The process of taking a document from concept to creation need not be overly complex. Once the content is determined, the text and graphics need to be input or collected, then formatted and arranged to conform to a style that “sets the tone” and reflects the company image. Modern office and desktop publishing software offer many pre-designed templates, fonts and colour schemes that can greatly simplify the process, but often the end result will be better with a fully customized layout.

Choices to be Made:

• Obtaining content
   
  • Nobody knows your business, the audience you want to reach, or what information you want to convey, as well as you do.
    We can assist in content creation, market research and also with proofing, editing, scanning and OCR (Optical Character Recognition)
     
  • The text content of a document is created or collected, often from existing in-house documents, and assembled in a rough order of presentation, typically in a word-processor document
    It is usually best if you leave text unformatted by bullets, indents, underlining etc., as this level of formatting is best applied in the page layout software
     
  • Pictures and logos can be more difficult. The image needs to end up as a digital file, formatted to a size, resolution and type that is compatible with the output media (print, web etc.). Scanning an existing photograph or document is often the easiest source, but image quality is limited to slightly less than the printed source. High-resolution images are often available on request from original manufacturers.
    Often, multiple resolution copies of images are needed - for example a low-res for faster webpage loading, and a hi-res for quality printing
    
     
• Laying out the page
   
  • Once the various content files are collected in the PC, the physical positioning of the elements is done in a page layout program such as Microsoft Publisher or Quark Xpress.
    We encourage our clients to perform as much in-house layout and editing as they are comfortable with. Commeleon may advise on re-formatting some elements for better visual balance or consistency
     
  • Decisions need to be made regarding paper size and type, font styles and sizes, columns, colours and placement of graphics and other design elements.
    It is important to maintain a visual consistency throughout a document, a series of documents, or even across multiple media, to enhance the overall corporate image
     
  • If the document is to be folded into a brochure, or multiple pages are to be bound or stapled into a booklet, additional steps are needed to ensue consistent margins, appropriate page/column breaks etc.
    We supports a variety of finishing options.

• Content comes from existing documents or your creation
   
• Photos and logos are obtained from source or digitized from existing materials
   
• Page style should be consistent across similar documents
   
• Design rules apply for font sets, page style elements and “white space”
   
• Do it yourself or utilize our services