Definition of Terms: Editing

This is a process of enhancing the quality of texts or graphics through amendment, as well as
addition and subtraction of materials. Editing is an improvement process by which a graphic item is
made adequately readable, understandable or communicable. Editing can be done on images, as
well as on texts. Different kinds of editing that can be performed on texts including structural, copy
as well as proofreading.

Most layout and graphic software applications like Photoshop, QuarkXPress and Corel Draw (and
Corel PhotoPaint) have the capacity to edit, as well as manipulate graphics and texts. The more the
number of professionals who edit a graphic or editorial item, the more the quality improves. This is
why in editing, two heads are better than one. Part of this course is devoted to editorial and graphic
editing.

Graphics

Graphics are texts, drawings, designs, illustrations or images that are deliberately created via a
medium by hand or some other means in a manner that makes visual, cultural, aesthetic or
commercial meaning. The creator of a graphic may draw an inspiration from himself, some other
beings or from his or her environment. Please note, graphics, within the context of this course, are
not meaningless drawings. They are deliberate creations. They are not accidental or acts of
serendipity.

Graphics can be functional or artistic. When graphics are functional, it means that they are not mere
impression but actually useful or are performing some particular functions. For instance, the texts
and photographs you see in newspapers are not for decoration, They are published to inform,
educate and inform. When they are artistic, they are created for style to invoke or provoke one’s
sense of aesthetics and create some fantasy, feeling or figment of imagination.

Communication is the transmission of a message from one point to another that produces some
effect. According to Harold Lasswell (1948), a useful and convenient way of describing
communication is to make it answer these pertinent questions: Who says what? In what channel? To
whom? With what effect? Berelson and Steiner (1964) define communication as ‘the transmission of
information, ideas, skills and emotions e.t.c by the use of symbols-words, pictures, groups e.t.c. it is
the act or process of transmission that is usually called communication’.

Hovland, Janis and Kelley (1953) define communication as ‘the process by which an individual (the
communicator) transmits stimuli (especially verbal) to modify the behavior of other individuals (the
audience). From these definitions, one thing is clear. Communication is from one party to another
and it is effected when the person receiving the communication has made meaning out of what he
has communicated and responded to accordingly. Where there is no response, then communication
is one-way. But when there is response, communication has been done.

Editing and Graphics of Communication: A Definition

From the foregoing, it is established precisely that editing is an improvement process while graphics
are texts or designs that are created. Communication is the process of transmitting a meaningful
message from one point. It is also established that graphics of communication means the creation of
graphics to make meaning. From a simple syllogism, one could therefore, define Editing and
Graphics of Communication as the process of improving texts or graphics that are created to be
transmitted or communicated meaningfully.

The implication of this definition is multifarious. First is that graphics are created or produced.
Second is that graphics communicate. Third is that graphics that communicate can be improved
upon for more meaningful communication. The definition can therefore be reworded as the process
of producing and improving graphics for information, education and entertainment. When graphics
educate, inform and entertain, they are said to make the right meaning. When a graphic makes the
right meaning, it implies that it has been transmitted as a message, instruction, idea or an
impression.

In most of today’s mass communication –print, broadcast, advertising and internet – graphics play a
key role in the efforts to create meaning out of communication. In some cases, without graphics,
communication is doomed while in others graphics are the dominant elements that create meaning.
Yet in others, without graphics, communication becomes empty. How does it feel if all that you are
reading in a newspaper is all text and no graphics! How will it look like if the Internet is devoid of
graphics? It will be boring! In order to make the graphics in communication have meaning, then
editing becomes imperative. Without editing, graphics becomes frustrating, chaotic and annoying.
Editing is the improvement process that must be carried out for graphics to perform the
communication role of persuasion, education, information and entertainment. This is why the
definition is, the process of producing and improving graphics for information, education and
entertainment

Graphics of Communication: Social Sciences

Graphic Communication is simply the process of producing graphics to communicate to an audience.

Whether what you are communicating is through a composed text, drawing, photograph, illustration
or slides, you are either communicating an idea, passing an instruction, sending a message in a way
that is culturally meaningful to your audience. The term “culturally meaningful” means that what
you are communicating must be doing one, two, three or four of the following:

• Persuading

• Informing

• Educating

• Entertaining
Here lies the difference in definition from that of the engineering people.

An engineer or geometrician is most likely not going to define graphic communication from the
entertainment perspective, even though he likes to develop the technology in order to provide
entertainment for others.

This is because it involves the development of massive algorithms that are complex and may not be
entertaining but only mathematical or computational. In social science and as it concerns us in this
book, graphic communication must impact the audience and that impartation must educate, inform
and entertain.

Graphic communication occupies a major place in visual communication, which, as the term
suggests, is communication through two or three-dimensional visual aids and forms. The
effectiveness of graphics of communication is determined by the rate of response of the audience of
that communication. When it is highly effective, it means that the associated audience has
responded highly and vice versa.

History of Graphics and the Tools Used

Some of the earliest graphics and drawings known to the modern world, from almost 6,000 years
ago, are that of engraved stone tablets and ceramic cylinder seals, marking the beginning of the
historic periods, and the keeping of records for accounting and inventory purposes.

Records from Egypt predate these and papyrus was used by the Egyptians as a material on which to
plan the building of pyramids; they also used slabs of limestone and wood. From 600–250 BC, the
Greeks played a major role in geometry. They used graphics to represent their mathematical
theories such as the Circle Theorem and the Pythagorean Theorem.

In the recent time, computers have been made more powerful and are now capable of drawing both
basic and complex shapes and designs. In the 1980s, artists and graphic designers began to see the
personal computer, as a serious design tool, one that could save time and draw more accurately
than other methods. 3D computer graphics became possible in the late 1980s with the powerful SGI
computers, which were later used to create some of the first fully computer-generated short films.
The Macintosh remains one of the most popular tools for computer graphics in graphic design
studios and businesses.

Basic Types of Graphics

There are two main types of graphics namely:

1. Vector graphics, and

2. Bitmaps.

Vector Graphics

Vector graphics (Mukhopadhyay & Chattopadhyay, 2007) are those which can be created
straightaway on a computer without engaging a third party system or facilitation. For instance, you
can type texts, draw lines, curves, shapes and fill them with some color without the use of any third-
party gadget or appliance. These are generally referred to as graphic primitives and they, especially
the shapes, are generated from a set of programmed algorithms that determine their positions,
length as well as their directions. The following diagrams are examples of vector graphics.

