Proofreading Marks

Three important rules of desktop publishing are: 1. Proofread, 2. Proofread, 3. Proofread. But once you've proofread the material how do you indicate the needed changes? You don't have to be a professional proofreader to benefit from the use of standard editors' marks and proofreading marks.

Proofreaders' proofreading marks are a combination of symbols and short notations used to mark up both draft documents and typeset pages. Markup may occur at two different stages: when copyediting material (editors' marks) before typesetting when proofreading typeset materials (proofreaders' marks).

The symbols are virtually identical but may be used slightly differently depending on the material.

Why to Use Proofreading Marks
Just because most of your work is done on the computer doesn't mean marking up a hard copy is obsolete. There are some types of errors that only become obvious when seen in print. Don't rely solely on what you see on-screen.

Proofreaders' proofreading marks provide consistency and help to avoid miscommunication. Whether sharing work with others or proofing your own work, proper use of proofreaders' marks saves time and frustration. "Whether you are communicating with your own reader or with the client, standard proof symbols offer a graphic system adapted to saying much in small spaces, with precise, determinable meanings and relatively little ambiguity in use. I suggest they are indispensable." Max Field"When you edit your own work, use them. If you just make chicken scratches all over your copy, then go back to it a day or two later, you'll find yourself saying 'what did I mean when I wrote that?' If you ever find yourself working with a copywriter, your copywriter will use them, and you had better understand what they intend for you to do to change the copy." Valerie Martin Stuart

How to Use Proofreaders' Proofreading Marks
There's no need to memorize every one of the dozens of symbols used in proofreading. You'll become familiar with the most frequently used symbols quickly enough. Keep a chart handy for everything else.(See the sidebar for several different charts of proofreaders' marks.) At the copyediting stage text is often double-spaced, leaving plenty of room for inserting editors' marks and notations within the text. At this stage most markup will indicate additions and deletions due to grammar, spelling, and style. In single-spaced or typeset material use carets, circles and other simple marks in the text to indicate a problem. Place proofreaders' marks and notations in the margin adjacent to each line of marked up text to indicate what to do. Markup at this stage indicates typesetting errors such as transposed characters, incorrect fonts, improper indentation or text spacing, widows and orphans, or missing design elements.

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Fifties Color Palettes - Atomic Age 1950s Color Combinations

Atomic Age Color Combinations
Color Palettes with CMYK Formulas

These Atomic Age era color palettes are quite bright compared to earlier browns, grays, and more subdued combinations. Not as vivid and eye-popping as what was to come in the Sixties, this era still had its share of bright pinks, seafoam green, and chartreuse. Reds leaned toward orange or pink while blues were closer to cyan.

C100Y100K50 | K40 | C10M25Y80 | C40K100 | White
A dark green pairs with the neutrals of gray, black, and white and a lovely harvest gold.

C80M100Y100K15 | M60Y80K10 | M35Y100 | M15Y35K25 | C40K100
A warm, earthy color palette with golden yellow and a touch of taupe.

M100Y100 | M20Y100 | C40K100 | White
Vivid red, bright yellow, and black.

Two shades of blue-green, a red, a brown, plus a dash of black and white.

C12M95Y60 | C75M6Y20 | C4M5Y2 | C40K100
The palest pink stands in for white in this palette with a definite 50s flavor as seen in the pinkish red and bright light blue.

M40Y10 | C50Y10 | C40K100
Another red/blue/black look uses light red (pink) and light blue as highlights and accents with lots of black.

M75Y100 | C22M30Y55K5 | C15M70Y75K20 | White | C40K100
A warmer color palette of browns and orange with black and white.

C10Y100K15 | C50Y100K20 | C10M100Y80 | C40K100 | White
This isn't a Christmas red and green - there's decidedly yellow tinge to those greens.

Color Meanings and Mixing Colors
Discover the cultural meanings for these colors and more ways to mix and match colors.

More Color Palettes
Explore more color palettes to evoke a certain mood or make a color statement.

Use Swatch Books
Use PANTONE Color Guides to get just the right shades for your color palettes and to find CMYK-PMS color equivalents.

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What Is DTP Software?

Desktop publishing software is a tool for graphic designers and non-designers to create visual communications for professional or desktop printing as well as for online or on-screen electronic publishing. Answer: The term desktop publishing was originally coined to describe Aldus (now Adobe) PageMaker and among professional designers refers primarily to high-end page layout software applications including Adobe InDesign and QuarkXPress. However, an explosion of consumer programs and the associated advertising hype stretched the use of "desktop publishing software" to include sofware for making greeting cards, calendars, banners, and other crafty print projects as well as all the peripheral programs for handing fonts, graphics, and later Web design. It also resulted in a wider range of low-cost, easy-to-use software that didn't require traditional design and prepress skills to understand and use. Other applications and utilities often lumped into the "desktop publishing software" category are better classified as graphics, Web publishing, or presentation software, and any number of utilities and plug-ins for specific related tasks such as color calibration, font management, or imposition. The DTP software lists below are those that do the core task of desktop publishing - composing text and graphics into page layouts for publishing.

