Top Ten Tips

1. Always think of your design from the reader’s point of  view. Would you be attracted by a given layout, keep reading it and understand  it? If not start again.
2. Don’t try too hard. DTP offers so many design tricks  that it is tempting to include them all, but too many effects are often  counter-productive. Generally speaking, less is more.
3. Good design is not about covering as much of the page  as possible. Don’t be frightened of white space.
4. Make the most of the images you are given, but be wary  of turning to clipart. A good image can make a design, a weak one can ruin it.
5. Get to know your fonts. You probably have hundreds on  your system, each with different effects and different practical uses, but how  many do you actually use?
6. Within any single job, however, you should stick to  only two contrasting but complementary faces. Use different styles of these  fonts (italic, bold and compressed) to add variety.
7. Get the right hardware. You’ll need a powerful  computer with plenty of RAM and disk space. For proofing commercial print  you’ll also need a Postscript printer.
8. Get the right software. Each DTP program has its own  strengths and weaknesses and caters to a slightly different market (see  Professional DTP box out).
9. Time spent on setting up templates and styles will be  saved many times over.
10. Be wary of rules and prescriptions (including those above). Design rules are there to be broken – intelligently.