Line Rectangle Circle with Black Fill

Figure 1: Examples of Vector Graphics: Line, Rectangle, Circle (with black fill)

Bitmaps

Bitmaps or rasterised images (as technical persons and engineers prefer to call them) cannot be
imputed into your system without the use of an application independent of your computer. Unlike
vector graphics which are generated from a set of algorithms that determine their position,
direction, weight and length, bitmaps consist of tiny squareshaped picture elements, which are
called pixels – a reason why bitmaps are also called pixilated graphics. Each pixel is the small dot that
a computer can recognise. Each pixel maps a location in an image and has numerical color forms,
each with a value. The photograph you take with your camera is a classic example of a bitmap
graphic

Figure 2: Photograph is the typical example of bitmap graphics

Other examples are scanned images. With the use of a scanner, you can input a bitmap image into
your computer. Many high resolution scanners exist that can give high quality scans. Moreover, you
can also get bitmap images from other sources such as clip art (ready-made images that can be
imported from elsewhere into an application for use or editing) and the internet.

FORMAT, FORMS AND USES OF GRAPHICS

Graphics can be identified within the context of their formats and forms. Whichever way you look at
it, resolution counts because it helps determine quality, with regards to pixilated graphics. Quality is
critical because the usage of graphics, especially in a profession like advertising, where appeal is a
critical factor, must have crossed the various stages that help guarantee that quality – problem
statement, visualisation, preparation and communication are present.

Unlike vector graphics which can be used in any application, bitmap images must be saved in some
formats before they can be usable. Originally, many bitmap image files are heavy and must be
resaved in a format that is lower in size, and not constitute a burden on the work or the application
where it is going to be used. Different file formats exist but they differ in the manner they support
image bitmaps or vectors, and the way they compress them.

Bitmap File Formats The formats include but not limited to JPEG, TIFF, PDF, PSD, CPT. They are
explained below.

JPEG

JPEG is a standard format for image compression developed by the Joint Photographic Experts Group
(chiefly in the United States). Because of its high-end and highly effective compression system, its
use cuts across several platforms of graphic, web and image processing applications. JPEG can be
used on any color mode from the 8-bit grayscale, to the 32-bit CYMK (Cyan, Yellow, Magenta, and
Black). The JPEG system can compress an image file from 2 which is low compression and high
quality to 255 (high compression but low quality) and still have an appreciable amount of quality
that can be used in publishing. The astonishing compression ration makes JPEG files a compression
of choice for websites. New features in the system allow you to attach image properties and values
as well as restrict compression to a specific area of the image.

TIFF

The Tagged Image File Formats also have good compression ratio but probably not up to that of
JPEG. It is not widely used as JPEG because it supports up to seven encoding schedules, though it is
applicable in both grayscale and color undertakings. The different encoding routines means there
are different versions of TIFF. Another disadvantage is that it cannot save information for duotone
color mode even though it is good for CYMK and RGB. Besides that, TIIF files can take some time to
load when they are compressed using Packbits 32773, or CCIT because it takes the application
decode it.

PSD

Every designer using the Adobe Photoshop graphic application must be used to the PSD file format.
The Photoshop is an image editing application that is popular with graphic designers. The PSD file is
the Adobe Photoshop default file saving format. This format is so native to Photoshop that it may
not work successfully or at all in some other applications. PICT files have similar limitations as they
function only perfectly well in Mac Operating System. Before you can use PICT in other systems, it
has to undergo some changes in its properties.

PDF (Portable Document Format)

The PDF or Portable Document Format is perhaps the post popular file compression format. This
popularity may not be unconnected with its flexibility and cross-platform features which allow you
to use it in nearly all word processing or graphic applications. The PDF system is based on the
PostScript imaging system which displays with high precision contents that have been compressed.
The PostScript system operates the PostScript language to describe the layout of vector and bitmap
images for display and for printing uses.

MPEG

MPEG, an acronym for Moving Pictures Experts Group, is a standard for compressing both audio and
audio data in a way that they can be stored or transmitted. MPEG is the moving version of JPEG.

Forms of Graphics

2-D Graphics

Two-dimensional computer graphics are the computer-based digital images that are generated
mostly from two-dimensional models. 2-D graphics will not normally show all sides of an object but
they can adequately represent objects. For instance, if you want to represent a cube on a page, you
could simply draw a square to represent it and call it a cube. Another example is if you want to
represent a soccer ball with a graphic. You could simple draw a circle and draw interspersing lines to
form the squares. With this, 2-D convincingly offers an acceptable representation of a real world.

3-D Graphics

Assuming you want to represent a triangular prism, you could go ahead and use a simple 2-D shape
to represent it. But when details need to be studied about the object you are trying to represent,
you would soon discover that your two dimensional shape was grossly inadequate. This is where the
3-D option comes handy. A triangular prism that you have represented with a simple shape actually
has four sides to it, namely the three triangle sides and a base. The following is an illustration of a 3-
D shape.
Figure 1: A three-dimensional triangular object

In the foregoing diagram, four sides have been combined to give an impression of a triangular object
which would have otherwise been represented as a simple, primitive triangular shape. A close look
at the diagram shows the first triangle which you see as the front view and is represented with the
weighty triangle (the darker one). The other two triangles are not visible to you which is why they
are represented by the dotted lines (engineers and geometricians call them hidden lines). If the
objects are disassembled, the four parts that constitute them become easily discernible as shown in
the figure.

Figure 2: The four parts of a 3-D triangular object in Unit 2 Figure 1

Three dimensional drawings are more vivid in engineering designs as shown in the following diagram
in Unit 2 Figure 3. In engineering designs, forms that are created are far more complex than the
triangle object shown above. The diagram shows three parts which are drawn in three dimensions
showing the various parts of the solid form.

Figure 3: Three two-dimensional parts projected from the 3-D form

(Two) 2-D are flat images which can be cut out and assemble together to form three-dimensional
objects. Two dimensional drawings are produced to show the designs of different parts of three-
dimensional objects. Some software applications have three-dimensional transform filters, which
allows you to manipulate flat two dimensional images to look like three dimensional. Photoshop can
let you create threedimensional stuff by adding shadows, extrusion or contour. In round or conical
shapes, you can determine the point of curves by adding a wire frame with which you are able to
determine those points.

Animation

Animation is another type of graphic which can be modified from either two- or three-dimensional
drawings depending on what you want. Animation begins with the creation of a database of the
objects which are produced sequentially, with a measure of time allotted to a sequence. When these
sequences are played by animation software, they give an impression of motion, thereby making
those objects animated. The sequence of computer animation is created by first specifying the
storyboard (what the action will be like). The objects that make the storyboard are distinctly
identified. You may call these the dramatis personae. Each object must have a shape and its own
movement as described in the storyboard. Still image frames are generated manually, or with the
use of the relevant software, to simulate the sequence of the desired motion.

