CONTENTS

Acknowledgements

Dedication

Foreword

I. Installing the Software

II. The Pages
III. The Skeleton Layout - Inserting Objects
a. THE IMPORTANCE OF DUMMY-LAYING OUT
b. TEXTBOXES AND PHOTO BOXES
c. THE PARTS (Fold, Centerfold, Banner, Umbrella, Inside Stories, Gutter, Alley)
d. DECORATIVE ELEMENTS
IV. Templating – Using Placeholder Text
V. Some General Rules, Guidelines, and Tips
a. FONTS (Use of Font Styles, Font Size 9 or 10)
b. THE NEWS PAGE
c. THE OPINION PAGE
d. THE FEATURES PAGE
e. THE SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY PAGE
f. THE SPORTS PAGE
g. PHOTOS AND CAPTIONING
VI. Proofreading
VII. Converting to Portable Document Format (PDF)
VIII. Printing

Index and Glossary

References

About the Author / About the Layout Artist

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Cover Page

Raven Louise D. Daguro and John Arren F. Cervantes, created through Canva®.
InDesign Logo – https://www.freeiconspng.com/uploads/indesign-logo-icon-25.png

Written By

Raven Louise D. Daguro, May 2018

Laid out By

John Arren F. Cervantes

DEDICATION

Dedicated to the LORD our God,

who made this — more than this — possible.

Also to Kione Adriel I. Ferraer, John Bryan Ferrer, and John Jerwin Ferrer,
aside from those who are amazingly willing successors of the Layout Artist post.
FOREWORD

THIS HANDBOOK was the brainchild of Daguro — since he was outgoing Editor in Chief of the
Publication — who crafted it with the artistry of Cervantes, who, although already graduated, was
dedicated to contribute to the making of a guide to someone who is willing to be the school organ’s
next layout artist. Ferraer and the Ferrers, being the immediate successors, were to be the first ones
using it.

Keeping this would be a good learning opportunity for the succeeding ones, and may they
continue to keep the flame or the drive of dedication for campus journalism.

To you, young and willing campus journalists, thank you for taking the challenge to face the
laptop and layout with its exciting adventure. May you find it enjoyable, and, as the author quotes:

“The game is afoot.” – Sherlock Holmes, A.C. Doyle (1900s)

Raven Louise D. Daguro

The Author
I. INSTALLING THE SOFTWARE

THIS INSTRUCTIVE MATERIAL is meant for working compatibility with Adobe InDesign CS or
CC, so it is obviously necessary to have a laptop equipped with the software. It was chosen because of
its renowned quality in terms of laying out publication material, particularly the campus paper.

II. THE PAGES

FOREMOST, know the number of pages of the paper you are going to publish, its type, and the
number of columns, as advised or prescribed by the School Paper Adviser. The pages are facing by twos
in format; you may want to measure a sample broadsheet (if it is the case) for the pages’ size [but, for
hassle-free reference, tabloid (A3) has 297 x 420 mm or 11.7 x 16.5 in; while broadsheet (A2) has 420 x
594 mm or 16.5 x 23.4 in]; and has an adjustable per-section-partition of:

8 PAGES 12 PAGES

NEWS – 2 pages NEWS – 3 pages

OPINION – 1 page OPINION – 2 pages

FEATURES – 2 pages FEATURES – 3 pages

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY – 1 page SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY – 2 pages

SPORTS – 2 pages SPORTS – 2 pages

To set the pages:

1. Open Adobe InDesign. 9. Set Orientation to Portrait.

2. Click File > New > Document. 10. Set Number of Columns to 5 or 6.
3. Enable Preview on the lower left of the dialog box (CC). 11. Click OK.
4. Set Default for Document Preset and Print for Intent.
5. Set Number of Pages to 8 or 12.
6. Enable Facing Pages.
7. Set Start Page No. to 0.
8. Set Page Size to A3 or A2.
 III. THE SKELETON LAYOUT – INSERTING OBJECTS

BEFORE PUTTING THE ARTICLES into their places, use a “dummy” and “skeleton” layout to
visualize the output.

