[Dorian Gray]

I've been playing with Pages for a while, but I'd now like to produce high-quality documents with it. The trouble is, I've never taken a course in page layout or graphic design.

To rectify this omission, I'm reading The Elements of Graphic Design, a startling book that has given me words to describe things I previously only felt. I'll move on to Jan Tschichold next!

At the same time, I need to learn the nuts and bolts of layout from scratch, preferably as it's done in Pages. Can anyone recommend a book that would help me get there? The Pages User Guide is a bit light. I learn better from books than video tutorials.

My goals are realistic, I hope: I want to avoid embarrassing mistakes and to look good to novices, but I know I'm not going to impress anyone who knows about design. Baby steps.

[psmith2.0]

It sounds crazy (and maybe, 10-15 years into this stuff, it no longer holds "the magic" it once did), but the first thing I ever got was Robin Williams' (no, not that one) The Mac is Not a Typewriter.

Back in the early 90's, when I got into this racket, it was all still somewhat new and people were coming into page layout/desktop publishing with all the old "typewriter habits" (double-spacing after periods, crazy punctuation, making do with the limited symbols/characters available to them, etc.) and still doing them in PageMaker and QuarkXPress, and often seen as a "dead giveaway" of someone coming from that world...the difference between a newsletter or report looking cheesy and amateurish, vs. somewhat professional and tight.

Tabs, indents, kerning, leading, windows/orphans, spacing, styles, punctuation, when to do this or that, when not to, etc. were all covered. While not software-specific, it was/is a great resource!

You're a savvy, tasteful guy by all I've read here so you may already be past all that and be aware of those sorts of things. But if you think it may help you, I can honestly say that book was my guide and never left my side for years as I moved into that new world.

I'm sure it's been updated/revised along the way, so maybe it still applies and tackles newer, 21st century style/design issues and snags?

Here's the updated second edition, published in 2003. The original one I had was from 1995...

Consider starting here for the basics? It's worth the $10, IMO.

While not Pages-specific, it will keep you from looking amateurish or sloppy.

[Dorian Gray]

Thanks, that's exactly the kind of thing I need. I discovered this PDF a week ago, which touches on some of those typewriter-derived problems too. (The author includes a jab at Microsoft Word!)

I actually bought Robin Williams' The Non-Designer's Design Book at the same time as The Elements of Graphic Design, partly to get free shipping from Amazon.fr (I guess that trick works for Amazon, eh?). If I like it, I'll get The Mac is Not a Typewriter too, taking my design library to three titles.

This design stuff is really intoxicating me these days. If I didn't have to worry about starting a business and paying the rent I'd take a year to do a proper foundation course in graphic design, typography, layout, or whatever it is one takes courses in. Nobody in any of my various schools ever taught me a thing about these subjects!