Something I need to say to all Pastors, Rabbis, and other religious leaders who make bulletins.

[Rabrrrrrr]

Dudes:

1. ALL CAPS ARE FUCKING HARD TO READ - stop using them in the bulletin for the parts that the people are supposed to say.

2. Sans serif fonts are more difficult to read than serif. Especially difficult is the Gothic, you jackasses. Stop using sans serif fonts. Now.

3. Try some fucking indenting and formatting once in a while.

4. Also spend the extra five &*(@&$ cents and give us some fucking white space.

5. Now that you are using computers which have proportional fonts, stop putting two fucking spaces after periods.

Thank you, that is all.

[madinmaryland]

1. I think you need some fucking glasses, Dude!

Get your eyes checked!

:rofl:

[siligut]

2. Why just religious leaders?

I worked with a person who printed an information list on hot pink paper! You know the after image after staring at hot pink is this deep vibrant green, well this paper was pretty, but it made reading small black print, that started to look double after awhile, practically impossible to read.

[Rabrrrrrr]

3. And the garage sale jackasses that make signs they can read as they make them.

And assume that, because THEY can read the signs from 12 inches away, a car driving by can read the address just fine from 30 feet away.

Or the same idiots who put the for sale signs on cars and stuff, and put the phone number in regular sized print.

:eyes:

[SOteric]

4. Thus spake the Lord God.

[matcom]

5. for she shall be smitten....

[DS1]

6. Well FINE! I'd like to see YOU make one!

[hippywife]

8. That's a neat font

running down the right side. What is it?

[DS1]

9. Agreed

Bleeding Cowboys is the name

[RadiationTherapy]

28. I'd have guessed 'pretentious goth' for the font name.

[Rabrrrrrr]

10. Too much contrast between black and white. Should have used a dark purple font.

And kerning of -5 and line spacing of 0.

Oh, and you should center justify everything.

[DS1]

13. I was going for the "brand new at a WP" look

nobody goes for purple on black except goth bands

[Rabrrrrrr]

16. I was thinking of all the "hip and trendy" college Freshmen and Sophomores who think their myspace

pages are "cool" because they use miniscule texts with a background color that makes the text practically impossible to read. Like dark purple on black, or light orange on tan, and so forth.

[texas1928]

7. Hell YEAH, we need white space.

What am I going to draw on when they are talking. I got slapped for marking up the pew.

[laconicsax]

11. Your single space is heresy.

The "proportional fonts" argument would be more aptly named the "I'm too fucking lazy to hit the space bar twice" argument.

Too bad for me that DU automatically converts everything to a single space.

Count the spaces here. There should be five.
Count the spaces here. There should be four.
Count the spaces here. There should be three.
Count the spaces here. There should be two.
Count the spaces here. There should be one.

See? It's all single spaced, overly crowded text.

[Rabrrrrrr]

12. One space is easier on the eyes.

There's a reason that books and magazines do not publish with two spaces.

[laconicsax]

14. Yeah, it's cheaper and it is most certainly not easier on the eyes.

Single spaced text looks like this:

You might as well omit punctuation and let everything run on forever Just capitalize the beginning of a sentence to let us know there's a new idea

Compare the above passage to this one:

You might as well omit punctuation and let everything run on forever. Just capitalize the beginning of a sentence to let us know there's a new idea.

It looks essentially the same. It's worse if you have a paragraph. From an post on the front page:

But no matter, because anyone in any of those groups is not a true democrat at heart. They may believe they are, may claim they are, but at their very core they are not. No true democrat would be ignorant enough to turn a blind ear to these wise words today. No true democrat would let their passion for their candidate rise above a speech with such a greater purpose. No true democrat would try and squash those words and dismiss the message, which is a message so true and pure that we should be excited to spread it far and wide.

(http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x5137339)

When I take the punctuation out, the block of text remains visually unchanged.

But no matter because anyone in any of those groups is not a true democrat at heart They may believe they are may claim they are but at their very core they are not No true democrat would be ignorant enough to turn a blind ear to these wise words today No true democrat would let their passion for their candidate rise above a speech with such a greater purpose No true democrat would try and squash those words and dismiss the message which is a message so true and pure that we should be excited to spread it far and wide

[Rabrrrrrr]

15. I don't agree.

Perhaps you have bad eyesight of some form or another, but I find a very marked difference between the two paragraphs - the periods are very easy to see, and without the periods, the text is difficult to read.

