Desktop Publishing on the Apple IIgs (Part 4)
By Mark Smith
Copyright (c) 1994 Apple Users' Group, Sydney
Republished from Applecations, a publication of the Apple Users' Group, Sydney, Australia.
In the first three parts of this series (Applecations issues April, May, June 1994) hardware and software requirements for successful desktop publishing on the Apple IIgs have been outlined. In this part of the series I will discuss what control is available over the appearance of text in your document.
Use of fonts
Any given font is a combination of three elements - typeface, size and style. Typeface describes the appearance of the font (e.g. Times, Geneva, etc), size is the height of the font measured in points (a point is 1/72 inch) and style determines whether the font appears plain, bold, italicised, etc. These elements should be used sparingly - that is the number of fonts in any one document should not be excessive.
Typeface selection
Most references on DTP strongly recommend that restraint be exercised in the variety of typefaces used within a publication. In my experience this advice holds true. One of the worst publications I have ever seen mixed a dozen typefaces within the one document. The result was appalling, especially so since the negative impact detracted from the readability of the publication.
It is usually prudent to limit oneself to two or three typefaces in a single publication.
Size selection
The size of fonts is determined by the type of publication. A book would typically use font sizes in the range 12 to 16 points. Headings might be 18 to 24 point while footnotes if used are in the size range of 8 to 10 points. A wall poster would use larger sizes starting at 24 point. Few readers would have sufficiently good eyesight to read a document of any length containing fonts below 10 point. These small sizes should be used sparingly.
Style selection
Styling assists the reader by making similar elements look similar. Typically paragraph headings might be bolded, sub headings might be underlined and direct quotes might be italicised. If these styles are used in a consistent manner the reader is not left wondering where one paragraph stops and another starts.
Kerning
There is one other consideration in text appearance and that is the spacing between characters within a typeface. Adjusting the space between letters is called kerning. Within GraphicWriter kerning is achieved by selecting the letters you wish to adjust, then choosing "Character" from
the Style menu. A number entered in the "Spacing" box will change the space between the selected characters by that number of pixels.
In my experience some typefaces designed for the Mac are spaced too closely for use on the IIgs. In such instances it may be worthwhile to increase the spacing of all characters to ensure maximum legibility.
Pointless
Pointless is an absolute must have for DTP. There are three main reasons for this. First, to ensure that your text can be made to fit the available space it will be necessary to choose specific font sizes. This is not practical when using bitmapped fonts. Furthermore, Pointless can generate fonts in any size so if 13 point is the best size for the job then this is not a problem.
The second reason to use Pointless is to get the best possible output. Most typefaces look better when generated by Pointless. This applies both to ImageWriter and to DeskJet output.
Thirdly, ImageWriters require a font of twice the nominated size to be present in the Fonts folder when printing at Best quality. That is, if 12 point Geneva is used on screen the printer requires 24 point Geneva to be available to achieve the best possible quality. Pointless handles this easily. Without Pointless you have to make sure all the required sizes are available. The DeskJet requires a font of four times the nominated size when printing at 300 DPI. Fonts in the large sizes needed to satisfy these requirements are not readily available and consume large amounts of disk space if stored in the System:Fonts folder.
Text wrap
GraphicWriter allows text to be flowed around selected objects. Typically this occurs when an illustration is inserted at a particular point. The Text Wrap dialog box gives the various options which are available. There is, however, one catch. If you propose to insert a caption for the illustration it is best done before selecting text wrap. Proceed as follows: insert the illustration, graphic, etc then place a text object of the desired size to hold the caption immediately underneath. Once the text has been inserted select both the illustration and the caption and group them using the "Group" command from the Object menu. With the now-grouped object still selected choose "Text Wrap" from the Object menu and apply the desired wrapping options.
By now you will have learned the basics of laying out your publication, inserting text into it and altering the appearance of the text to ensure maximum readability. In the final part of this series of articles I'll attempt to deal with the complex issue of illustrating your publication at a price you can afford.

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