A. THE IMPORTANCE OF DUMMY-LAYING OUT

WHY DUMMY-LAYOUT when you can directly layout with InDesign?

The answer is — as simple yet important elements as most, if not all, layout artists want —
precision and accuracy. Planning it in the very handy editable platform of paper is very essential
and convenient. We recognize the undo command of computer applications, but note that the
usage of such commands is limited to some extent.
Doing this layout is drawing the textboxes and photo frames as visualized by the
layout artist. He or she also writes inside these with the corresponding labels for each, like HL for
headline (written together are some words from the writer’s headline or slug), LEAD, and BODY,
indicating which columns are linked with arrows. Here is a sample with a layout artist’s legend;
on the next page is its resulting layout.

LEGEND
HL – RI POP, RLD PAGE 2

HL – Headline.
I - A, FAP
RI POP. – RI Population Umbrella Headline, story on Page 2
I – B, I – C,
TINAPA FEST (TF) – Tinapa Festival Headline
RLD RLD, JAC
PAMASKONG HANDOG (PH) – Pamaskong Handog Headline
FOLIO
LEAD and BODY – corresponding article lead / body.

FOLIO. contains:
information about the school organ,
I – A CAPTION. TINAPA FESTIVAL. – RLD, JMD
the tagline,
HL – TINAPA FEST, RLD addresses,
scope of events in the publication, and
volume and issue number.
TF LEAD
I – A (to I) – Photo Code*.
TF BODY
Roman numeral I refers to page number.
Letters refer to identifying code
*corresponding photos are submitted by Chief
I – D, I – E,
HL – PAMASKONG HANDOG
Photojournalist in another file folder.
Ms. LIB Ms. LIB

PH LEAD
INITIALS – credit. Article (linked text
I – D & I – E CAPTION. PAMASKONG HANDOG. – RLD
PH BODY RLD – Raven Louise D. Daguro placeholder).
Ms. LIB
INSIDE STORIES
PADDLERS TO PROV
FAP – Francine Angela F. Pueblo
I–F I–G I–H JAC – John Arren F. Cervantes
I–I JMD – Joevilyn M. Dulay Photo placeholder.
CHEATING ORANGE REBOOT
Ms. LIB – Ms. Lea Isabel Buhain
 The dummy layout above is actually a sample for The Rosarian’s front page when it
was published in School Year 2017-2018. It is the authors’ alma mater’s official school
publication. Daguro edited it and Cervantes laid it out. Notice the meticulous details in order to
bring out the best campus paper out of it.
 B. TEXTBOXES AND PHOTO BOXES

ONCE YOU HAVE all the dummy pieces with you while laying out, you are now ready
to start with the skeleton layout. This is a fancied term to refer to a template waiting for the
articles and photos to be put in. In doing this, setting out textboxes and photo boxes is
essential. The layout artist needs to know which symbols are for which.

To create textboxes, either click the Type Tool (symbol: Capital T) or Shape Tool (to
create a shape which you will turn into a textbox also by using the Type Tool). With Type Tool
selected, drag the cursor wherever needed. As seen in pages 3 and 4, an article usually does not
fit in just one column, so you will have to learn how to link textboxes. Before that, know the use
of learning the symbol for linked textboxes, also known as thread, as depicted below. To do the
linking:

Lorem
tetuer 1. Select the Selection Tool (symbol: Black Arrowhead).
adipis
ipsum
cing 2. Click the outport on the bottom-right of a textbox which is loaded with
dolor sit
amet,
elit. overmatter (symbol: Red Inscribed Plus Sign), or text overflow.
consec - 3. Click on the target (usually the text placeholder or frame to the right of it).

