Sounds like Dickens, doesn’t it?—Rags, Widows … Orphans.
My last post was meant to be looked at for its shape, its beauty, its style, and not so much for its content. Sorry Charles. Not Dickens! Gramlich! I never intended for you to read the jpegs. If so, I would’ve posted a PDF (which isn’t exactly the truth because I don’t know how to do that on Blogger). Because Lana's a visual artist—a painter, a photographer—she knew exactly what to do; call it my first public display of a layout design.
I’m still learning the intricacies of Adobe InDesign CS4. I’ve completed three-fourths of my graphic design class with an 89% average, or should I say: B+. Still, after perusing various on-line literary magazines, I think I can compete. Not that I’m planning on it. Too much work. Besides, there are some really dedicated editors out there.
So what’s a rag? A bad rag is that ugly shape created by the white space in your right margin; whereas, a good rag uses small increments of space, making the reader more comfortable with the written content (maybe this is why Charles decided to read). If you examine rags further, when the last line at the bottom of a paragraph or page contains only one word, it leaves way too much white space and distracts the reader. Not good typography at all. This is called a widow. Or is it an orphan? No, no, no … a widow leaves too much white space, and an orphan is a single word that makes a short line. I guess they go together; they leave too much white space.
Thank you for your patients, your tolerance.
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11 comments:
Congrats on your B+. I've been stumbling blinding through MS Publisher, myself, but I think my first attempt turned out well enough.
Cool. Now, how about a widower, or a widowmaker or a wife beater?
Poor little orphan spaces . . .
Truly, good layout thoughts. Maybe a wee lit magazine is really worth considering. Pick up where Orchid trailed off? There's definitely space to be filled.
Oh
Lana, Your first attempt is very impressive indeed. Is it part of a website? As for Adobe InDesign CS4, it seems to be the leading program in publishing. For my final I'm doing some slick ads for a Hawaiin T-shirt shop - go figure.
Erik, I was a subscriber to the Orchid. When will they be resurrected? I miss them.
And here I further damaged my eyes for you! There's some gratitude.
lol
BTW, Lana's first attempt is pretty darn cool.
Better you than me, babe!
Its really bad when your reading the paper or a magazine and get out the red pen to start highlighting layout flaws and textual error - one day it'll happen to you my friend
Oh JR this is reminding me too much or work! Have fun with the Joys of CS4 :-)
I think I missed something here, like how to read! I'm glad you are having fun in your class, and I'm so proud of you! I haven't even attempted to learn Indesign yet, and I'm wondering why I spent all that money on it a few months back!
Lana,
Nice work. And congratulations on that magazine cover! You go, girl.
Being from the old school, I'd say white space is almost as essentialas black marks on paper.
It's the way I try to write anyway.
I have just published The Walking Man (Mark) on my blog. Losts of white space...I have a hip-pocket publishing comany called Island Grove Press.
I use lots of white space wherever I can...And I see that you do too!
Great.
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