In this assignment, you will remake a professionally designed newspaper page in InDesign to get experience with the software and practice print layout skills.
Remaking a Front Page
Browse the Freedom Forum’s “Today’s Front Pages” gallery. You can choose any front page that includes at least three headlines and news stories. Try to avoid pages that include unusual layouts or complicated sidebars, unless you purposely want the challenge. You will be laying out the text elements, and using gray boxes for other elements like photos, ads and logos.
These pages are examples of good choices because they include at least three news stories and standard column grids of 4 or 5 columns across.
1. Download the PDF of the page once you find the one you want to use. You will need to submit this to Canvas later along with your own page. (The pages are updated every day, so you won’t be able to go back and find the same page later.)
2. Starting from scratch in Adobe InDesign, make a replica of this page using some “dummy” placeholder material:
- Begin by going through the Resources page about basic skills in InDesign: Layout Basics in InDesign
- When you create a new page in InDesign, choose 11×17″ (Tabloid) as the page size preset that most closely resembles most professional newspaper pages.
- All newspaper pages are organized with a grid made of columns, usually 4, 5 or 6 across. This is essential for keeping elements aligned and neat. Set up a grid on your page using guides that will be invisible when you export the page later on.
- For all non-text elements (photos, ads, graphics, logos, etc.), you can use gray boxes or shapes to note the location rather than using an image or graphic.
- Use the exact text for headlines, subheads, bylines, and any other prominent text elements.
- Use Lorem Ipsum (or any similar text generator) for the body copy — the standard small text of the articles.
- Choose fonts that are similar to the original fonts, though it’s not expected that you find exact matches. Use a serif font for all serif type on the original page, and sans serif for sans serif type.
- Match the original text styles using InDesign options, such as adjusting the size and alignment, and using bold, italic or all caps options to match your original page.
- Pay attention to proportions and placement. Do your elements line up with the grid? Does the original design use lines or colors to differentiate content?
Make sure to save your InDesign file (.indd) so you don’t lose your work!
Your design should have all the headlines, bylines and articles (major elements) in a proportional way to be considered complete. You don’t need to include all tiny pieces of text, but attention to detail counts toward your score.
3. Save your completed page as a PDF by going to File > Export and choosing a PDF preset.
Submitting Your Work
Submit the following to Canvas by going to “Assignments” and uploading the files with your submission:
- The PDF of the original page that you downloaded from the Newseum site
- Your PDF of your page
- Your InDesign (.indd) file
Demonstrated Skills:
- Create a tabloid-sized print document using Adobe InDesign software
- Use a column grid structure to keep all page elements aligned and proportional
- Use text options and paragraph styles to customize text sizes, fonts, alignment and spacing
- Identify font styles (serif, sans serif, display) used in professional media publications and select fonts with corresponding attributes