UNIT
4 Desktop Publishing
REVIEW QUESTIONS
PART A
Complete the following sentences by filling in the blanks.
1. ____________________ is a typeface in one specific size and style.
2. ____________________ is the amount of space between adjacent letters of a word.
3. Most DTP software provides a/an ____________________ that automatically makes
text and heading styles consistent throughout a publication.
4. A/An ____________________ system is not required but is helpful if files are to be
shared.
5. ____________________ consists of drawings, sketches, and photographs. These may
or may not be produced on a computer.
6. ____________________ show what the finished page will look like.
7. The font type that does not have short, light lines, or feet, attached to the top and bottom
of the main strokes of the characters is called a/an ____________________ font.
8. ____________________ is the symmetry of elements, white space, and the weighting
of text and graphics on a page.
9. If you use "10 on 12" leading, the leading size is ____________________ and the
point size is ____________________.
10. ____________________ type is easy to read and is usually used as body text.
11. The two main picture file formats are ____________________ and
____________________.
12. Shading is also known as ____________________.
PART B
Define the following terms.
1. Contrast
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Unit 4 – Desktop Publishing
2. Rhythm
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3. Unity
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4. Crop
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5. Optical centre
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PART C
Answer the following questions in the space provided.
1. Why would you use colour in a publication?
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2. When planning a publication, what questions should you ask?
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3. What is a dingbat? Give an example.
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4. What are the five principles of design? Briefly describe each one.
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5. Text can be produced in four formats. What are they?
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Unit 4 – Desktop Publishing
6. Provide a list of hints on using artwork and graphics.
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7. List the advantages of desktop publishing.
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8. In a one-column format, would you place a graphic of less than a third of a page deep
at the top or bottom of the page? Why?
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9. What happens when you use the kerning feature?
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10. Why would you use lines in a publication?
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CALCULATIONS
Insert the answers to the following calculations in the spaces provided.
1. You want to purchase a scanner for $199, DTP software for $150, and a PostScript
laser printer for $1200. What will be the cost of your purchase including 7% GST?
____________________
2. If you purchase the equipment in question 1, and your annual budget is $5000, how
much money is left?
____________________
3. If a scanner can scan one page every ten seconds and a DTP technician can input a page
in five minutes, how many more pages can the scanner input in one hour?
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4. You have a major project to cost out. It is a manual that will comprise:
• 150 pages, cost $2.50 per page
• 32 drawings to be scanned, cost $9.95 per page
• a binder, cost $4.99
• a set of dividers, cost $2.30.
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What is the total cost of one manual?
____________________
5. You just bought a new computer for your desktop publishing business. The total cost
of the system was $4376.99 including $1200 worth of software. What percentage was
the hardware of the total cost?
____________________
RESEARCH ACTIVITIES
1. Create a portfolio of good and bad page layouts. Include as many different examples as
you can find and categorize them appropriately.
2. Compare the DTP capabilities of various word processing programs with various
desktop publishing programs. Prepare an oral presentation outlining the findings of
your research.
3. What CD-ROMs are available that might be of assistance to desktop publishers?
4. Create a portfolio of all of the typestyles and fonts available on your computer.
5. Create an oral presentation that discusses the layout of a character of text and the terms
associated with it, such as ascender, descender, points, kerning, etc.
ON-THE-JOB ACTIVITIES
1. You are going to sell your house privately. You decide to create a 8" x 11" (20.3 cm x
27.9 cm) sign that you can post at various retail establishments in your area. Create a
preliminary page design for your sign.
2. Using the thumbnail sketch you created in question 1, create an eye-catching sign. Be
sure to include a picture of your house. Scan your picture if you have access to a
scanner.
3. Using your desktop publishing software, create an attractive document that describes
the procedures required to perform the following action with your DTP program:
• Select menu commands • Set up a page
• Move around the screen • Open an existing publication
• Begin a new publication • Name a publication
• Save a publication • Print a publication
• Close a publication
4. A trainer in your organization asks you to create examples of good and bad page
layouts. She would like examples that include the following: graphics with text wrap;
one-column layouts with graphics at the top, graphics at the bottom, and with a
dominant graphic element; two-column layouts with graphics at the top, bottom, and
middle of the columns; page layouts with repeated horizontal, vertical, diagonal, and
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Unit 4 – Desktop Publishing
concentric elements. She asks you to ensure that your good examples illustrate
proportion, balance, contrast, rhythm, and unity. Carry out this assignment.
