w w w . C h u r c h A r t P r o . c o m

Think of an adjective.Now think of another one.Guess what? There’s probably a

font to go with both of the modifiersyou called to mind.

In fact, most of us have a wealthof fonts at our fingertips, ready andwaiting in our computers. And ifthose aren’t enough, thousands ofadditional fonts are available forimport or download.

So, if you thought of “zany,”there’s a font to convey that sense. Ifyou thought of “trendy,” there’s afont for that. Likewise, if what cameto mind was “old-fashioned,” “post-modern,” “polished,” “funny,”“creepy,” “cool,” “retro,” “weird,”“Western,” “lazy,” “dignified,”

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O C T O B E R 2 0 0 7

Match the font to the design

Creepy

PO L I S H E D

FUNNYRetro

Old Fashioned

LAZY Horror Hotel

Whimsey Baroque ICG

Dead History Roman

Font-On-A-Stick

Trajan

Deftone Stylus

Chubble

Ballpark Weiner

COOL

Zany!

in mind that while some fonts havenames that suggest the tone theyconvey (such as “El Hombre,”“Creeper,” “Bramble Wild” or“Beauty”), most have names that arenot self-revealing (such as “Modula,”“Caslon,” “Brad” or “AndaleMono”), so you really have to lookat the font samples. Most font Websites group fonts by style (casual,formal, kids, scary, Western, etc.)to help you choose the mood youwant to create.

Here are a few other guidelinesfor selecting fonts:• Never sacrifice readability. No

matter what font you select, itspurpose is to communicate. If aparticular font is hard to read(and some fonts are, especiallywhen used in body copy or inall-caps), don’t use it.

• Look for page balance. Whenusing more than two fonts on apage, hold a printout of the pageat arm’s length and see if theoverall effect is pleasing.

• Match the font to the mood.Don’t use Comic Sans on a funeralbulletin. Don’t use a formal scriptfont for a teen event. Pick a fontthat is appropriate for and sugges-tive of the event being describedand its target audience.

2

DESIGN TIPS

“classic,” “racy,” “youthful,”“sleepy,” “messy,” “graphic,” “tradi-tional,” “medieval,” “decrepit” or ahost of other descriptive words,there’s a font (or, more likely, awhole category of fonts) to sublimi-nally impart that “feel” to a page.

But when it comes to preparingyour church publication, the ques-tion is, how many of these availablefonts should you use? The readyaccessibility of so many fonts temptssome of us to use several of them onthe same page, but that indiscrimi-nant practice can yield publicationsthat seem visually unplanned or looklike a hodgepodge.

In a publication such as a news-letter, the standard practice is togenerally stay with two fonts, usuallya serif font such as Times NewRoman for the body copy and a sansserif font such as Arial for headlines.But even within such publications,there’s room for other fonts in spe-cialized applications, and they can beused in eye-pleasing ways. For exam-ple, suppose your newsletter includesa list of upcoming weddings. Itwould be quite appropriate to setthat list in a dignified script font sim-ilar to those used on wedding invita-tions. Likewise, if your church is

planning a barbecue, you might setthe announcement in a box using anOld-West font for the headline. Youcould announce a youth event with aheadline set in a madcap font.

But don’t use the wedding col-umn, barbecue announcement andyouth notice on the same spread.That would yield a shootout offonts, each one “dueling” with theothers.

Another place to use special fontsis on single-subject church publica-tions, such as flyers, posters andbrochures. For a flyer announcing afamily retreat, you might use a fontthat communicates “fun.” Abrochure about the church’s vaca-tion Bible school, while probablyaimed at parents, could still use achildlike font in some places. Aposter about grief-counselingshould use a suitably somber font.

How do you find appropriatefonts? You can start with the book-let, CD or DVD that came with yourdesktop software. Many desktop pro-grams include fonts and may havesamples of each printed in the manu-al. Another good way is to do anonline category search, such asGoogling “cowboy fonts,” “cartoonfonts” or “postmodern fonts.” Bear

You can start withthe booklet

that came withyour desktop

software.

ClassicYouthful

MedievalFunGaramond

Flak Jacket

Houston Pen

Randumhouse

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How do youfind appropriate fonts?

3

the first article provides a focal centerfor the page.

The Spotlight is a publication of Emmanuel Lutheran Church,Salem, Ohio.

NEW DIRECTIONS

As it stands, The Spotlight is atidy church newsletter printed intwo-colors. The second color, green,is reserved exclusively for the name-plate. The nameplate includes thename splayed vertically up the leftside of the front page, and some art,a tagline and the issue date in thetraditional nameplate location at the top of the page. This newsletter does look a bit dated, however, and its editor asked us for sugges-tions to help her improve the layout and design.

One thing that contributes to the dated look is the image of thechurch building. Although manychurches use graphics of their build-ings on their publications, that’s notthe best choice when you want toconvey ministry, activity, communityinvolvement and liveliness. There-fore, we removed the buildingimage.

We liked the vertical location of the issue name, however, so weretained it, but we stretched the ver-tical area to the very top of the page.Because the publication is called TheSpotlight, it made sense to placespotlights in the background of thename field. And unlike the staticchurch building, spotlights implythat something of special interest is happening. As on the original, we used the green ink only in thenameplate.