Photograph or Picture boxes are equally important. The symbol for it is this:

It is used even in photojournalism. The symbol has been used to denote

emptiness, since it is still waiting for a picture to be put into it. To do the placing:

1. Click File > Place.

2. Choose the graphic you want to put into the placeholder or frame.
3. You may refit the frame by choosing Object > Fitting > [fitting command].

You may also encounter a situation when you are already done with all the
meticulous work when you have trouble getting rid of the textboxes’ border or stroke. You may:

1. Choose Object Styles panel. Double-click the object styles used for frames
(icon with Capital T next to it). This opens a dialog box.
2. Go to the Stroke section and then set Color to None and Weight to 0.

or

1. Select the frames you want to be gotten rid of border.

2. Open the Strokes Panel.
3. Set Weight to 0.

or

1. Use the Stroke Proxy below the Tools Panel.

 2. Select the Selection Tool.
3. Reset the Stroke Color to None.

C. THE PARTS

KNOWLEDGE OF THE ANATOMY of a newspaper is also important. To give a very

brief overview, these are diagrams:
1 – BANNER HEADLINE – The main story’s crossline headline.
2 – BANNER PHOTO – The photo corresponding to the banner
3 headline.
3 – UMBRELLA HEADLINE – The headline above the nameplate.
4 – INSIDE STORIES – An index of what is inside.
2

8
1

6
4

5 – THE FOLD – An imaginary

line which is the crease halfway
the height of the paper.
6 – CENTER FOLD – The pair of
pages (one spread) at the
center of the newspaper (for a 5
12-page paper, pages 6 and 7).
7 – THE GUTTER – The white
space from the vertical crease
to the text.
8 – THE ALLEY – White space in
between columns (usually one
em).
 D. DECORATIVE ELEMENTS

NOT JUST ON THE FRONT PAGE do we have to meticulously add on decorative

elements, as shown in page 4. Throughout the whole newspaper, give your all and effort in
being creative and try to set making the best paper out of it the goal. Remember, the audiences
— the readers — are very much attracted to what they see, aside from the content of the
articles.

IV. TEMPLATING — USING PLACEHOLDER TEXT

HAVING YOUR SKELETON LAYOUT DONE, you will now start plotting some temporary “meat”
to it. You may want to use placeholder text — sample text that will serve as simulator of the actual
article. You should have Microsoft Office Word (any version) from where you will copy the text, since it
is not applicable with InDesign. To do this:

1. Follow the syntaxes

a. =lorem(x,y) or *often used because of its visual likeness to actual article text.
b. =rand.old(x,y) or *[MS Word 2007/2010/2013]
c. =rand(x,y) or *[MS Word 2013]

where x is the number of paragraphs

and y is the number of sentences per paragraph.

For example:

=lorem(3,5) (3 paragraphs, 5 sentences each) =rand.old(3,5) (3 paragraphs, 5 sentences each)

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit.
Maecenas porttitor congue massa. Fusce posuere, magna sed
pulvinar ultricies, purus lectus malesuada libero, sit amet
commodo magna eros quis urna. Nunc viverra imperdiet enim.
Fusce est.
Vivamus a tellus. Pellentesque habitant morbi tristique senectus
et netus et malesuada fames ac turpis egestas. Proin pharetra
nonummy pede. Mauris et orci. Aenean nec lorem.
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. The quick
brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. The quick brown fox
jumps over the lazy dog. The quick brown fox jumps over the
lazy dog. The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.The quick
brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.The quick brown fox
jumps over the lazy dog.The quick brown fox jumps over the
lazy dog.The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.

In porttitor. Donec laoreet nonummy augue. Suspendisse dui The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.The quick
purus, scelerisque at, vulputate vitae, pretium mattis, nunc. brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.The quick brown fox
Mauris eget neque at sem venenatis eleifend. Ut nonummy. jumps over the lazy dog.The quick brown fox jumps over the
lazy dog.The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
V. Some General Rules, Guidelines, and Tips
BEFORE SLICING IT THINNER, here are some of the general rules and tips for laying out.

