138. THE NON-DESIGNER'S TYPE BOOK

Rules and size can be effective

You don't ever want to use the underline feature in your software, but you
can often apply a rule, or Une, for emphasis, as shown in the headline above
(in most programs you can add the rule to your style sheet so it shows up
automatically). The advantage to the rule is that you can make it as thick
or thin as you like, and you can make it a different color, dotted, or dashed.
You can position the rule so it doesn't bump into the descenders, or, as you
see in the running heads on each page, you can let it run through the
descenders in exactly the position you choose.

Or:

Make it

bbMer

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« Ф

г*«ѵ

Of course you know you can emphasize type by making it bigger. But don't
be a wimp—try making it really big, making the letterforms themselves
into a design element, or perhaps enlarging just the interesting punctuation
such as the question mark or ampersand or quotation marks. Or try setting
the text very small, surrounded by lots of space. Either choice, large or
small, will call a great deal of attention to itself.

So stretch yourself—go beyond the basic italic or bold word.

Be emphatic!

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ine ureatîs

and Juivnenation

Your design project is all complete. Graphics are in place, colors have been
chosen, paper has been selected, the service bureau is waiting for you, you
think it's ready to go to the printer. But you need to check one last thing—
your line breaks, or how each fine of type ends. Yes, that means every line
in your entire project, every headline, every caption, every line in every
paragraph! Certain elements are inappropriate at the ends of lines, such as
too many hyphens, small words that hang over an empty space in the next
Une, the last half of a hyphenated word as the last fine of a paragraph, awk¬
ward phrases, among others. These are details that might not seem impor¬
tant at first, but these details are what gives a publication a professional ap¬
pearance.

See, doesn't that paragraph look tacky f!

Yes, checking every line break can be time-consuming, but it will give your
publications that added touch of professionalism.