Resolution

You must have read that resolution is a vital element in a bitmap image. Each image has a pixel
dimension which is the number of pixels set both horizontally and vertically in the image. The clarity
of an image on your computer screen depends on the pixel composition of that image in relation to
the pixel setting of the computer monitor.
If you have a 21-inch computer monitor and you have an image that measures 800 pixels in length
and 600 pixels in width, then that image will be smaller on the screen because your screen can
accommodate nearly double the size of your image. When preparing your image, especially for the
Web, you must ensure that the image is such that it can be viewed without difficulty in a variety of
screens.

All these point to the vital importance of the quality your pixel detail. When you begin to put into
consideration the number of pixels that exist in your image when it is printed out, which is measured
in pixels per inch (ppi), then your concern is about the digital detail or “resolution” of the image.
When you adjust the resolution of image, you are simply controlling how the pixels of that image
conform to the amount of space in which it is going to be printed from the printer. Your printer will
treat each pixel as a dot. From there it is easy to determine how many dots are contained in an inch.
Hence image resolution is calculated in terms of dot per inch (or dpi).

Please note: that your image has the proper resolution on your computer screen is not a guarantee
that your image will come out well from your printer. Most printers have been built to handle
optimum resolution from the computer. But if the capacity of your printer is low and does not
configure well with what is coming from the printer, you are faced with the problem of pixilation,
which is a computer output with large, ugly looking pixels that make the image poor. In order to
correct the pixilation problem, many printers can be fitted with more memory which enables them
print images with more dots per inch.

Uses of Graphics

Advertising and Entertainment

The use of graphics have revolutionised advertising practice and boosted entertainment. In the time
when cost of shooting a commercial is skyrocketing, computer graphics have come to the rescue
either by way of graphic texts and design or animation or both. Cartoon films also sell very well, and
in several cases have box office hits. Besides that on your mobile phones, graphics provide the
entertainment when the calls are coming in. Most or all of the graphics on the entertainment
devices have been produced from the computer.

Publishing and Multimedia

It is in publishing that computer graphics is most visible. The high visibility has got to do with the fact
that publishing has a mass audience, which can be as few as hundreds but as large as millions or
billions. The World Wide Web now has billions of people who visit sites that must contain some
graphics in order to make meaning to them. There is no website that does not contain a graphic no
matter how small it is. Newspapers that do not have nice graphics will die while ugly websites will
attract fewer visitors. A newspaper with good contents and good graphics is not only the delight of
an audience but also the joy of the advertiser and his agent, because it provides a good platform for
them to sell their goods and services.
 The Graphics Process

Before graphics can communicate, it must follow a process (Baran, 1999, Bertoline & Wiebe, 2005).
This process has some stages. Each stage has its distinctive features. The first phase is problem
identification. Here, this problem is objectified into points and these points may be transposed into
questions. By asking those questions, what you are trying to achieve becomes very clear. It is
important to note at this stage that “problem” does not necessarily mean a difficulty or a challenge.
It could simply mean idea, impression, feeling, imagination, thought, and so forth which can be
communicated. In research, a problem statement simply means a statement of what you want to do.
The second phase is visualisation. After listing out the objectives and putting them into questions,
you should look out for the key concepts that comprehensively encapsulate the whole idea of the
problem. A good way of doing this is to look for the keywords in the problem statement. The
keywords must be such that when all of them are defined, they adequately represent succinctly the
problem you are trying to resolve. You begin to picture how those concepts are able to resolve the
issues that are involved. The third stage is where you begin to sketch out your ideas in form of
graphics. This sketching stage comes before the next phase of preparation, where you begin to
subject your representation to judgment in order to determine its worth. This leads you to the final
stage of communication
 CHAPTER 3

USE OF COMPUTER IN EDITING AND GRAPHICS OF COMMUNICATION

Graphics do not just occur. They are created. The creation process involves the deployment of
facilities and equipment without which the job will be Herculean and almost impossible. Can you
imagine an artist wanting to create a graphic page that will be transmitted to thousands of people
without the computer? It means you have to create thousands manually and that may take
thousands of hours. But the devices by which you create your graphics and edit them have made
things simple. These devices and more are what this unit is all about.

Hardware and software are germane to the operations of a computer. Without the hardware, the
computer is naked or literally empty. Without the software, the computer cannot perform any
specific task. Before you are able to carry out any graphic task, you must install a graphic software
application or system software that has a graphic utility attributes. Even when you have these two
assets, you still need those elements that help you communicate between the hardware and
software. These are called user interfaces. Whether you are using a desktop computer or a laptop,
you cannot do without them.

Associated Terms of a Computer System

Hardware

The term hardware covers all of those parts of a computer that are tangible objects. Circuits,
displays, power supplies, cables, keyboards, printers and the mouse are examples of computer
hardware.

Software

Software refers to parts of the computer which do not have a material form, such as programs, data,
protocols, etc. There are different kinds of software. System Software System software are programs
that are pre-installed in your system when you purchase them. They are called low-level software
because, unlike application software that the end user or the purchaser needs in order to perform
some specific task (like accounting, graphic design, play games etc), system software operate the
hardware in the background and generate the user interface and allow the operating system to
interact with the hardware. System software files include libraries of functions, system services,
drivers for printers and other hardware, system preferences, and other configuration files. The
programs that are part of the system software include assemblers, compilers, file management tools
and system utilities.

Operating System

An Operating System (OS) software is also a software that consists of programs and data that help
coordinate the functions of computer hardware. But unlike other system software, you must install
an operating system to enable your use of application software. An operating system functions in
tandem with other system software to ensure the proper function of the hardware. It is the
computer’s most necessary software that mediates between the computer hardware and other
software systems. No computer can function without an operating system. It provides the platform
for the execution of other programs and application software. Operating systems are found on
almost any device that contains a computer—from cellular phones and video games to computer
servers. Examples of operation systems are Linux, Microsoft Windows and the Mac OS.

Application Software

In information technology, Application software, also known as an application or an "app", is

computer software designed to help the user perform singular or multiple related specific tasks. It
helps to solve problems in the real world. Examples include enterprise software, accounting
softwareand office suites and media players. An application helps you perform a task. An application
thus differs from an operating system (which runs a computer), a utility (which performs
maintenance or general-purpose chores), and a programming language (with which computer
programs are created). Depending on the activity for which it was designed, an application can
manipulate text, numbers, graphics, or a combination of these elements. Some application packages
offer considerable computing power by focusing on a single task, such as word processing. In this
book, the focus will be on graphic application software.

Computer Graphic Devices

Computer System

The computer system comprises basically the central processing unit (CPU) or simple “processor” or
“computer” and a visual display unit (VDU) also called “monitor”. The VDU is the screen that displays
all that is taking place in the CPU. The monitor comprises the display device, the circuitry and the
box or enclosure. A modern VDU is thin film transistor crystal display thin panel while older monitors
use a cathode ray tube which is somewhat similar to the one seen in a television set.

