horizontal and vertical rulers .
• To lock or unlock the zero point, right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac OS) the zero point of the rulers, and choose Lock Zero Point in the context menu.

Change the default zero point

Using the Origin setting in the Preferences dialog box, you can set the default zero point for rulers as well as the scope of the horizontal ruler. The scope determines whether the ruler measures across the page, across the entire spread, or, for multipage spreads, from the center of the spine.
If you set the ruler origin at each spread’s binding spine, the origin becomes locked at the spine. You won’t be able to reposition the ruler origin by dragging it from the intersection of the rulers unless you choose another origin option.

1. Choose Edit > Preferences > Units & Increments (Windows) or InDesign > Preferences > Units & Increments (Mac OS).
2. In the Ruler Units section, in the Origin menu, do one of the following:
   • To set the ruler origin at the top-left corner of each spread, choose Spread. The horizontal ruler measures across the entire spread.
   • To set the ruler origin at the top-left corner of each page, choose Page. The horizontal ruler starts at zero for each page in a spread.
   • To set the ruler origin at the center of the spine, choose Spine. The horizontal ruler measures in negative numbers to the left of the spine and positive numbers to the right of the spine.

You can also change horizontal ruler origin settings using the context menu that appears when you right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac OS) the horizontal ruler.

 

Measure objects

The Measure tool calculates the distance between any two points in the document window. When you measure from one point to another, the distance measured is displayed in the Info panel. All measurements except the angle are calculated in the units of measure currently set for the document.
After you use the Measure tool to measure an item, the line or lines remain visible until you take another measurement or select a different tool.

Measure the distance between two points

1. Make sure the Info panel is visible (Window > Info).
2. Select the Measure tool . (Click and hold the Eyedropper tool to display the Measure tool.)
3. Click the first point and drag to the second point. Shift-drag to constrain the tool’s motion to multiples of 45°. You cannot drag beyond a single pasteboard and its spread.

The width and height measurements appear in the Info panel.

Measure angles

1. Make sure the Info panel is visible (Window > Info).
2. Select the Measure tool . (Click and hold the Eyedropper tool to display the Measure tool.)
3. Do one of the following:
   • To measure an angle from the x axis, drag the tool.
   • To measure a custom angle, drag to create the first line of the angle. Position the tool over either end point of the measure line. To create the second line of the angle, either double-click and drag, or press Alt (Windows) or Option (Mac OS) and drag.
     When you measure a custom angle, the Info panel shows the length of the first line as D1 and the length of the second line as D2.

 

Info panel overview

The Info panel displays information for selected objects, the current document, or the area below the current tool, including values for position, size, and rotation. When you move an object, the Info panel displays its position relative to its starting point as well.
The Info panel is also useful for determining word counts and character counts in stories.
Unlike other InDesign panels, the Info panel is for viewing only; you cannot enter or edit the values it displays. You can view additional information about a selected object by choosing Show Options from the panel menu.

Info panel

A.

Horizontal (X) position of the cursor

B.

Vertical (Y) position of the cursor

C.

Distance an object or tool has moved relative to its starting position

D.

Width in current units

E.

Height in current units

F.

Degree of rotation

Display the Info panel

Choose Window > Info.

To change the current measurement system, click the small triangle next to the plus icon.

Determine the word count

1. Place the insertion point inside a text frame, or select text.
2. Choose Window > Info.

The Info panel displays the number of words and characters in the story or the selected text. If any text is overset, a “+”sign appears, followed by a number representing the overset characters, words, or lines.

View additional Info panel options

Choose Show Options in the Info panel menu.

Depending on the object or tool selected, you may see the following:

• Values for the fill and stroke colors of the selected object, and information about gradients .
• The names of any swatches. You can display color-space values instead by clicking the small triangle next to the fill or stroke icon.
• Information about the current document, such as location, last modified date, author, and file size, when nothing in the document is selected.
• Number of characters, words, lines, and paragraphs when you create a text insertion point or select text using one of the Type tools. (If any text is overset, a “+” sign appears, followed by a number representing the overset characters, words, or lines.)
• File type, resolution, and color space when a graphic file is selected. Resolution is displayed as both actual pixels per inch (the resolution of the native graphic file) and effective pixels per inch (the resolution of the graphic after it has been resized in InDesign). If color management has been enabled, the ICC color profile is also displayed.
• The shear angle or horizontal and vertical scaling if the Shear tool, Scale tool, or the Free Transform tool is selected.

 

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OUGD404 - Design Principles: Presenting Findings

Our group
Today we had to present our findings for the questions we were given. Our group's questions was 'what is a double page spread and what does it do?

We had some positive responses but it was hard to effectively ask questions without stating the obvious. We therefore asked their opinions on double page spreads and we found that most of the class preferred them to single pages. This is because negative space can be used effectively and it helps to separate text and image in a positive way.

Group 2
Grids, gutters, columns and margings and the golden section?

• Help to separate a page
• Margins are the empty spaces around the page to allow there to be room without cutting information off
• Gutters are the inside margins on a double page spread to accomodate for binding
• When you are putting a photo across a double page spread you don't use gutters
• Columns are an arrangement of space to fill with text
• The golden section allows you to make the make proportionate
• 1.61 is the golden number

Group 3
Paragraphs, ligatures, captions?

• A subheading enables you to read information quickly
• Provides more detail about the topic stated
• A paragraph is a self contained group of information
• A caption draws attention to detail about an image
• An example of a good caption is one which draws the reader in
• Ligature is two or more letters which can represent a sound or a word
• They are primarily used to make type look better on a page
• Pagination is the process of dividing (content) into discrete pages, either electronic pages or printed pages
• Pagination should include sematics and cultural contexts
• Pagination offers navigation options for browsing

Group 4
Picas, pixels, bits?

• Pica is a measuring unit for typography
• There are three types of pica
• A pixel is a sample of a original image
• LCD pixels are manufactured in 2 dimensional either a dot or square
• 8 bit is when you take a digital image it will be in 8 bit format
• 16 bit is when you edit an image and there are more colours
• A measurement refers to the height of the type block

Group 5
Dropcap, box and rulers?

• A dropcap is found in reading books to signify a break in text
• Box and rulers is a format layout which can consist of anything, either text or image or a mixture of the two
• Rulers are used as material rulers or ones which can be found on software

OUGD404 - Design Principles: What Is A Double Page Spread?

At the end of our last session Phil asked us to find out what a double page spread is and what it does. I found this definition online. It is basically used to compose text and image in an interesting way and can be really useful if people want to create articles whilst using the separation in the middle as a tool. I found a few examples which show this below.

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