Table of Contents

Overview

These resources are a collection of tips focusing on design and layout theories for both print and web-based publications. Please note that these principles vary depending upon the publication media, so you'll want to research the area that is appropriate for your publication(s).

Design: Print and Web Essentials

ADA Standards for Accessible Design
This is both an essential tool for any design project and a good example of in-depth design standards

Guidelines And Standards Manuals
A list of exemplary design standards from different companies. Particularly good examples are ABB and BestBuy.

A List Apart
This site is essential reading for web design and also has some great tips for general design projects.

W3.org
The authority on web design standards, this is very in-depth and in the majority of cases a class blog or website will initially constructed as code compliant by your Academic Technologist or the Web Services Team.

Accessible Website Design
A fabulous interactive tool for accessing design considerations for a web page.

Web Design Trends for 2010
This site features great collections of site examples and typographic observations.

Design Tools

These tools are currently available to students on campus in the public labs. Contact Fiona MacNeill (fmacneil), Tucker MacNeill (tmacneil, PEPS) or Carly Born (cborn) for assistance with Adobe products.
You can also find a variety of helpful videos at the Adobe training website: http://tv.adobe.com/show/learn-indesign-cs5/

Adobe InDesign CS5:

- Use it for: Publication Design and Posters
- /wiki/spaces/TAR/pages/26458785 - wiki.carleton.edu - Some materials are available, additional materials will be added soon

- Carleton InDesign FAQ

* Carleton FAQ was created in 2005, the information may be slightly different in Adobe InDesign CS5, the current version in use on campus. The ATs are working on updating this information.

Adobe Photoshop CS5:

- Use it for: Photographic Editing, Image Preparation, Quick Design Products, Advertisements

- /wiki/spaces/TAR/pages/26461185 - wiki.carleton.edu - Some materials are available, additional materials will be added soon.
- Photoshop Cheat Sheet - Photoshop Basics

Adobe Illustrator CS5:

- Use it for: Original Illustrations, Vector Graphics, Floor Plans, Logos

- /wiki/spaces/TAR/pages/26461195 - wiki.carleton.edu - No materials are available at this time, materials will be added soon.

Adobe Dreamweaver CS5:

- Use it for: Web Design, Javascript, Roll-over buttons, Limited Flash Objects*
- /wiki/spaces/TAR/pages/26458757 - wiki.carleton.edu - No materials are available at this time, materials will be added soon.

*Flash will not work in college webpub folders.

Reason:

- Use it for: Carleton web pages
- Reason is Carleton's content management system for the web. Please contact the Web Services Group for training.

Preview (Mac OSX)

- Use it for: Checking Image Size, Image Resizing, Quick Cropping, Image and PDF Annotation, Quick Alpha (color exclusion, i.e. taking out a white background).
- Comes as standard on all Machintoshs as part of OSX, however the functionality will vary depending upon which version of OSX you are using.
- /wiki/spaces/TAR/pages/26464770

Paint (Microsoft)

- Use it for: Checking Image Size, Cropping, Image Annotation
- Comes as standard as part of Windows, however the functionality will vary depending upon which version of the Windows Operating System you are using.

Page Layout and General Publication Resources

Design Phase of Desktop Publishing
A lovely tutorial by About.com that links out to endless number of resources on layout/conceptualization, color, font and image selection, etc.

Is there such a thing as Perfect Page Layout?
An excellent summary of things to think about in page layout.

Perfect Proportions - Using Page Margins in Desktop Publishing
A simple guide to the 3 rules of thumb in deciding page margins.

Top 4 Steps to Perfect Publications for Non-Designers
Mostly geared to small business owners, but some of the principles are still applicable.

Top 5 Design Disasters to Avoid
Basic guildelines that will help make your publication look professional.

Glossary of Desktop Publishing Terms
A - Z terminology of desktop publishing.

Fonts

Which Are More Legible: Serif or Sans Serif Typefaces?
A great essay by Alex Poole with visual examples comparing serif and sans serif fonts.

The Periodic Table of Typefaces and Other Very Helpful Font/Typeface Links
This is a great site from the Behance Network (Creative Professional Resource) with some good font resources.

Color

Color Scheme Designer 3
This online color application will help you devise contemporary color schemes (mono), complimentary, triadic, tetradic, analogic and accented analogical.

ColorCombos.com
This site is particularly good for picking Web compliant color combinations.

Color Meanings and Colors That Go Together
About harmonizing, complimentary and constrasting colors. Also includes information about color groups.

How Color Works
A group of links that discuss all aspects of colors.

Design Inspiration

CoolInfographics.com
Really fabulous examples of infographics and posters from a variety of different sources.

TED Talks
Really informative talks helping to demystify design thinking and theory

Webdesignerwall.com
Great resources for web design run by professional web designers

Other Resources

AAHI Slide Libe Image Guidelines by Carleton Slide Librarian – Heidi Eyestone

Adapted from: What are you scanning for? This guide can be used for variety of different image based needs.

Presentations: Power Point, Keynote, ARTstor OIV	Make jpegs 1024 x 768 @72 dpi = minimum for full size slide image 1500 on the longest side/ 150-300 dpi = an image larger than necessary but with more flexibility. Beware your image presentations can get very large! Images coming from ARTstor, the VRC collection in Carleton Digital Collections or online are ready for presentations, however images from the web will pixelate rather quickly when enlarged. Use Descreening in scanner software when scanning print media.
Papers	Make jpegs 200-300 dpi will print clearly and won’t pixelate when you resize minimally. Images do get large so pay attention to the output size when scanning. Using lots of images may make your paper size huge. Images coming from ARTstor, VRC collection in Carleton Digital Collections or online are ready for papers but will pixelate if you need to enlarge them significantly.
Web	Make jpegs 72 dpi with the width not exceeding 500 pixels in any direction will provide you with an image that will load fast. Use Optimize for Web in the Save function in Photoshop for peak performance.
PDF	Make jpegs 200-300 dpi jpegs with output size to 8 ½ by 11 inches for desired sheet.
Archival	Make a tiff, digital negative or RAW or other lossless format paying attention to desired size. Scan at original size or above and at the highest dpi your scanner allows, if you have room to store large files. 600 dpi and above is often desired by professional printers.

Related Articles

Expand all Collapse all

Browser not supported