Box-out – a small part of the page shaded in a different colour.
By-line – the name of the reporter, normally at the end of a feature but if they are important it may be included at the beginning.
Caption – text under photographs explaining what the image is.
Credits – a feature’s author may be given credit in the form of a beeline. Photographs may have the name of the person who took them or the agency that supplied them.
Crosshead – a subheading that is in the body of the text which is centred above the column of text. A side-head is set to one side of the text.
Exclusive – a story that one newspaper only covers. The paper pays interviewees, buying the story so it cannot be used by another paper.
Feature – not necessarily a ‘news’ item (current affairs), but usually with a human-interest angle presented as a spread.
Headline – this is the main statement, usually in the largest and boldest font, describing the main story. A banner headline spans the full width of the page.
Kicker – a story made to stand out from the rest of the page by using a different typeface and layout.
Lead Story – the main story on the front page.
Lure – a word or phrase directing the reader to look inside the paper at a specific story or feature.
Masthead – the title block or logo identifying the newspaper at the top of the front-page, sometimes including an emblem or a motto. It is often set into a block of black or red print or boxed with a border. The Red-tops (e.g The Sun, The News of the World, The Mirror) are categorised by the use of a red background in the masthead and their style.
Menu – the list of contents inside the paper.
Pugs – at the top left and right-hand corners of the paper. These are known as the ‘ears’ of the page. The prices of the paper, the logo or a promotion are positioned there. They placed here to catch the reader’s eye.
Secondary Lead – this is usually a headline and picture, giving readers a sneak preview of a story that you might find inside the paper.
Sidebar – when a main feature has an additional box or tinted panel along side of it.
Splash – the main story on the front page. The largest headline will accompany this, along with a photograph.
Spread – a story that covers more than one page.
Standfirst – an introductory paragraph before the start of the feature. Sometimes in bold.
Strapline – an introductory headline below the headline.
Tag – a word or phrase used to engage a reader’s interest in a story by categorising it, for example. ‘Exclusive’ and ‘Sensational’.
I have also researched into typography to see whether certain typefaces are used in certain parts of newspapers.
I have created this diagram showing that all the letters sit on the baseline. The x height is set by the height of the x, the em width is set by the width of the M.
Typefaces can be put into three main categories: serif, sans-serif and decorative.
Serifs are little tabs on the corners of the letters. A typeface that has serifs is called a serif typeface (or seriffed typeface).
There are 4 different types of serif fonts:
Old serif- Examples: Janson, Garamond, Bembo, Goudy Old Style, and Palatino.
Transitional - Eg. Times New Roman and Baskerville.
Modern - Examples: Bodoni, Didot, and Computer Modern.
Slab serif - Examples: Clarendon, Rockwell and Courier.
A typeface without serifs is called sans-serif, meaning “without” in French. Sans-serif typefaces like Helvetica do not have these.
Using the internet I have researched where serif and sans serif typefaces are used in a newspaper:
In a broadsheet, the headlines may use a bold serif type like Times Bold.
A tabloid front page may contain many different type styles. The headline will usually be in a bold, condensed (the letters are tall and narrow) sans-serif type. It may be also 'reversed out' which is where it is printed as white type on a black background.
The main body text will usually be in a serif type as it easier to read at small sizes; the subheadings and crossheads may be in either serif or sans serif type.
When looking at existing newspapers, I am going look at the different types of fonts they use in different sections such as headlines, straplines and body text.
The grid
Most publications are designed on a grid. This consists of a background with columns on it, where the type is placed. Headlines, photographs and the boxes that contain news stories can be run across several columns.
The Guardian uses a consistent eight-column grid, other newspapers change the grid from page to page, mostly tabloids, or sometimes even have different grids for different halves of the page, or columns of different width on the same page.
Type alignment
Within a column, type can be arranged several ways: justified - where both edges of the column are straight, centred, ranged left (where the left edge of the column is straight and the right is irregular) or ranged right (the other way round). The body of the story is usually justified; headlines can be justified, centred or ranged left. A broadsheet may use different alignments for different sections of the paper.
Rules
Rules are straight lines- a '10pt rule' is a straight line ten points thick. Rules can be used above and below stories, to separate columns, or to box around stories. A tabloid is likely to use thicker and more blatant rules than a broadsheet.
News stories
In a tabloid, the main news story may take up several times more space than the second story. Type size is used to distinguish between the main headline, the strapline, and the body text. In both tabloid and broadsheet newspapers, stories will normally fit into a square or rectangle, with any extra being carried over to another page with a 'jump line' telling the reader which page to turn to to read the rest.
Pictures
Tabloids often have a large picture on the front page. If there is another picture, it is likey to be very small compared. Pictures that are the same size are usually being directly compared - for example, faces of opposing politicians.
Differentiation
Items on the page can be divided into four categories:
- general information about the newspaper -name, price, the date etc
- news stories with their accomanying pictures
- 'puffs' or 'plugs' promoting what's in the paper
- advertisements (if any)
The differences between these items are usually made clear:
- A single colour is often used for the masthead, set in a type style which does not appear elsewhere on the page.
- News stories are usually in a black type on a white background, with colour only being used for photographs.
- 'Puffs' are often set in irregular shapes or boxes, and the photos in them may be cut out to extend beyond the border. They may be colourful with a variety of text styles. They will normally be at the top of the page, adjacent to the masthead.
- Advertisements will usually be in colour, separated from other items on the page by a rule or box, and will be well away from the masthead.
No comments:
Post a Comment