Graphics Programs Reference
In-Depth Information
6.
Put hairline crop marks at the outside
guides. You can do this easily by using the
Pen Tool because the control points snap
to the guides by default. Use the .25-point
width on the Infobar, and make 'em black.
Now you can print to an inkjet and also
export the file to PDF format and send to
a commercial printer when this business
grows and can afford commercial printing.
Save the file. You can go back at any time, adjust the menu
7.
items and the prices, and even replace the bitmap image
on the front page in no time. Also consider making a copy
of this booklet file and deleting all the menu text. This
booklet you created would also make a nice holder for a
gift certificate or a thank you note from the restaurant to
the customer who helped put out last week's fondue fire.
Magazine Page Layout
Page layout requires a little more imagination than making
a menu. The elements are practically the same—headline,
graphics, body text—and imagination is what makes the
difference between a boring layout and an inspired one, so
consider the freedom to design in between nervous gulps. The
following tutorials walk you through the design aspect, not
the content creation, of first a one-page and then a two-page
magazine spread. The subject of the article is a fairly boring
one: an ode to the toppings on a hamburger, so your mission—
should you decide to accept it, Jim—is to add interest to ennui
through
layout
skills.
Learn to Love the Grid
A grid, in page layout (frequently called
The Swiss Grid
), is
essentially a set of graphical rules. You don't even have to lay
down guides on a Xara Xtreme page if you can mentally picture
a grid when you lay out the elements.
When laying out a page, you need structure, specifically a
sort of scheme for element alignment, to lead the reader from
an important element to a less important one, and so on. The
cohesiveness of the page layout depends on the relationship
between elements and their proximity to one another; a grid,
on the page or imagined, is key to this goal. Professionals have
been using a grid system for publications before computers as