The CPU is that crucial part of a computer system that carries out the instructions of a computer
program, and it is the abode of the computer’s functions. The CPU carries out each instruction of the
program in sequence to perform basic logical and arithmetical algorithms in an input and output
system that manifests on the monitor. The major components of a CPU are the processor, the hard
disk, the circuitry, the Random Access Memory and the power system.

User interfaces

Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs)

Whichever computer you are using or whatever you are using it for, you need the user interfaces to
be able to use it successfully. A Graphic User Interface (GUI) or “GOO-ee” (Reavy, 2001) as is
pronounced by some people, can be described as an interactive mode of operation that comes with
the functioning of many programs. It makes it easier for people with limited computer skills to work
with and use computer software. It is a visual front to a piece of software that links the user to the
internal workings of a computer, or piece of software. The GUI can also be defined by its visual
elements which simplify the way the user interacts with the computer.
Pointing Device

The most common component of a GUI is a pointer. This can be described as graphical image on a
screen that indicates the location of a pointing device, and can be used to select and move objects or
commands on the screen. It commonly appears as an angled arrow but it can be changed as
preferred.

Menus

Menus allow the user to execute commands by selecting from a list of choices. Options are selected
with a mouse or other pointing devices within a GUI. A keyboard may also be used. Menus are
convenient because they show what commands are available within the software.

Common Widgets

A widget is an element of the GUI that a computer user interacts with and is also known as a control.
They are what programmers use to build GUIs. Examples of widgets are text boxes, buttons,
scrollbars e.t.c. Scroll bars are used to view the contents by moving them up or down. Buttons are
used to instruct the operating system on tasks. Icons An icon is a tiny graphical image, small picture
or object which represents a file, program, web page or command. These icons have very many
functions depending on what icon it is. They can be used to open documents, execute commands
and also run programs. Also, documents using the same extension or documents that open with the
same programs have the same icons so they are usually very easy to recognise.

Window

A window is an area on a computer screen which performs the task of displaying information,
independent from other windows or parts of the screen. Windows can easily be manipulated. For
example, a window can be opened or closed. A window can also be minimised. This is when a button
at the top right corner of the window, which looks like a hyphen or the minus sign is clicked. Also,
the maximise task can be performed. There is also the restore task. Windows can be adjusted or put
behind another window

Input, Output and Storage Devices

The CPU is the brain of a computer, but brain is nothing without an input device. An input device is
usually a peripheral hardware that provides the data and control signal by which software interact
with hardware, to produce a result. Hardware and software need data input for a specific output. A
device is needed to be able to input these data, hence an “input device”. But the success of an input
device is made real in storage and output devices.

Input Device

The Keyboard

The keyboard which is perhaps the most commonly used input device is used to enter alphanumeric
data into the computer. It provides keystroke shortcuts, make menu selections, play games and
perform several other tasks. There are different types of keyboards. The differences arise owing to
different manufacturers, purposes for which they are meant, and whether they are built separately
or inbuilt in some systems as in a notebook. However, a typical keyboard should have between 82
and 110 keys and must have at least four sets of keys, namely:

• Alpha Keys: These are the popular keys you use in typing you ABCD… to Z. You switch from a
capital letter to small letter by the use of a function key called “shift”. Alpha keys also contain such
characters as +,?, =, etc. It should be noted that such characters may be found elsewhere on some
other types of keyboard.

• Numeric Keys: These are the keys from 0 to 9 and some characters like @, !, (, ), #, etc.

• Function Keys: Usually F1 to F12.

• Control Keys: These are keys you use in performing some tasks. They include Del, Pg Up, Pg Dn,
Shift, Caps lock, tab, shift, Microsoft Key, Fn, etc.

Mouse

Basically, a mouse (plural: mice) is hand-held device that has a corresponding pointing device
displayed on the computer monitor. The movement of the hand generally determines its position on
the monitor. Computer systems cannot function if you do not use a mouse. The pointing device is
the cursor in the shape of an arrow which you use to touch, activate, drag, draw, drop, resize, redo,
undo something in the computer. Different types of mouse are available. In the mechanical mouse
you have the ball-rollers that determine the X and Y directions of motion of the mouse. Laser mouse
uses laser while the optical mouse uses LED and optoelectronic sensors to detect the direction.

The Scanner

A scanner, in some respect, is also regarded as input device though computer technologists often
refer to it simply as a device for generating and transferring image into the computer. However,
graphic artists and graphic experts regard it as an input device. A scanner copies an image from a
paper surface. Such image could be a photograph or some other image and convert it into a digital
format, based on some pre-determined parameters and display it on the monitor for further action.
Such further action could be storage, editing, manipulation or simply for viewing. Most software
applications have an input process from the scanner. Scanners are very useful tools that graphic
artists use from time to time.

Output Devices

The printer (also called a hardcopy device) is the major output device and no graphic artist can do
without it. Where there is paper work, you must use the printer. Printers create graphics based on
the data sent to it from the CPU. Most printers print these graphics as dots. The smaller these dots
are the more the quality of the printed matter. The resolution or the quality of print is calculated in
dots per inch. The more the dots are, the more the quality of the print. Printers can print either in
color or black and white. The following are the types of printers available. Examples are dot matrix,
inkjet, laser, electrostatic, among others.
Output Media

The printer uses different kinds of media for its output. Paper, though the most popular, is only one
of the means by which graphics can be impressed.

Paper

Paper is made of cellulose materials that are ground and mixed together in a production system
called calendaring. The features of the typical paper include the weight, which is defined in terms of
heaviness; opacity which is defined in terms of its degree of imperviousness to light, grain which is
defined in terms of the direction of the grains vis-à-vis the cut of the paper, finish which is defined in
terms of whether it has gloss coating or mat quality varnish. Most paper is produced from wood
fibers, grasses, and flax and its quality depends on calendaring during the manufacturing. During
stock preparation in a paper mill, the raw paper passes through the refining rollers for the surface
finish. The more the paper passes through the rollers, the more refined the paper. Therefore such
papers as newsprint (the one you print newspaper with), serviette and the like are less calendared,
therefore of low texture. In the calendaring process, the paper can be coated with some substance
to create a better finish. The texture of a paper is calculated in “grammage” (or gsm) in West Africa
and elsewhere. The newsprint is 56 gsm though some variety could be as high as 60 gsm. Also
available is the 70 gsm which most authors in Africa and Southeast Asia use to produce books. The
80 gsm is the type whose pack contains 500 sheets. This is the type that people use most for
computer printers. Many Nigerian and Ghanaian printers called the 70 and 80 gsm “bond” papers.
The bond paper can be high as 100 gsm in some cases. More calendared papers have gloss and mat
quality, and they have more utility value when one is printing in color. Some highly calendared paper
can be as high as 300 gsm that can be useful not only in printing but packaging.

