The April 2012 Tutorial Discussion

[stygg2003]

Hi Francis,
thanks for the input, much appreciated and more like work is what I meant by demanding but enjoying as this is quite new to me all this text layout and using different fonts to make the design just so. Anyway I've altered my carboot sale yet again, so please have a look. By the time I get this right the carboot sale will have come and gone

Stygg

[Gare]

Looking much better, Stygg.

And thank yourself for not blowing this tutorial off.

This is "Thinking the Big Picture" Time. This is not fancy, this is not elegant, this is the daily staple of designers, this sort of signage.

And we can see that there's more to it than a casual observation yields.

I'm trying to get our membership to look at the Big Picture, and get to examining stuff one might take for granted. And signage is susually in the background of a scene because it's typically poorly designed.

So if you can take something that seems boring, and turn it into an attention-getter, how much better a magician could you call yourself, and rightfully so?

For decades I've been taking stuff others find boring, and make the stuff shine by applying my artistic eye.

Getting paid to do art for a living. How much better does it get?

-g-

[MarcT]

Nice tutorial Mr.Bouton!

Cool trick to split page with adobe reader...

Marc

[Gare]

Thanks, Mark.

Actually, Xara could do this if the engineers wrote the feature into its print engine. Aldus PageMaker had tiling, CorelDRAW has always had tiling...it's nice that Acro Reader and Pro have it, but it certainly would save a step to be able to print directly from Xara.

-g-

[mwenz]

Thanks, Mark.

Actually, Xara could do this if the engineers wrote the feature into its print engine. Aldus PageMaker had tiling, CorelDRAW has always had tiling...it's nice that Acro Reader and Pro have it, but it certainly would save a step to be able to print directly from Xara.

-g-

And while they "are" messing around with the print and or PDF engine, perhaps increasing max page size to equal a PDF's 200" as-installed limit. (Actually, a PDF's size limit is in miles--yes, miles. But I would take 200".)

Mike

[Gare]

You want results? Write the above into the "Dear Xara" area of tg, Mike.

My own gripes are way more than 200" long, even at 8pt.!

-g-

[stygg2003]

Tried to get the spacing more equal, increased the text size slightly and added the frills to the rectangles, hoping it adds to the attension getter

Stygg

[Gare]

I realize I asked viewers of the April tutorial to use Alt+0149 to add a centered period to the sign, and this extended character command works in all applications, where the font you use actually has a centered period in it; some fonts do, others don't, depends on the font creator.

But there's also shortcuts in Xara—if you can remember all the shortcuts in all of your programs—and I've listed them right here. In Xara, after you've clicked an insertion point on the page with the Text Tool :

• Bullet= Ctrl+Alt+B

® Registered symbol= Ctrl+Alt+R

™ Trademark symbol= Ctrl+Alt+T

© Copyright symbol= Ctrl+Alt+C

Now, if these symbols are too large, avail yourself of the Superscript button on the Infobar to make the symbol smaller and then use the Baseline buttons or fields on the Infobar to adjust the vertical position of your symbols.

My Best,

—Gary

[Tabian]

Just had to drop my version in as well. I felt that a splash of colour can add that extra dimension.

[Tabian]

Oh one other thing, always make sure there is more space at each end of the sign than there is between each word (space is a virtue, so use it). Having your text stretched out to the extremities makes it look as if it is stuck to the sides of the sign and the line of text then becomes disjointed (one of those unwritten rules of sign layout) also do not mistake sign design with sign layout they are two different things. There are many strict rules of sign layouts so one day I will post these, so for now please see attached.