Blog - Tom B Fowler: Print services

My musings, advice and tips on all the different aspects of print process; from layout to collating and beyond.

Getting your font right

posted 27 Aug 2010 03:57 by Tom Fowler [ updated 28 Aug 2010 00:59 ]

Selecting the right font for your project is one of the important parts of preparing the impression you want to give.

Fonts are broken into two major groups: serif and sans-serif. A serif is the little detail on the ends of letters. Serif fonts are the more traditional typeface. Either type has its merits; you will often see serif used as the body text whilst sans-serif appears as the title.

Claims that serif fonts are easier to read has been discredited by modern studies, but they are still widely used by books and newspapers.

There are a great number of fonts in both styles. Many of them come packaged with widely available software. In by far the vast majority of cases there in no reason to use anything other than the standard fonts that everyone is familiar with.

Though there are some fonts which are more pleasing on the eye, sticking to the most popular typefaces gives your project an air of familiarity.

For Serif the Times New Roman or Rockwell font families.
For Sans-Serif the Arial or Helvetica font families.

There are of course reasons to use more unusual or artistic fonts, used sparingly these can be very eye catching, however overuse can easily make a mess.

There are lots of font collections for sale, there is little point in buying any of these. There are also large numbers of free font download sites. Many of the fonts these sites host are very poor quality but the best of them have been picked out by the excellent Font Squirrel.

Have a look around at what is available on your computer and online. You might find a particular set of fonts particularly pleasing. Once you've chosen a typeface, stick with it! The shape of your words becomes as much a part of the appearance of your project as any images you use.

Promoting a gig in a small venue

posted 30 Jul 2010 11:23 by Tom Fowler [ updated 31 Jul 2010 03:36 ]

Putting on a few bands in a local pub can be a stressful experience. Once you've got past booking the acts, venue and sound engineer you also need to convince people to come along.

The internet has revolutionised promotion, and there are many places online where you can spread the word. Specialist music forums and local listings sites, maybe your blog if you've got one and of course Facebook.

However the most direct and time tested method of gig promotion is putting up posters and giving out flyers. Though flyposting can lead to an unwanted run in with local law enforcement if your not careful, there are plenty of legal public places to put up posters.

Presenting the 'who, what, where, when and how much' in a clear and eye catching way can be done with the minimum of fuss. You could splash out on colour, a fanciful design and large print runs, but for most non-commercial events, this will be all you need:

80 gsm paper, black on white.
10 A3 posters & 200 A6 leaflets.	£10
20 A3 posters & 400 A6 leaflets.	£15
40 A3 posters & 800 A6 leaflets.	£20

You may decide you need tickets as well, a different ratio of posters and flyers or any number of other bits and pieces. Get in contact for more info.

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