1. Above-the-Fold Rule – The banner headline should always be above the fold.
2. Rule of Thirds, Rule of Thumb – The rule of thirds, a three-by-three grid, creates four
intersection points. The human eye, at first, looks to these points and on the four lines by which
they intersect. From there, the eyes follow a certain path — the “S.” Do not let go of the reader’s
attention by putting the most important parts at the upper right, then the less significant ones
along the S-path. This is a technique used even in television and film-making.
3. Avoid tombstoning — the juxtaposition of two headlines horizontally, which may confuse the
reader, as he tends to read on the other headline, which is most likely to be another story’s.
Remedies: either 1) change the layout, 2) change the font style and/or size of one of the
headlines, or 3) put a distinctive element as in item number 4.
4. Distinctive Elements – To distinctly identify an article or part, you may want to colorize its
background or shade it; you may also retain the outline of the article textbox.
5. Pillaring – if you need to place multiple images, one special technique used by layout artists is
pillaring — the putting of an image right above the other.
6. Do not compromise the images’ quality (because they tend to pixelate) when zooming just
because the frame intended for it will not just fit. Instead, crop, but keep the subject and other
important elements of the photo.
7. Keep related articles on the same page. This prevents confusion on the reader.
8. Be consistent on the continued articles. Let the reader know which page it continues to and
from.
9. Leave minimal white space to let the readers’ eyes breathe.

A. FONTS

KNOW THE FONT size to be used, probably according to your School Paper Adviser.
The SY 2017-2018 release was set to be 9 points on body.

News, Opinion-Editorial, and Sports Page articles are preferred to be in a “formal”

font family, either serif and sans serif, with the former more commonly used.

SERIF SANS SERIF

Book Antiqua Constantia Verdana

Bookman Old Style Minion Pro*
Tahoma
Century Times New Roman
Impact
Century Schoolbook Garamond
Segoe UI
* InDesign default
 Features and Science and Technology Page articles may use decorative fonts, even
those downloaded, but make sure that they are free for commercial use and are compatible with
the publisher.

Section Plates may also be decorative but again, check downloaded fonts’ licensing.

B. THE NEWS PAGE

NEWS ARE EIGHT TO 16 PARAGRAPHS IN LENGTH when full-length, especially

banner news, but they are usually applied with the “one-sentence-is-one-paragraph” rule. Side
News or Supporting News are composed of eight paragraphs, minimum. Flash News, on the
other hand, are of three to five paragraphs only, since they are considered to be “fillers” of
spacious white space. With a Word document open, you may easily copy the needed content to
your paper. To import text*:

1. Right-click on the selected text and then select Copy, or press Ctrl + C.
2. Go to your paper, right-click, and then choose Paste, or press Ctrl + V.
3. For overmatter, select the outport and a cursor with some lines of text below it
will appear.
4. Click on the target textbox.

*applies to any article text.

Campus-paper-making culture has this — the “lending” of one’s work to be

“borrowed” by another, because one’s name as writer of articles may only appear at most five
times in the paper. This is not to be considered plagiarism because you will use the work and
claim it to be another’s with permission from the writer.

C. THE OPINION PAGE

DUBBED AS THE “HEART OF THE PAPER” and containing the Editorial Article,
which is by rule automatically written by the paper’s Editor in Chief and should not bear a
writer’s credit for such reason, the Opinion Page is very full of stuff and sentiments.

The Editorial Article’s body usually runs two columns and is either on the left- or
right-hand side of the paper. It is accompanied by the Editorial Cartoonist’s cartoon, commonly
just above the article’s title. It should be one in stand with the thoughts of the Editorial.

Meanwhile, the Columns, which are written by the Contributors, are given column
names such as The Guru (pun for Daguro, the handbook’s author); of course, titles, which are
explicit and not as fancy as Feature articles’, are given. Although meant for giving the writers
freedom to speak out, it is usually avoided to write anything which is destructive to the school.
Instead, positive reviews and constructive comments are more expected.

