Dear Before & After
Black & white . . . so many times I need to do a small newsletter or menu on a laser printer. Could you give some tips on how to make pages look good in one color? — Jeremy

Dear Jeremy,
Since adding the PDF format, the references to black & white artwork have been reduced. Before & After’s John McWade started desktop publishing the year the first laser printers became available. For five years, black & white was all we saw for our page designs. Several back-issue articles jump to mind as potential additions to your resource library. Issue 35’s DesignTalk has a two-page spread dedicated to black & white design that can be photocopied. Issue 33 has an article focusing on creation of black & white advertising. It has layout ideas where the use of screens and contrast are explained and illustrated. A perennial favorite article is Issue 26’s “How to design a Yellow Page ad.” While the Yellow Pages have a reduced audience, this article is a must-have for designing your one-color work, small-space or Web-page ads, fliers and business cards. Issue 23 contains “Fax the news,” a two-page redesign project focusing on grabbing readers’ attention in one color through a faxed page with a “clear” message. One final suggestion, Issue 18’s flier article has multiple layout ideas for hot-off-the-printer pages ready for the bulletin boards throughout the company.