Film

A printer can also print on a thin non-paper surface such as a film. The thicker the film, the easier a
printer is able to print on it. A printer can also print film negatives which can be stereotyped to
produce color prints, though here, there is an argument that the quality will be far lower when
compared to color that is digitally outputted (color separation).

Soft Copy

This is a product of innovations in editing, graphics and design over the years. As an output media,
files or work done can be copied and shared as a soft form through phones, laptops and via the
internet.

Storage Devices

In graphics, your storage devices count a lot. This is because a good chunk of your designs have
raster graphics which can quickly eat up your computer memory. When your computer memory is
overloaded, it affects the speed of your computer as the performance becomes unsatisfactory.
The old storage devices such as floppy disks and Zip discs have become inadequate and outdated to
back up your work. If you do not have a back up for your files, your system may end up shutting
down and you end up losing your work. Therefore, your storage devices and the way you back up
your work become very crucial. The following are popular storage devices.

Compact Discs (CD) and Digital Versatile Discs (DVD)

Most CDs have up to 700 megabytes capacity but DVDs can have higher capacity. It is not unusual to
see sub editors burning CDs and DVDs to archive the built pages immediately after they have been
published. Discs have been found to be reliable in the short time and they are often not affected by
the computer virus when compared with other devices. But they have also been found to be a victim
of time as they can easily be affected by heat, cold and some other vagaries. This is the reason why
discs should not be solely relied upon if you want to store your work over a long period of time.

Pen Drives

Pen drive also known as flash drives are connected via Universal Serial Bus (USB) ports and come in
various capacities. Some can be as small as 50 megabytes while some can be as big as 10 gigabytes.
Their small, physical sizes make them preferable to many other storage devices. However, they are
highly susceptible to virus attack, most especially if your computer is connected to the internet. It is
necessary that you install effective antivirus software on your computer and ensure you conduct a
deep scanning before giving access to any flash disc.

Hard Drives

Hard Drives provide a reliable option to back up your files. There are two ways to do this back up. If
you are using Windows Operating system, Microsoft has a process for internal backup of files on the
hard discs that came with your computer. Otherwise you could get an external disk to back your
files. External hard drives come in different sizes. Some can be as high as 100 gigabytes. Hard drives
can also be attacked by virus but they are less susceptible than flash discs. In a newspaper set up it is
necessary to have a hard drive that is networked to all the subeditors’ computers. This is besides the
hard disc on the individual computer.

Cloud Storage

Cloud storage refers to the practice of storing data in remote servers that can be accessed over the
internet. It offers several advantages, making it a popular choice for editors. Cloud storage offers
improved accessibility, scalability, backup, cost effectiveness and security. Examples include Google
Drive, Dropbox, Microsoft One Drive and Amazon S3.
 CHAPTER 4

TYPOGRAPHY

Typography is the design and use of typefaces as a means of communication. Gutenberg, associated
with creating many letterforms and the development of moveable type, is often regarded as the
originator of typography. Typography began with the handwritten letterforms and it captures
everything from calligraphy through digital type, and type on Web forms.

Typography deals extensively with the formation of text especially when text is viewed from the
standpoint of what it communicates. Learning in this wise begins with the question: what is a type?
But there is a whole lot of difference between where it started and where it is now. In those days,
you talked about the hot type, which was cumbersome. Not anymore today. What is common is the
cold type where the computer holds sway. With computers and the necessary software, you have
access to thousands of fonts and typefaces.

Text as Communication

It is important to know that the main objective of any graphic is to communicate. The reader is
looking at your design, waiting to be informed, educated or entertained or all. Any typical, informed
reader will accord attention if he or she is able to enjoy these three ends. If two are available, he or
she may still pay some attention. But when none of the three ends is available, he or she is in a hurry
to get rid of that publication. Today’s readers are more sophisticated than ever before.

The benefits of information and communication technologies (ICTs) are the varieties of opportunities
and options that the reader can choose from. Therefore, if as a sub, you are not doing your job well,
the readers are out there to teach you some lessons by not buying your publication.

The subeditor or designer’s choice of typeface must be done properly in order to guarantee
adequate legibility. Legibility is enhanced partly when there is adequate contrast between the
typeface and its background. One of the ways to determine that your texts are legible is, when you
keep using a particular typeface and your reader will keep buying without complaints. It means your
audience is well acceptable and familiar with it.

Where there is legibility, there is also readability. Where there is readability, there is
communication. Where there is communication, there is understanding and appreciation. That
appreciation is made manifest in the purchase of your newspaper, functional visit to your website or
response to your design. Any good journalist should have a good knowledge of typography. This
helps him to write his or her story in a manner that assists the sub editor.

Elements of Type

What is a Type?
A type is a print character with communication value. When types are intelligently set or grouped
together, their communication value becomes more manifest. On its own, a type has little
communication value but that value may not be appreciated until they are joined or set with one
another. For instance, “G”, “D”, “O”, “N”, “O”,”S”, “E” and “S” will ordinarily have no meaning, other
than the fact they are a set of characters. But when they are intelligently set, you could make
something like “GOODNESS” out of it.

Every graphic artist, designer and sub editor must look at each type from the communication
standpoint point. Besides the intrinsic meaning which types convey, their appearance also matters
very much. Will this type make a better meaning if I use it big or small? Will it give better impression
if I use it boldly, or ordinarily, or in italic? Take a look at the following illustration and see the
difference.
With the two foregoing illustrations, the longitudinal and the latitudinal communication standpoints
of types are very clear. It is longitudinal if types communicate in a language that one can understand
and it is latitudinal when types make sense as graphics.

What is Typography?

Typography can therefore be defined as the science and art of types. It is science when one makes
meaning out of types based on some rules, and it is art when you apply skill to create great
impressions without flouting these rules. A typographer is someone with the knowledge of types and
the wisdom of translating that knowledge into practice. He can create a type for use by others.

A typographer can also be a font designer or developer. A typesetter is someone or a machine that
assembles types based on the prescription of the typographer. When a typesetter misses out on a
type, he has committed a typographical error. Types can be assembled by hand, typed on a
typewriter or composed on a computer.

The world has produced many famous type designers including Aldus Manutius, Herman Zapf, Jan
Tscichold, Johannes Gutenberg, John Baskerville, Eric Gill and Adrian Frutiger. The man Frutiger
designed the famous type Univers while Eric Gill (1882-1940) designed the highly successful Gill Sans
typeface. Garamond designed the popular typeface Garamond. It was common for these designers
to name their works after their names.

The Hot Type and Cold Type

Hot Type

Assembling types by hand was the original way of communicating with types. The cumbersome
system comprises capital letters, and the lower case which are assembled to make meaning and
form an impression. The types are picked from two containers or cases, one for capitals and the
other lower cases. Cases contain types that have been casted in a variety of sizes. The selected types
are arranged in a galley or a kind of prefabricated trays, and after the setting is complete, the first
impression, known as galley proof, is made, to check if it would make a nice print.

