what is page makeup design and what is its importance in journalism?? what are the various types used for front page makeup in daily Newspapers?
PRODUCTION PROCESS
Producing a newspaper requires steady flow and supply of good stories, hard work, films, plates and above all, ingenuity. To keep that flow evenly paced and uninterrupted a newspaper producer requires clear organization, constant supervision and direction, and the most careful and earnest cooperation of his team-mates. Covering, writing.and editing stories; picture taking and editing; and other news gathering responsibilities are done by reporters, editors, and photographers. Planning ahead, making of proper assignments, clearing the news wire machines regularly, editing and proof-reading are essential for efficient production. After the composition of material, the printing process takes place. Engraving department furnishes photocopy type proofs in reverse. A combination of careful planning, reliable lighting equipment, and its regular maintenance will contribute to high production standards.
PAGE PLANNING AND VISUALIZATION
The newspaper page planner/designer must constantly keep in mind the nature of the page i.e. front page, back page or inside page and must know what news matter is to go on them after deleting space for advertisements. The reader does not care how the characters were formed or how they were placed on paper when he or she reads the newspaper. The only thing the reader demands is the copy that is easy and convenient to read. Newspaper page is best built upon standard columns. The column width of a paper determines its basic format and the specification of all typographic elements. And it itself is determined by the body type. The arrangement and the placement of different elements in newspaper page gives the newspaper an attractive look which helps in increasing readership. Selection of type, establishment of typographic guidelines, preparation of individual components of a page, proper placement of pictures, justifying column spacing, all these points are the basics which the newspaper page planner has to follow.
Visualization is the imaginative placement or arrangement of different elements on newspaper page. As a visualizer he/she designs the elements to print on a page, as a layout man he/she arranges it. As a visualizer, he/she translates an idea into visual form; as a layout* man he/she takes that visual form (illustration) and all the other elements that are to go on the pages, and arranges them in an orderly manner.
TYPOGRAPHY/COMPOSING
Typography is simply defined as “The art and process of arranging typographic elements on a page”. A typographic element is anything that puts an image in ink on a piece of paper. There may be the characters of Latin alphabet, numbers, punctuation and special marks, rules, borders, and ornamentation or pictures of any kind. These are the tools of communication and their strengths and weaknesses need to be
understood. Typography concerns itself with the images and not how they are placed on paper methods of creating those images have changed often during the past many years , but the principles of typography have remained almost constant.
Composing of different elements i.e. headlines, news items, pictures, advertisements, and typographic elements require unity, balance, and flow for a pleasing arrangement like one package, on newspaper page. There are different methods u type composition i.e. hand, facsimile, direct impression, photographic compo i’ on, cutout acetate letters, dry transfer or pressure, phototype, and ink-jet
ART EDITING (PAGE MAKING & NEW TRENDS)
in newspapers, art means illustration(s) to accompany stories or advertisements. While art type is a term covering type faces, symbols, and decoration intended for reproduction. Art comprises all pictorial matters in a newspaper. Art editing comprises three major stages: (a) Art planning, i.e. receiving and deciding for treatment, (b) Art packaging i.e. sorting, cropping, scaling, selecting of parts, placement, and (c) Art processing. New trends demand an attractive and colourful appearance of a newspaper page. Page making aims to give pages an orderly ami attractive shape, to display news according to its importance, to enhance readability of newspaper’s contents and to give it personality of its own. The newspaper colour being a modem trend, which a few decades ago was a minor miracle, has become commonplace today. There are two kinds of colour, i.e. chromatic and achromatic. Similarly modular make up of page is becoming more popular than vertical and horizontal types of make-up. The art helps more in making of pages Both types of art i.e. hand art and expo art make the pages of newspaper more special and give them a new look.
GRAPHICS & DESIGN
Graphics- are illustrations and ornamentation used to enhance editorial contents, especially hand art, marker art, unusual photographic treatment, and also combining of hand art and photos. Graphics can be divided into “Information” and “Flavour” categories. Graphics are often used to describe not only a single pictorial element but also the grouping of elements in a striking or unusual fashion.
Designing on the other hand, is the typographic arrangement that is not based on regular columnar divisions and common line, length or width of art. The design must be simple and the graphics should be developed around a simple visual element central to a story. Designing means, organised planning as to how each element will appear, where it will be located, and what effects it will have on the overall appearance of the page. Designing a page also means harmonizing the various graphic elements.
LATEST TECHNIQUES
The introduction of video display terminal to newspapers’ newsrooms revolutionized production because it made each reporter more aware of such tasks as typographic style, column width, leading, and all the various details that used to lie in the domain of make-up editors and typewriters. By the adoption of the latest techniques the page design has directly or indirectly been affected by most, if not all, the changes brought about by automation of editorial and composition process. The reporter and editor of the future will be greatly handicapped without a healthy knowledge of computer programming. With the emergence and widespread utilization of cold type and the elimination of hot type, newspaper editors have found a fast, efficient, and simple procedure for reproduction type, photographs, and illustrations. Anything that can be photographed may easily and rapidly be placed on the page. The design possibilities now are limitless and typefaces in all styles are available. In modern newspapers, graphics oriented editors work hand in hand with professionally trained designers as they conceive meaningful and attractive ways to present the news of the day. Computer assisted production makes their work easier by allowing the positioning of copy headlines to be totally planned and executed from the newsroom. Pagination has become the by-product of the normal layout work of an editor. The computer layout system would be programmed to perform such functions as sizing, cropping and correcting photographs, writing and fitting headlines, considering various story arrangement alternatives, creating and keeping tracks of jumps and training and editing text.
