design effective newsletters with adobe indesign

8/12/2019 Design Effective Newsletters with Adobe InDesign

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Design Effective Newsletterswith Adobe InDesign


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Designing ideas for effective newsletters: Part 1by Rene Dustman

Application:Adobe InDesign 2/CS

Operating Systems:

Macintosh, Microsoft Windows

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Businesses and organizations frequently use newsletters as a way to com-municate information to consumers and members. Success depends on thequality of their content and the effectiveness of their design. As a designer,you probably dont have a lot of input on what goes in your newsletter, but itsyour job to put it all together in an attractive and comprehensive package. Inthis article, we begin a three-part series that shows you how to use InDesignto accomplish that goal and produce effective newsletters, like the one shownin Figure A.

TIP:No time to design a newsletter from scratch? Stock-

Layouts LLC offers a library of Graphic Design Templates

for InDesign, on both Mac and PC platforms, at affordable

prices ranging from $39 to $149. The newsletters shown

in this article are all StockLayouts designs. The companyalso offers templates for brochures, postcards, stationery,

menus, and ads. Each template includes royalty-free

stock photos and artwork, all of which are suitable for

commercial printing. For additional information regarding

StockLayouts Graphic Design Templates, point your

browser to www.stocklayouts.com.

Here ye, here ye!Well assume the preliminary stages for producingyour newsletter are complete. Youve established acontent mix; identified the company image; con-firmed a budget, hired a service bureau to print the

newsletter; and set a deadline. What else is there?Oh yeah, designing the actual newsletter. Thatswhere we come in.

In this article, well show you how to trans-

late the approved specs for your newsletter into anew InDesign document. This involves specify-ing a page size, the number of columns, and themargins. Then, in part 2, well show you how tochoose fonts and colors for your newsletter and usethem wisely. Finally, in part 3, well show you howto make the most of the content youre given to layout a great-looking newsletter.

Create a new documentNewsletters come in many different shapes and

sizes. The overall size of your newsletter, the num-ber of pages it has, the way its folded anddistributedthese are all budget consider-ations first, design issues second. These arealso things you need to know before youchoose File >New >Document in InDe-sign to set up a new document.

In the New Document dia-log box, shown in Figure B,youre presented with the famil-iar Page Size presets: Letter,Legal, and Tabloid. Although

you can specify a custom pagesize, these page sizes are stan-dard for newsletters becausemost printers can accommodatethem and, therefore, theyreeconomical choices. With thesethree page sizes, you can createseveral different layout configu-rations. For example:


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Letter.This is the most common page size fornewsletters. Each page is 8 by 11 inches andeach two-page spread measures 17 by 11 inches.Each spread is folded in half lengthwise to createfour 8-x-11-inch pages. Then, its often foldedin half (bifold) or thirds (trifold) for distributionpurposes. If there are more than four pages, some

sort of binding is necessary, such as stapling. Ifyou choose a Letter page size, enter the exactnumber of pages for your newsletter and selectthe Facing Pages check box. As shown in FigureC1, this setup creates individual letter-size pagesand arranges facing pages as spreads.

For a six-page newsletter, you might considercreating agatefold, which is three 8-x-11-inchpages, arranged and printed as a single spread.The three pages are folded to create a finishedsize of 8 x 11 inches, and then usually foldeddown to a bifold or trifold piece.

Legal.This is another common page size fornewsletters. Generally, each two-page spread isprinted on a single sheet and folded in half tocreate four 8-x-14-inch pages. Then, the piececan be folded in thirds to create an efficient tri-fold piece suitable for mailing.

Tabloid.This page size is also good for printing afour-page newsletter on one double-sided sheet.To set it up, enter2in the Number Of Pages textbox and deselect the Facing Pages check box.Next, choose Tabloid from the Page Size pop-upmenu and click the Landscape button. Then,click the Make All Settings The Same button in

the Margins pane. (This button is a new featurein CS. In version 2, manually enter the samevalues in the Right and Left text boxes.) Thissetupcreates the page arrangement shown inFigure C2. The two-page document is printed onboth sides of one sheet and the finished piece isfolded lengthwise in half to create four 8-x-11-inch pages. It can then be folded again to createa bifold or trifold piece.

After specifying the number of pages for yournewsletter and choosing a page size according to

plan, its time to set margin and column guides.Now, the fun begins!

Build a solid foundationA newsletter without a solid and consistent layoutappears sloppy and unprofessional. Margins andcolumns are the framework for your newsletter.Lets take a quick look at how you can best set theMargins and Columns options in the New Docu-ment dialog box.

TIP:By definition, white space is any area on a page thats

absent of all text or graphic elements. Adequate marginsadd some amount of white space to a page, but consider

calculating it into your column grid as well. Be careful,

though. Too much white space can ruin a layout just as

quickly as too little.

With columnsColumn guides serve more of a purpose than justkeeping your text inline. You can also use them tocreate visual stimulation and to infuse white space.Common column grids used to layout newslettersare as follows:

Two-column grid.This grid provides a lot of roomfor text, and its commonly used for technicalpublications. If youre designing a newsletter fora tech-savvy company or the science departmentof a college, for example, this more scholasticcolumn grid is suitable.

Three-column grid.This grid gives you a few moreoptions and allows you to create a less formal

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