The hot type is a machine process that creates properly spaced metal type in one complete line at a
time. This resolved some of the challenges of the cumbersome manual composition, such as the
storage, retrieval, and composition of individual type slugs.

Hot type is melted down after use rather than returned to storage. It was a very common process
used in the production of newspapers, print advertisements and business forms. There were two
popular hot type methods.

First was the Monotype which was introduced in 1887 and second the line-casting popularly called
Linotype. The word “Linotype” was the brand name given by the inventor of the line-casting system
– Ottoman Mergenthaler, in the late 1880’s. Another brand Harris Intertype competed with Linotype
and was used by such popular press as New York Times.

The monotype was an improvement on the assembling of types by hand, while the linotype was an
improvement on the monotype by which casting and composition could be done in a line rather than
singly. A typesetting machine operated from a keyboard that casts an entire line as a single slug of
metal, rather than assemble types one after the other. The machine assembles matrices, which are
molds for the letter forms, in a line. The assembled line is then cast as a single piece, called a slug, of
type metal in a process known as "hot metal" typesetting. The matrices are then returned to the
type magazine from which they came. This allowed fast-paced typesetting and composition unlike
the hand composition in which operators placed down one pre-cast metal letter, punctuation mark
or space at a time. The machine made it possible for many publishing businesses to spring up, as
many newspapers were able to increase pagination to more than the usual eight pages. Newspapers
in West Africa used the modernised forms of the linotype system up till late 1970’s and early 1980’s.
The Guardian newspaper of Nigeria used the advanced form of linotype up till 1989 until it changed
to Apple computers. Today, you can use any word processor and graphic application software to
compose types with thousands of type faces to play around with.

Cold or Non Metallic Type

The Cold Type is the modern typographic system. It is the typesetting process which produces text
that is suitable for offset lithographic printing. Therefore, typewriter, the computer or a
photocomposition machine are such equipment you can use to produce the cold type text. The cold
type composition is a process of producing graphic information by means of inputting text into core
memory, and retrieving from programs that are written to perform that task. The technology has
elicited a momentous advancement in information transfer especially, from the standpoint of the
incredible speed with which “printed” matter may be produced, as well as, the buildup of databases
which can be converted into machine-readable forms. Today’s graphic communication is predicated
on the cold type composition and it forms the bulk of discussion in this volume.

Font and Typeface

Font

Font is a set of one or more types, unified\ by common features of appearance, each comprising a
coordinated set of characteristics that make them different from other fonts. A font usually
comprises letters A to Z, the roman numerals, and punctuation marks as well as symbols, all of the
same size. The following figure is the font Cambria.

Typeface

Typeface, on the other hand, can be defined in terms of the family of types. For instance, the Arial
typeface has a family namely: Arial, Arial Narrow, Arial Black, Arial Rounded MT Bold and Arial
Unicode MS. While each of these is different from the other, there is a unity of appearance. The
following figure is a display of the five members of the Arial family.
The Anatomy of a Type

In order to be able to perform a good anatomy of type, an illustration like the following is germane. I
have chosen the word “Repent” as it provides the platform to do that anatomy.
X-height (also xheight)

The x-height is the vertical height of the lower case types. It is the distance from the baseline of the
type to the top of the lower case letters. This means that x-height excludes ascenders and
descenders. In terms of identification and legibility of a type, the x-height plays a crucial role. The
higher the x-height of a type, the lesser the ascender or descender becomes visible and vice versa.
Bigger x-heights consume more background space and may be attractive for use by printers. This is
because they become darker, and heavier, thereby becoming crowded and less attractive to read. In
editing, one way of correcting the crowdedness caused by voluminous x-height is by adjusting the
leading, i.e the space between the lines of texts.

The importance of x-height cannot be overemphasised in graphic communication. Characters with

large x-height seem to be appropriated for newspapers because they have big body (large bowl) and
smaller ascenders. Also descenders, blotting when printed on newsprint quality paper are reduced
to a manageable minimum when compared to the types with smaller x-height. Besides that, it
creates more ample white space which means better legibility. This is the reason why many
newspapers prefer to use Times New Roman for their body texts. Other newspaper friendly fonts are
Century Old Style, Gulliver, Cambria, Excelsior, Jansen, Utopia, Plantin and Gulliver.

Ascender (also called “loop”)

The top part of the vertical stem of some lowercase letters such as “b”, “h”, “d”, etc is called the
ascender. The height of the ascender is one feature used in identifying the characteristics of many
typefaces. In some cases, the ascenders of some typefaces touch the descenders of others above,
thereby causing the texts to jam. You can resolve this problem by adjusting the leading or simply
choosing another typeface.
The Descender

The descender on the other hand is the lower portion of some lower case types such as “g”, “p”, or
“y” beyond the baseline. The length and shape of descenders determine to a good extent how
legible texts are. Some decsenders are so long that they touch the letters of the next line of text
below. If you have long descenders and tall ascenders in a text, crowdedness also occurs and you
need to correct this situation by adjusting the leading.
The Bowl

This is the enclosed portion of a round type. The larger the enclosed portion, the more the space the
type occupies. Some fonts have moderate bowls while some have elaborate bowls. It should be
noted: that some fonts having big bowls do not mean they are not good fonts. They may not be
appropriate for body texts but they may turn out to be the best in design. It all depends on what the
artist wants and the effects he wants to create in his design.

Serif (San Serif)

The serif is the strokes that shoot out from the end of the stem of a type. Different kinds of serif
exist. Some are very thick and plump, some are sharp and pointed, horizontal, vertical, while some
have brackets and some are simply thin. Serif is a major identifying characteristic of a type. When a
type does not have a serif, you call it san serif

Examples of serif fonts are Garamond, New York, Georgia, Times, Times News Roman. Examples of
san serif fonts are Arial, Gill San and so on. The pages that are built with serif fonts seem to be
reader-friendly than those constructed with san serif.
Font Features

Fixed Pitch Font Features

The fixed-pitch font (called monospaced font by graphic artists) has all its characters occupying the
same amount of horizontal space and has strong angular or block serif – all simple and functional
style.