Desktop Publishing in the 21st Century further expands the meaning of desktop publishing and thus broadens the definition of desktop publishing software to include software for Web design and other forms of visual communications beyond print design.

The main players in the field are Adobe, Corel, Quark, and Serif with products that stick close to the original use of desktop publishing software for professional page layout. Additionally, Microsoft, Nova Development, Broderbund and others have been producing consumer or print creativity and business desktop publishing software for many years.

Adobe makes many software packages used by designers. You've probably heard of Photoshop, for example. But these other programs are not page layout software applications for print publishing. They are graphics software, Web design software, programs for creating and working with the PDF format, such as Adobe Acrobat, and other related software tools. The primary desktop publishing software or page layout software applications are:

Corel is best known for its graphics suite that includes CorelDRAW and Corel Photo-Paint. In the past it has produced creative printing or home publishing programs used for desktop publishing too but the primary page layout software from Corel is:

Microsoft produces Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and various consumer graphics and creative printing programs used alone or in conjunction with other applications to do some form of desktop publishing. Their entry into page layout for print is:

Quark has other software but the one most closely associated with desktop publishing is QuarkXPress and its many XTensions (produced by many third party vendors) that enhance and expand the basic capabilities of QuarkXPress.

Serif produces a suite of applications for graphics and Web design but the core desktop publishing software application is:

Broderbund produces a number of design and publishing programs in the consumer desktop publishing arena. Although some users do use these programs as freelance designers, the programs are not typically considered professional or high-end tools. The primary audience for Broderbund creative printing software are individuals wanting to create personal projects. The two titles most closely associated with desktop publishing are:

Specialty programs primarily designed just for greeting cards, calendars, or other specific print tasks are also frequently changing names, changing hands, and changing focus. These include programs such as Calendar Creator and Scrapbook Factory.

In addition to the sometimes fuzzy division of desktop publishing into professional, home, and business categories, there are other types of software closely associated with desktop publishing. Of the four types of software for desktop publishing, the Page Layout category encompasses the programs also known as desktop publishing software. The others are specialized or auxilliary tools used in desktop publishing. But the lines are blurred. Much of the best design software is used for both print and Web and sometimes doubles as both page layout and graphics software or creative printing and business software or other combinatons.

For the most complete list, see the A-Z Really Big List of Desktop Publishing Software.

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Tab Delimited Files

A common problem in desktop publishing is how to get data from one program into another program. Plain text files are one solution. You'll lose your formatting but you'll have your text, which you then reformat in your page layout software. But, for some text such as Word tables or Excel Spreadsheets, there's another option -- tab delimited files.

Tab delimited files are one way to import and place data that is arranged in rows and columns, such as tables and spreadsheets. You'll still lose font formatting and colors, but you'll retain the grid-like layout of your work.

A tab delimited file is a special kind of plain text file with a tab between each column in the text. When imported into your page layout software, the tabs allow the columns to line up neatly.

In this Using Tab Delimited Files Step-by-Step tutorial see how to export tab delimited files and two methods of importing them into your desktop publishing software.

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PostScript Printer Required?

If you are a professional desktop publisher or graphic designer who works with commercial printers and service bureaus you will probably need to know and use PostScript.

Desktop publishers often ask "Do I really need a PostScript* printer?" and "Do I really need to know how to create PostScript files?" The answer is it depends. To help you decide here's a brief introduction to PostScript and some examples of when it is good to have a printer that speaks this language and why you should be familiar with PostScript.

What is PostScript?
Simply put, PostScript is a programming or page description language. It is a way of describing what a page should look like. Another such page description language is PCL (printer control language) found in HP printers. For the differences between PostScript and PCL see PS and PCL Comparisions.

Printers print dots. How these dots (raster images) are arranged on the page determines what you see, how the page looks. A printer uses an interpreter (printer driver) to translate digital documents created by your software into a raster image that the printer can print.

Some types of documents such as those created by graphic designers and desktop publishers, contain an intricate combination of fonts and graphics that are best described using PostScript. The PostScript language and a PostScript printer driver then tell the printer how to print that document. PostScript is generally device-independent, that is, if you create a PostScript file it will print pretty much the same on any PostScript device.

Do I Need PostScript?
Developed by Adobe, a leader in desktop publishing applications, PostScript technology (currently at level 3) is often called the language of desktop publishing. Its strength is in its ability to handle the often complex text and graphics typical in graphic design and desktop publishing.

If you do little more than type business letters, draw simple graphs, or print photographs, you may not need the power of PostScript. For simple text and graphics your non-PostScript printer driver may be sufficient for turning your documents into raster images. Otherwise, PostScript — specifically a PostScript-capable printer — is a good investment for most desktop publishers. Some types of text and graphics simply "look better" printed with PostScript. Or, as Adobe says on its Web site, "Adobe PostScript translates your great ideas into print — exactly as you intended."