Note what we’ve done with thearea at the top of the page. We’vekept the tagline and issue date inthat location, but by placing thetagline in a black bar that’s attachedto the name field, the tagline is moreclearly part of the nameplate. For thedate, which “rides” on the taglinebar, we used three treatments that

are all very“today” look-ing: 1) We setthe monthname as anabbreviationwith no punc-tuation, 2) wedid not capital-ize the monthname, and 3)we ran themonth nameinto the yearnumber withno spacebetween. Whatmakes thistreatment lookup-to-date?The protocolsof Internetaddresses andthe typingshortcuts used in instant messaging.

Probably the most unusual part ofthe nameplate redesign is theamount of empty white space abovethe tagline bar. Frankly, we tried sev-eral things in that location, but eachattempt caused the top to look heavyand compete with the vertical namefield. We even tried placing thetagline bar and the issue date higheron the page, but they looked as ifthey were about to “fall off” thesheet. So in the end, we opted forvisual relief, and left the white spaceas a design element in its own right.

For the body of the page, wedecided to move the pastor’s letterto an inside spread, because it’s moreeditorial content than it is news. Wealso moved a couple of more newsyitems from inside to front coverprominence. The art we added to

Orbilium dictare ed emendata videri et mecupulchraque et exactis livi unus minimum cluredistantia miror. Inter quae verbum emicuit si

Orbilium dictare ed pulchraque et exactis minimum distanti miror. Inter quae verbum emicuit si Decorum, et si versus paulo si concinnior unus et alter, iniuste totum ducit ven nih ditque poema. Delendave carmina Livi esse reor, nihil memini quae plagosum mihi parvo. Orbilium dictare ed emendata videri pulchraque et exactis livi unus minimum distantia miror. Inter quae verbum emicuit si forte decorum, et si versus paulo concinnior unus et alter. iniuste totum ducit venditque errat. Si quaedam nimis poema Ut nihil anteferat, nihil illis comparet antique si peraque dure dicere credit eos, ignave multa fatetur et sapit et mecum facit et Iova iudicat aequo. Non equidem memini quae insector delendave carmina Livi esse reor, plagosum mihi parvo. Orbilium dictare ed pulchraque et exactis minimum distantia miror. Inter quae verbum emicuit si forte decorum, et si versus paulo concinnior unus et alter, iniuste totum ducit venditque poema.

Delendave carmina Livi esse reor, nihil memini quae plagosum mihi parvo. Orbilium dictare ed emendata videri pulchraque et exactis livi unus minimum distantia miror. Inter quae verbum emicuit si forte decorum, et si versus paulo concinnior unus et alter. iniuste totum ducit vendit que errat. Si quaedam nimis poema Ut nihil anteferat, nihil illis comparet antique si peraque dure dicere.

Save Your Pop Tops to Help Sick Kids

A Love Letter from Jesus

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oct2007F e a t u r i n g t h e P e o p l e & E v e n t s o f E m m a n u e l L u t h e ra n C h u r c h

A F T E R

The Spotlight shines brighter

B E F O R E

4

First, if you’re taking the pho-tos with a digital camera, makesure you use the setting for thehighest resolution the camera willhandle. Low resolution shots lookall right when displayed on screen,but they don’t look as good whenoutputted for printing.

If you’re working with an exist-ing hardcopy photo that you’rescanning, set it to be scanned as a“halftone.” A halftone is a picturein which the continuous toneshave been converted to patterns ofdots for purposes of printing. Insome programs, this setting may

DESIGN DIALOG

Q Can you offer some tips for getting good-quality photoreproduction from a standard copier?

Copyright ©2007 by Communication Resources, Inc. All rights reserved. ChurchArt Pro® (ISSN 1083-8848) is published monthly byCommunication Resources, Inc., PO Box 36269, Canton, Ohio 44735, Phone: 1 800 992-2144, E-mail: service@ChurchArtPro.com,Web site: www.ChurchArtPro.com • Senior Editor: John Burns. Art Director: Eric Kittelberger. Annual subscription: $159.95 ($179.90 with calendar).Materials may be republished only in subscribers’ own parish publications. No portion may be reproduced in any form for resale or redistribution.

Visit www.ChurchArtPro.com for additional services.

MY ACCOUNT Manage your account information.SUPPORT Help with technical problems anytime.

MY CD INDEX Keep track of the art on your CDs.CAPTION EDITOR Edit clip-art captions online.

be called “dithering.”For the digital shot (or a

scanned photo that hasn’t beenconverted to halftone), use aphoto-editing program, such asPhotoshop or Photo-Paint, toconvert it to a halftone. In theediting program, try a varietyof dot patterns until you find theone that photocopies best foryour copier and for that particu-lar photo. Be aware that differentphotos may need differentsettings.

Either of these steps shouldimprove the quality of the pho-

A tos when reproduced on a copieror even on a duplicator.However, if your budget willallow, you’ll get even betterresults by outputting your publi-cation as a digital PostScript fileand taking that to a quick print-er who has a piece of equipmentcalled a DocuTech (which isessentially the marriage of a laserprinter with a high-speed copi-er). If you’re working with aprofessional printer, see his orher recommendations for bestphoto reproduction in theequipment used there.

Original photo Photoshop Diffusion DitherPhotoshop Halftone Screen