Monospace font faces are often used in code samples.This is unlike variable-width fonts whose
letters differ in their sizes. If you check a typewriter around, it probably has the fixed pitch font. A
typewriter contains characters that all have the same width. Monospaced fonts produce texts that
can be used to create forms, tabular material or documents that require exact text line lengths. An
example of a fixed pitch font is Courier 12 pitch, which is a 10 point font that will print at exactly 12
characters per inch. Advantage of this is that texts composed with monospaced fonts will align more
readily and features a good use of the background space. Other examples are Courier New, Lucida
Console and Monaco.
Script Font

Script typefaces are those that appear as though they were crafted by hand. Popular original fonts
are based upon the varied and often fluid stroke created by handwriting. Builders of script fonts
have organised them into highly regular formal types similar to those found in cursive writing. Scripts
are highly artistic and make a lot of impression. They are used in logos and are also common in many
newspaper’s mastheads. Scripts offer tremendous artistic potentials for artists and graphic
designers. Calligraphers also delight in using script fonts to practice their trade. Script fonts have
several varieties, including bush script, casual scripts and formal scripts that graphic artists like to
use in designing greeting and wedding cards.
Cursive Typeface

Pick up your jotter or class note or some form of writing you have done with your own hand. Notice
each letter. You will discover that most of the letters of each word are joined together and they are
not totally straight. If this description is similar to or the same with what you have seen, then your
writing is mostly likely to be cursive.

Cursive fonts help you create the look you see when writing notes and letters quickly by hand. So
long as you know what you want to write, your writing keeps flowing in an unhindered manner.
Some cursive fonts may have strokes that extend into swashes. You can use cursive fonts to create a
handwriting impression when you are looking different from machine fonts. Examples of cursive
fonts are Comic Sans MS. MV Boli, Monotype Corsiva, Tempus Sans ITC, Maiandra GD and Kristen
ITC, Bradley Hand ITC. If you are not ready to create a handwriting impression, graphic designers are
not advised to use cursive fonts in body texts.
Type Measurement

To understand how type works, you must know how it is measured. Basically, typefaces can be
measured in two ways: height and width. Type width A typeface can also be measured by its width,
which is often expressed in characters per pica, that is, the average number of characters that will fit
within a pica. Characters-per-pica information is used for copy fitting to estimate whether text set in
a specific typeface will fit into an allotted space or, conversely, to estimate how much space a given
piece of text will occupy. This information can also be used to compare the relative widths of
different typefaces. However, many software applications such as the Corel Draw has made easy for
the designer to manipulate the width of a typeface beyond the default widths that a typeface came
with. The default sizes are the regular, expanded, extended, extra condensed and condensed. The
set width, which is expressed as the percentage of the font’s original width, depends on what the
designer wants for his or her design.

Type height

In earlier times when type was molded out of metal, it was sold in discrete sizes that were measured
in points. Today's digital types can be enlarged or reduced by simply selecting, or specifying, a point
size. Originally, the term point size referred to the height of the metal body that held the characters.
This was slightly larger than the distance from the highest to the lowest feature in the design.

A traditional point is approximately 1/72 of an inch or .01384 inch. With the advent of desktop
publishing, the point became exactly 1/72 of an inch. 12 points = 1 pica, and 6 picas = 1 inch. (1 pica
= 1/ 6 inch (British/American inch of today) = 4.233 mm. 1 point = 1/ 12 pica = 1 ⁄72 inch = 127⁄360 mm =
0.3527 mm.) This method of measuring is still used for digital type. Often, because some faces have
very long ascenders and descenders, these typefaces look smaller than others when both are printed
at the same point size.
Weight

The weight of a type can be assessed from two perspectives. First is to look at it as regular, italic,
bold and italic bold. In most word processors and graphic software applications, the three weight
elements are standard. But in vector applications like the Corel Draw, the italic can be manipulated
to be more or less slant.

The second is the deepness of (depth) of the color. Some fonts have regular, medium bold, bold and
ultra bold options. In newspaper publications, the ultra bold is hardly of any serious consequence.
Even in tabloids that display heavy screaming and big headlines, headlines are simply increased and
printed in the bold options.

Type and Type Space

The characteristics of a type extend beyond itself to the background space around it. A good graphic
designer and editor, knows that he must keep this in mind in order to come up with a good job. In
fact, it is not out of place to define typography as the study of type and the space around it. There
are several ways of looking at the space around types.

They include the following:

• Kerning

• Tracking

• Leading

• Alignment and ligatures.

Kerning

Kerning is the adjustment you carry out between individual letters. Some fonts have wide space
between them, and there are times the artist or editor wants to insist in using such fonts in spite of
the wide space. A major option, therefore, is to reduce the space between the letters. Kerning is
especially effective with assembled types of aligned stems. For instance we have, A and V, N and I,
and so forth. Kerning is supposed to increase legibility and makes types appear balanced in terms of
proportion. All word processors have the facility for kerning which is put to work by feeding the
kerning values and then doing the adjustment. But the Corel Draw has made this very easy and
flexible with the use of its shape tool. The shape tools do kerning and adjust the leading between
lines of texts.
Figure 9: from the top: The first word is kerned inwards. The second is the regular type while the
third is kerned outwards.

In the fourth word below, notice the two boxed areas. The left box contains the right stem of A
perfectly aligned with the left stem of W. This is quite unlike the second box where right of W and
the stem of E are not. Such alignment allows for better legibility.

Tracking

Tracking is the adjustment of the horizontal space between words. Similarly, this adjustment is
possible by feeding the tracking values on the property bars on a word processor and many software
applications. CorelDraw has also perfected tracking, using the shape tool.
Leading

Leading (pronounced Lheding) is the adjustment of the background space between lines of texts.
Leading has become necessary especially when sub editors are casting headlines. If you want the
text lines in a headline to be tightened or loosened, the leading is what you adjust to achieve that.
The point sizes in many fonts come with default leading but are adjustable. Most typefaces,
including Times New Roman at 12 points, come with the leading of 14.4 points while 14 points come
with 16.8 points. The user has the option of adjusting the leading on the same point size. Thus you
could decide to adjust the leading of 12 points of Times New Roman to 13.0 even though the default
leading is 14.4 points. It all depends on what you want for your graphics or texts. In the following
illustration, the four lines of text in Box 1 have 14.4 point of leading. Box 2 has 18 points of leading
while Box 3 has 24 points.

Text Alignment

When you align to the right, the text will be ragged to the left, which means that it will be uneven
on the left against the margin but even against the margin on the right. When texts are aligned to
the right in a story, you create problem for the reader because the eyes naturally move from right to
the left (except if what you are reading is in Arabic). When the eyes begin to experience
“jaggedness”, at the commencement, it creates reading problems. Therefore, artists, designers and
sub editors hardly use right text alignment.

However, when you rag texts to the right side and align to the left, reading becomes Ok and a
delight, especially when the contents of your story are interesting. Many editors use the left
alignment in feature stories to create a special effect.

Texts that are aligned to the center are also not common in newspaper design except in very cases.
However advertisement designers do make use of this type alignment very often, as in the whole of
the design or in some selected cases.
Justified texts are very common in newspaper texts and web designs. Justified texts, bigger spaces
are formed between words thereby making it more readable and appealing to read. Justification
should not be taken too far. Take a look at Box 4 in the figure below. You will notice some
irregularity in the third line as it has some kerning and tracking issues. In that case, you may resolve
the problem by hyphenating the texts, using the appropriate values in the hyphenation property bar.

