Looking Good in Print - Softcover

Parker, Roger C.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0940087324 ISBN 13: 9780940087323

Publisher: Ventana Press,U.S., 1990

Synopsis

The New York Times says, "If you can afford only one book on desktop publishing, this is the one." MacWEEK says, "A graphic design primer for anyone who wants to design better-looking...desktop-published printed material." From PC Week, "Looking Good in Print is an excellent and valuable resource." The fourth edition has been updated to reflect the now-mature desktop publishing world, covering all the commonly used print publishing formats. The book coaches designers to design with the reader (and readability) in mind, taking advantage of the strengths of the print medium while finessing its weaknesses, and avoiding both common and obscure design pitfalls.

About this title

Review

There is an argument for including a guide to good layout with every DTP application sold. Would you attempt to drive a car, or fly a plane for the first time, having read only the owner's handbook? While the consequences of poor layout may be less catastrophic than a road accident the results can nonetheless be ugly and unpleasant.

Whatever your view, if such a style guide were mandatory, Looking Good in Print would be an excellent candidate. Roger Parker and Patrick Berry have achieved the difficult task of covering all the important design fundamentals in a book probably no bigger than the manual that came with your DTP application, and certainly a lot more readable.

The emphasis throughout is on providing you with the information you need to design better-looking, and therefore more successful publications. If you read only the first two chapters you will be at least as well acquainted with the basic principles of page layout as most magazine designers appear to be.

Probably the best advice--not to go anywhere near your computer until you have sketched out a few ideas with pencil and paper--comes right at the start. Every aspect of theory and practice discussed is illustrated with clear examples which occupy at least half the available space. This means you can learn quickly--by seeing how it should be done, rather than reading about it.

The authors rightly recognise that good design, especially for beginners, is more often a case of not getting it wrong, than getting it right. So, for the crash course, once you've read the first two chapters, skip to the last two--Common Design Pitfalls and Redesign, which display in graphic detail all the ugly layout accidents just waiting to befall you and how to avoid them. --Ken McMahon

About the Author

Roger C. Parker is a noted authority on desktop publishing and newsletter design; he gives seminars throughout the U.S. and Australia. Among the 13 titles (exceeding 750,000 in print) he has written are the first editions of The Makeover Book and Newsletters From the Desktop, the previous four editions of Looking Good in Print, and Roger C. Parker's One-Minute Designer, and Looking Good in Print, Fifth Edition from Paraglyph Press.

Edition details

• Publisher: Ventana Press,U.S.
• Publication date: 1990
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0940087324
• ISBN 13: 9780940087323
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 275