Commercial printers speak PostScript, making it a common language for sending digital files. Due to its complexity, creating PostScript files can be tricky for the novice but it is a worthwhile skill to master. If you don't have a PostScript printer, troubleshooting any PostScript files you create becomes trickier. PDF (Portable Document Format) is a file format based on the PostScript language and is increasingly used for submitting digital files for printing. With or without a PostScript printer, a basic understanding of the PostScript language is useful when creating and working with PDF.

Additionally, one of the two primary graphics formats used in desktop publishing is EPS. EPS (Encapsulated PostScript) is a form of PostScript. You'll need a PostScript printer to print EPS images.

Next Page: What If I Don't Have a PostScript Printer? & the Bottom Line on whether or not you need a PostScript printer to do desktop publishing.

*Is it Postscript, postscript, or PostScript? Although you'll find it written all three ways all over the Web, Adobe writes it PostScript (uppercase P & S). PostScript is a registered trademark of Adobe Systems Incorporated.

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PANTONE#174; Spot Color Nam...

The PANTONE? Matching System (PMS) is the dominant spot color printing system in the United States. Printers use a special mix of ink to achieve the color needed. Each spot color in the Pantone system is assigned a name or a number. There are over a thousand Pantone spot colors available.

Are PANTONE 3258 C, PANTONE 3258 U, and PANTONE 3258 CVU the same color? Yes and No. While PANTONE 3258 is the same ink formula (a shade of green), the letters that follow it represent the apparent color of that ink mix when printed on different types of paper.

The letter suffixes of U, C, and M tell us whether that particular color is how it will appear on uncoated, coated, or matte finish papers, respectively. The coating and finish of the paper affects the apparent color of the printed ink even though each uses the same formula.

Pantone swatch books — printed samples of ink - come in coated, uncoated, and matte finishes. You would use these swatch books or color guides to find the desired spot color for the type of paper used in your project.

Software programs such as Photoshop and CorelDRAW contain color palettes for various printing systems, including PANTONE colors. You can add additional color palettes or create custom palettes for your software.

In your software color palettes you may encounter suffixes such as CV, CVU or CVC. CV stands for "computer video" and is an electronic simulation of the Pantone color. PANTONE Reflex Blue CVU is an on-screen simulation of how PANTONE Reflex Blue will appear when printed on uncoated paper. Likewise, CVC is a simulation of the color on coated paper. Be aware that there are additional suffixes for process colors but for this discussion we'll stick with spot color.
U = uncoated paper
C = coated paper
M = matte paper
CV = computer video (electronic simulation)
CVU = computer video - uncoated
CVC = computer video - coated

Name That Color
So, which designation should you use when specifying colors? It doesn't really matter as long as you are consistent. While PANTONE 185 CV and PANTONE 185 CVC are the same ink formula, your software may see them as two different colors, even if your monitor shows them as virtually identical.

If PANTONE 185 is the shade of red you want, use either PANTONE 185 CV or PANTONE 185 CVC but not both in the same print job. Capitalization is also important. PANTONE 185 CV, Pantone 185 CV, and PMS 185 CV are three different colors as far as your software is concerned.

Software programs may use differing Pantone palettes. For example, Adobe InDesign 1.5 has Pantone coated (CVC) and uncoated (CVU) palettes while CorelDRAW 7 has a single Pantone CV palette. If you are importing images created in CorelDRAW into InDesign you'll need to rename your colors in CorelDRAW to match the InDesign color palettes.

When you define your own colors or creat custom palettes, use a consistent naming scheme. You can use oddball names to represent any color — such as Ruby Red Grapefruit #2 — but it is usually best to stick with a familiar naming convention: PANTONE in all caps, the name or number, then CVC or CVU as the suffix.

Remember, what you see on the screen is simply a simulation of the printed color. To insure the most accurate color, you should use your Pantone swatch books to find the right ink colors for your project.

How to Do Desktop Publishing > Intermediate Tasks > PMS Color Suffixes

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Creative Thinking

We all have some level of creativity within us. As with other activities, you can teach yourself to be more creative. Sometimes creative thinking requires us to look at things from new perspectives. Learn to unleash your inventive genius by thinking backwards. Here is an appropriate acronym containing five steps to creative thinking -- S A E D I -- that's IDEAS backwards!

S - State of Mind.
Creativity is a state of mind. Telling yourself or others "I'm not very creative," or "I can never come up with new or clever ideas," destroys that state of mind. Creative thinking requires positive thinking.

Read Positive Messages. For long-term creative thinking, read and study books on positive thinking. Some classic titles include Norman Vincent Peale's The Power of Positive Thinking and Robert H. Schuller's Tough Times Never Last, Tough People Do.

Get a Quick Fix. If you have to come up with a clever new ad slogan or a new product name by next week, use some "quick fix" state-of-mind techniques to make yourself ready for creative thinking. Get plenty of sleep. Relax your body and mind with deep breathing. Let your mind wander freely. Don't dwell on deadlines or other negative thoughts. Finally, don't forget to daydream; it can be a very effective tool for creative thinking.

In addition to a clear head, it helps to have a physical space conducive to creative thinking. Think about your atmosphere.

S | A | E | D | I
Think Backwards to Think Creatively and Generate IDEAS

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