Hyphenation means breaking words between lines or decks, when the whole set of words does not
fit on one line or deck. Some applications hyphenate automatically but are always better to have
your own setting when you use automatic hyphenation.

Caption Design for Television Programmes

Design of TV and Film Captions

Caption design, which basically involves adding subtitles to a video in order to facilitate
communication, can be done through the overlay method. This involves the use of software to
overlay subtitles. You can also add captions to your TV screen by burning the text into the video,
using such software as Nero.

The Overlay Method

The first thing the video sub editor needs to do is to select the software application to deploy in the
caption design. When making a choice, you should ensure that the software is user-friendly and
compatible with leading video graphic boards. Much software in use today also have laser engraving,
broadcast video subtitling as well as DVD subtitling.

Functions of Overlay Software

Typical graphic overlay software can perform the following functions:

• It performs basic word processor command such as copy, cut, paste, find, replace, save, etc. •
Provides vertical and horizontal lines subtitles

• Has adjustable size, color and screen-position parameters

• Can switch frames from one mode to another

• Has text and time-code offsets

• Should be compatible with other applications in the same category

• Should support the popular video standards such as PAL/NTSC, High Definition

The two frequently in use is DirectVobSub and the VLC Media Player.

The DirectVobSub which is available mainly on Microsoft Windows is a minimalist application that
runs from the task and uses the DirectShow filtering system to overlay. This facility makes it possible
to use it with most types of video player, without encountering problems. This application is easier
to use compared to others in the same category. DirectVobSub automatically looks for subtitles that
show the same name, both in the videos as in a \subtitles folder and overlay them. This however
works on the principles that the subtitles you want, have well laid out in the subtitles folder.

The VLC Media Player

Unlike the DirectVobSub, which works only on Windows, the VLC media player can be used on other
operating software such as Linux and Mac and its believed to be one of the best media players
available. VLC media player is thought to be one of the best media players available. One of the
great things about the VLC media player is its standard ability to overlay subtitles. Besides, the
application can be used on Windows, Linux and Mac systems. After you have put the subtitles in the
same folder under the same name – VLC media player will then automatically load them when the
video is opened. Similarly, the subtitles have to be correctly laid out correspondingly with the frames
of the video.

Closed TV Captioning

Television offers a remarkable source of information and entertainment. But that is only when
people can decipher what is being broadcasted on it. What if the viewer is deaf or hearing-impaired?
How do you help him or her out? It is in providing the solution in this regard that the idea of closed
captioning sprang up.

The concept of captioning films for deaf viewers began in London in 1949 but did not become
popular in the United States until 1977. Then captions were usually placed at the bottom of the
screen and were set in a Franklin Gothic.

Closed captioning is very recent in Nigeria, as its movie industry called Nollywood, began having as
its films were being broadcasted on cable TV that uses decoder. In the closed captioning system, the
film producer is asked to lay out the caption texts in a special folder that is stored and transmitted
via the decoder to homes. The texts are transmitted as codes which the decoder decodes as text on
the screen. The decoder you use at home has a uniformly-spaced dot-matrix captioning typeface
with italics, underlining and a few special and accented characters. There are other decoders that
offer more typography. In the same manner that you have in print, you can flush right or left, center
text or justify text, depending on what you want as the editor.
THE GRAPHIC PROCESS

The graphic process involves the procedures of practice by which graphic designs are created for
effective communication. For you to be a successful designer, you have to put a policy in place and
these vary from one medium to another. Please note that the graphic process is not the same thing
as the graphic communication process. The latter had earlier been explained.

It is the responsibility of the designer to always bear it in mind that graphics has a process, the same
way that graphic communication has one. The knowledge of this is very important as that helps
tremendously to appreciate the importance of graphics to communication. In this process, the target
audience of graphics is crucial, as that will determine the course of that policy. Such a target
audience has characteristics that should be determined before you proceed on designing the policy.
The more information you have in this respect, the smoother it becomes to fashion out a policy.

Formulation of Design Policy

If you do not have a design policy that guides you, you are not likely going to be a successful
designer. Designers and sub editors should have a design policy that is based on the needs of their
audience. If you have a youthful audience, it is likely that your designs will make use of tiny and
small letters without too much harm being done, and without the audience complaining about you.
But if you have an elderly audience, you should be mindful that using small sizes of fonts will be
detrimental.

Therefore, it should be your policy that bold and bigger fonts should be used. Defining your audience
can be achieved in several ways. The demographic and income approaches are usually the most
preferred. Here you are able to determine the age range of your audience members, and how much
they are worth. It is vey important, however, to explore the psychographic approach where you are
able to determine the lifestyle, behavior, opinions, activities cultural values, expectations as well as,
the profile of the loyalty of your audience.

This behavioral segmentation is very crucial because the knowledge of it helps media organisations
deploy the necessary strategies for survival and profit. Another critical element that must be
determined in your research is the profile of visual literacy of your audience. This task proceeds on
the basis that you yourself are visually literate.

Visual literacy involves the ability of your audience to decode graphics. You also need to determine
here, if your audience prefer more texts than visuals or the vice versa and which color they prefer!
The issue of choice of colors sounds preposterous but it is true. In Nigeria, for instance, if you use
too much of black, you may be giving a graveyard impression, while the green color suggests
agriculture and sustainable environment

Determination of Typography

The next stage in the graphic process is the choice of the typographic that best fits the findings of
your audience research. Here, you must select those types that guarantee legibility, readability and
communication. Some fonts seem to be emotionally or psychologically important. For instance,
some think that when your audience comprises children, you should try using such fonts as Earwig
Factory, Waker, Planet Factory 2 and the like. All these things should be considered when
determining the appropriate fonts and typefaces for your audience. There is a caveat here.
Typography should not be done only from the point of your audience. The types that you select must
be in consonance with your visual production and printings. Some typefaces easily come off upon
printing. You wouldn’t want to use that font even if it is so perfect for your audience. The right thing
to do is choose the typography that both support your printing and your audience. Fonts that fit the
medium will always be available. Also note that typography is not just about choosing fonts. It
encompasses a whole lot, including headlining, the white space and visuals.

Orientation of Designers and Sub Editors

The sub editor and the designer must be orientated towards the formulated policy and the selected
typography since they are the policy enforcement staff. A staff may be relieved of his or her duty if
she does not work in accordance with the guiding policy. A staff sacked for not working according to
policy has cost an organisation a substantial damage.

Execution of and Evaluation of Policy

Execution of design policy is the last stage of design process. This is day today execution of the policy
and typography. The crux of this task is the manipulation of text, visuals and the white space
background. Besides that there should be regular evaluation of the graphics with a view to
improving on it.