subject: Cleaning Up Your Print Booklet Clutter by:Janice Jenkins [print this page] Do not you just hate it when you discover booklets with mistakes and errors? You look at a program for a show and you see a mark in ink correcting some flaw. Or in other times, the booklet printing is just so bad that there are missing parts like, no table of contents, no page numbers and sometimes even major lapses in proper publishing practices.
I know that when I do my booklet printing, I always try to clean them up. You should have a "clean up" step as well when you print booklets to avoid the things above from happening to you. It is easy to integrate this in your process. Below are a few typical steps on how to clean up your booklet layout.
Review all the important parts if present. The major part of your cleanup should deal with your major booklet parts. Try to check if you have a good booklet cover, table of contents, booklet sections and a section for contact information. Be sure they are there and they have a proper layout. Besides that remember to also check if important layout features such as page numbers, the use of subheadings, proper margins and other basic publishing practices. Many people find doing things very boring and mundane so it doesn't get that much attention. You must however check it always so that no mistakes come up in booklet printing.
Proof read all the text (ALL OF IT). For the text of your booklet, be sure to proof read everything, and I mean everything. From the first words of the cover, to the last words at the back including copyright information, contact numbers and the name of the publisher. Many people have a light hearted approach to booklet printing, which causes lots of spelling, grammar and typographical errors. So you have to be doubly sure that everything is perfect so that nothing slips. Try to double check or even triple check on things if possible. Have two or three people to do it as well so that one can cover what the other may have missed.
Check for layout "orphans and widows". You should also check if your booklet layout has produced paragraph orphans and widows. These are basically lines of text that have been moved to the next page or the previous page. In most cases they are just short lines that look like an eye-sore and a waste of one whole page. To streamline your booklet, you have to watch out for this clutter and cut back your content a bit so that everything fits perfectly on your section pages. No orphans or widows must be present once you start booklet printing.
Analyze and enhance images. Lastly, after checking the layout and the text itself, you should also focus on cleaning up your booklet images. In most cases these are just choice images in the cover, a few clipart inside and another big image at the end. The usual errors to look for are errors in cropping, pixels, odd colors and a bad image position. If possible, also try to print a sample booklet to see how the image appears printed out. Depending on the mistakes you see, you may need to use software like Adobe Photoshop to clean and enhance these images to create your perfect booklet.
That is it! That is how you clean up the clutter of your design when you print booklets. Try them out!
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Janice Jenkins is a writer for a marketing company in Chicago, IL. Mostly into marketing research, Janice started writing articles early 2007 to impart her knowledge to individuals new to the marketing industry.