Also, the School Paper Adviser or the School Principal may decide whether or not to
put a special section which, in semblance to citizen journalism programs in televisions,
crowdsources and involves the campus’s “citizens” — the students. They may be given a
contemporary issue which may be sensational or relatable to them, and then the school organ
gets their sentiments and airs it through the publication. Of course, thorough filtering of
thoughts is done.

Finally, two requisites on the paper are also expected to be seen in the Opinion-
Editorial Page. The first is the Letter to the Editor, which may be a letter from a student which
gives commendation or suggestions to the school organ, and is therefore replied by the Editor
in Chief as a representative of the organ. Secondly, the Editorial Board, which is by analogy to a
film the “credits” of the paper, is commonly seen on the lower part of one of the pages.

D. THE FEATURES PAGE

FEATURE ARTICLES ARE MOST LIKELY TO BE ASSOCIATED WITH CREATIVE

WRITING, since it promotes artistic writing. With art in mind, there is no doubt decorative fonts
may be used for the puns or creative titles as aforementioned.

As far as the layout artist is concerned, he should at least match or exceed the
expectations for artistic visuals, the feature page commonly being the centerfold pair and, on
local tabloids, is colored when printed.

E. THE SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY PAGE

THE SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY PAGE MAY BE THE MOST TECHNICAL, for it
most likely contains special terminology and may also be adorned with creativity. It is sometimes
featurized, so it is expected to have almost the same attributes as that of the Features Page.

F. THE SPORTS PAGE

AS THE FRONT PAGE IS COLORED AND SHARES THE SAME SPREAD AS THE
SPORTS PAGE, it is also colored. What is special with this Page is the plate, which is not on the
upper part of the page; also, the Sports Page is on the last page of the paper. The articles are
special in terms of the lingo they use.
 Combination articles (e.g. Sports Editorial) are put in the more discrete or distinctive
category’s Page, and one hint could be the name of the combination article’s category — the first
name between the two (in the case of Sports Editorial, Sports).

G. PHOTOS AND CAPTIONING

IMAGES ADD VISUAL APPEAL to the pages, thus wise selection and laying out of
images is needed (see Rule of Thirds, page 8, item number 2). Captions are equally important
because they describe what is in the picture to give more detail; act as a director of attention;
and are bits of news. They are always in present tense. Captions have “titles,” namely the
overline. The overline is a phrase which is sometimes a pun or alliteration made to make the
audience read the whole of the caption. Of course, caption writing also demands grammatical
inclination.

Captions, as fillers of textboxes, are most likely placed near the picture, just below it
in most common cases. Also, the picture taker or photojournalist will be given credit beside it.
Actually, photo-placing and captioning entails customized creativity.

VI. PROOFREADING

PROOFREADING IS ALMOST THE SAME AS COPYREADING, in that the latter edits a tangible
copy of the article and uses special symbols that maybe a few understand, while proofreading may be
done through easily understood symbols and annotations, and includes even actual typeset editing.

You may have the copyreader and headline writer do the work to spot and correct possible
errors. Also, InDesign has a correction feature, in the area of the status bar. It may also suggest ways to
remedy the errors it may find.