I don't think two spaces adds anything, except in non-proportional fonts. In proportional fonts they make too much space, feeling like one should pause between sentences. One space keeps the flow of the text going and the eyes continuing to move forward.

[laconicsax]

25. Then we'll simply have to disagree.

I see periods as inherently longer pauses than commas, pauses that warrant a tangible break in the text.

[Rabrrrrrr]

33. The space has nothing to do with pauses.

Read some of the other posts in here that explain very well that the double space is merely an artifact that was used solely on typewriters that had every letter the same width - that is, monospaced or non-proportional fonts.

You will see no books published with two spaces after periods. Certainly no books on typesetting and typography.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

21. Heh.

Count the spaces here.     There should be five.
Count the spaces here.    There should be four.
Count the spaces here.   There should be three.
Count the spaces here.  There should be two.
Count the spaces here. There should be one.

[laconicsax]

26. Are you serious?

Let's see if this works...

A comma is followed by a single space. A period is followed by two.
A comma is followed by a single space.  A period is followed by two.

Awesome!  It may take a bit more work, but I think it's well worth the effort.

:applause:

[GreenPartyVoter]

24. I will always double space after a period. Always. Forever. Will never stop.

:P

[jmowreader]

27. Then don't get a job setting type.

Single spaces after all forms of punctuation has been the standard on proportional type since it was invented.

The "double space" atrocity is the direct result of the typewriter, where you had to do it to show the breaks between sentences.

[Arugula Latte]

30. Double spacing is an antique notion leftover from the manual typewriter days.

Get with the times, man. You're so square. :hippie:

[laconicsax]

31. You mean a holdover from the days when spelling and grammar were considered important.

I'll stick to my method of accurate spelling, correct grammar, and two spaces at the end of a sentence.  If I give that up, what's next?  Omitting the comma before the final item in a list?  Putting apostrophes before the terminal "s" in every word regardless of whether the "s" indicates plurality or possessiveness?  No thanks.

[Rabrrrrrr]

32. No, you really are entirely wrong.

In the old days, the two spaces after a period was not a function of grammar or syntax. It was purely a function of typesetting AND only used when one was manually typing something on the old typewriters in which every letter was the same width with no possibility of changing kerning. Even printed books from the 180ss, 1700s, and 1500s had typefaces in which letters were only as wide as they needed to be, and they did not use double spaces after periods.

And if you are putting an apostrophe before every terminal "s", you have been violating proper grammar and syntax for a long, long time.

[geardaddy]

35. Yep, it's a really slippery slope.

:eyes:

[Elidor]

17. K&R

For that matter, ANYONE doing brochures for your company, please: for fuck's sake, don't design another thing until you've read Bringhurst. You are not fit to operate a mimeograph machine. Your efforts at communication are an affront to all that is good and holy about communication.

I have a client who insists - get this - on FULL CAPS WHITE BODY TEXT ON A REVERSED BACKGROUND. Not just the headers, mind you. The body copy, too. I have never met him in person, but someday I am going to track him to his house and kill him - before he reproduces - for the full untold travesty that he has made of the printed word. There is only so much a man can take.

[Rabrrrrrr]

18. Bringhurst - great, great book!

I bought it back in probably 97 or so. Fascinating!

I'm not a graphic designer, but I do sometimes put together brochures and flyers and adverts. The book was helpful. Also helpful has been just looking at the stuff that is designed well, and learning from it.

It's amazing how people can go through life and never learn a goddamned thing about anything.

[Elidor]

19. A couple of days with that book

Is worth a full semester of college. I realize now I didn't even mention the title (as though I was some effete snob). The Elements of Typographic Style. Every college student should have it as well. All those papers need proper formatting.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw/103-6372782-3047061?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=bringhurst&x=0&y=0

[Rabrrrrrr]

20. Dude, effet snobness is what it's all about!

If the proles don't know what you mean by just saying "Bringhurst", they aren't worth your time.

:D

[Rabrrrrrr]

23. Oh, fer Christ's sake, I didn't spell effete correctly.

x(

:blush:

That's an ironic mistake.

[CreekDog]

22. God will remember that you criticized the font used by his servants

:evilgrin:

[Deep13]

29. Maybe just toss an "amen" in there someplace. nt

[Westegg]

34. Oh. You are SO going to Hell.