5. Select a two-page spread from a business magazine that illustrates, at a minimum,
banners, headlines, vertical column division lines, footers with page numbers, captions,
and drop capitals. Prepare a thumbnail sketch of the page spread. Make any design
changes you feel are necessary and then create the page and fill it with simulated text.
6. TriCity Development Corporation has hired you to help market a new resort
community at Arbutus Grove on eastern Vancouver Island in British Columbia.
Prepare a sales brochure to market various house and condominium floor plans, as
well as the following resort facilities:
• World-class, 18-hole golf course with two lifetime club memberships for all
community residents
• Year-round golf clubhouse with coffee shop, pro shop, and gourmet dining
facilities
• Five-star luxury hotel (500 rooms) with banquet and conference facilities, two
outdoor and two indoor pools, tennis courts, squash courts, six restaurants
(including a coffee shop), live entertainment every night, shopping facilities
(including pharmacy)
• 300-berth marina with full facilities, including tack shop; variety store; kayak,
yacht, and motorboat charters; and gas barge
• 60-ha wilderness park containing wonderful old-growth trees and arbutus stands
• 8-ha marine park
• 6 freshwater lakes for windsurfing, water-skiing, canoeing, kayaking, etc.
• Excellent cross-country skiing and snowshoeing in winter; sleigh and hay rides a
specialty
• Fully serviced community, including fire and police protection, and medical centre
• Community centre
• All common areas immaculately landscaped and maintained
• Well-maintained walking trails to secluded coves and beaches
• Ample parking
• 25 min to fast walk-on passenger catamaran service to Vancouver harbour
• 20 min to car ferry to Vancouver or Tsawwassen
• 15 min to airport service to Vancouver International Airport
• Seaplane service from downtown Vancouver and Vancouver Airport South to
Arbutus Grove Marina
• 2 h north of picturesque Victoria
7. Create a Lost and Found poster for a Doberman Pinscher named "Cuddles."
8. Create an invitation to a graduation party that you want to hold for a friend.
9. On the weekend, you work at a local coffee bar. The owner knows you have just
completed a DTP course. She asks if you would like to create a poster advertising their
special coffees along with the prices. You decide to give it a try.
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Unit 4 – Desktop Publishing
10. You have finally decided that you need to sell your old car. It's old enough that perhaps
a student might be interested if the price is right. Create a For Sale poster.
WHAT WOULD YOU DO?
In the space provided, indicate what you would do in the following situations.
1. One of your co-workers asks you to make a copy of your DTP program for her to use
in the office.
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2. You need an illustration of a computer for a publication but do not have a scanner.
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3. One of your co-workers has prepared a graph that is to be inserted into a publication
you have already prepared using DTP.
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4. You are a creative desktop publisher. You have a new idea for an advertising project
for a major client. Your supervisor, Kevin Holloway, presents your idea at a
management meeting. A week later, you hear Clodagh O'Brien, the president of your
organization, congratulating Kevin on his wonderful idea, and mentioning that he will
be nominated for an employee award as a result.
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5. You attend a four-day training course to learn a new desktop publishing program. On
your return to the office, your supervisor asks you to prepare a rush publication using
the new program. You are concerned because your productivity rate on the new
software program is still very low.
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6. An executive in your organization feels that corrections can be made so easily on your
desktop publishing software that she can change her mind as many times as she wants.
Sometimes her corrections take a considerable amount of time as page layouts have to
be changed.
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Unit 4 – Desktop Publishing
7. You are a creative desktop publisher. Every time you have an innovative idea and
present it to your supervisor, he says, "Very nice," but never uses your ideas.
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8. You are having a publication prepared by your desktop publishing department. A
production assistant telephones you to say that the desktop publishing software will not
do what you want. You know that this is not true because you have extensive desktop
publishing training. When you explain how it can be done, the production assistant
says that it is too time-consuming.
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9. You are away for three days on sick leave. When you return, you discover that a 100-
page publication you had prepared has been drastically changed by a temporary
employee. It is obvious that the temporary employee did not know what she was
doing. You are angry because, even though you are still not feeling well, you have to
work four hours of overtime to rectify the errors in the publication.
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10. Your employer has decided to buy a desktop publishing program. You know that this
program is not at all user-friendly and that your employer is buying it because it was
highly rated in a popular computer magazine. Your existing word processing program
can do all of the desktop publishing required for your office.
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11. You are a new employee at Dysart Corporation. Over the last two months, you have
had to prepare a newsletter. You notice that the format is similar each month.
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12. You have been asked to prepare a 500-page publication using desktop publishing
software. You are very busy, so you will be having two other people assist in the
publication. You are concerned about consistency.
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