VII. CONVERTING TO PORTABLE DOCUMENT FORMAT (PDF)

TO CONVERT TO PORTABLE DOCUMENT FORMAT (PDF):

1. In File, select Export.
2. Specify a name and location for the file.
3. For Save As Type (Windows), choose Adobe PDF (Print). Click Save.
4. Choose an Adobe PDF Preset or customize settings.
5. Choose the lowest PDF version necessary to open the files you create.
6. After specifying Display Title and Language, click Export.
VIII. PRINTING

CONGRATULATIONS for making it to the point of submission to the School Paper Adviser! At
this point, printing is up to the publisher, but still, keep updated with your adviser.
INDEX AND GLOSSARY

A2 Paper – paper that is 420 x 594 mm. or 16.5 x 23.4 in. in size, page 2
A3 Paper – paper that is 297 x 420 mm or 11.7 x 16.5 in. in size, page 2
Alley – space between columns, usually one em, page 6
Banner,
Headline – the headline of the main story on the front page, page 6
Photo – the photo for the banner headline, page 6
Broadsheet, see A2 Paper
Caption – a brief description for a photo, page 11
Center Fold – the pair of pages at the middle of the paper, page 6
Editorial Board – the board of students who make effort to produce the paper, page 10
Em – a unit of space that corresponds to a capital letter M, depending on font size, page 6
Facing Pages – a property that makes the paper’s pages face each other by twos, page 2
Fold – imaginary line halfway the height of the paper, page 6
Folio – contains information about the publication, page 3
Frame,
Photo Box – a placeholder for photos, page 5
Textbox - a placeholder for text, page 5
Gutter – space from the vertical crease of the paper’s spread, page 6
Layout,
Dummy – tangible paper-set layout to visualize the output, page 3
Skeleton – the laptop layout with no actual articles yet, page 3
Letter to the Editor – a letter of commendation or suggestion to the school organ, page 10
Lingo – terminology, page 10
Outport – the option from which to source overmatter, page 5
Overline – titles to caption, page 11
Overmatter – text overflow, page 5
Page Partition – the per-section-partition of pages in the paper, page 2
Photo Code – the code representing a corresponding photo page 3
Pillaring – technique used to accommodate placing of multiple photos, page 8
Placeholder Text – text that temporarily takes space for actual article text, page 7
Portable Document Format – a file format compatible with Adobe®, page 11
Proofreading – the act of spotting and correcting errors page 11
Rule of Thirds – a three-by-three grid which intersecting lines is followed by the eye, page 8
Sans Serif – font type without serif or extra strokes at the end of letters, page 8
Serif – extra strokes at the end of letters; also font types with these, page 8
Slug – the article’s topic, page 3
Tabloid, see A3 Paper
Tagline – the publication’s “motto.” page 3
Tombstoning – putting two headlines next to each other horizontally, page 8
Umbrella Headline – a headline above the nameplate or school publication logo, page 6
REFERENCES

 http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/broadsheet.html
 https://forums.adobe.com/thread/2188217
 https://www.digitalartsonline.co.uk/tutorials/adobe-indesign/indesign-tutorial-how-link-text-boxes-in-
adobe-indesign/
 https://helpx.adobe.com/indesign/using/placing-graphics.html
 https://helpx.adobe.com/indesign/using/toolbox.html
 https://helpx.adobe.com/indesign/using/exporting-publishing-pdf.html
ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Raven Louise D. Daguro was four-year Copyreader and Headline Writer and Editor in Chief of The Rosarian
(2015-2018), the official school organ of Rosario Institute in Rosario, Cavite. He was the first campus journalist
to qualify to the Regional Schools Press Conference (RSPC) (2015) and by School Year 2016-2017 he qualified
and won 4th on RSPC. He spent his Junior High School and Senior High School in the same school. He moved
to Grade 12 in 2018 with High Honors and as President’s Awardee, making him a full scholar in the school,
where he chose to stay. By School Year 2018-2019 he worked as a contributor to the school publication.

ABOUT THE LAYOUT ARTIST

John Arren F. Cervantes was a consistent winner in the Division Schools Press Conference (DSPC). In School
Year 2017-2018, he won 6th in the Regional Schools Press Conference (RSPC). He studied in Rosario Institute
for Senior High School, becoming good colleagues with Daguro. He was The Rosarian’s chief editorial
cartoonist and layout artist. He graduated With Honors and is now studying Computer Engineering at La
Verdad College in Apalit, Pampanga.