Mistakes with Type

Common Mistakes with Typestyles

Using too many typefaces. It's called the "ransom note affect." Some people, in designing church publications, seem to think, "If I have the font on my computer, I should use it." Wrong, wrong, wrong. Stick to a couple different typefaces--one serif type, one sans serif type, and maybe a different headline font. One such combination: Century Schoolbook, Helvetica, and Impact.
Using only one font family in a document for headlines, subtitles, subheads, and body text. People often do this with one of the standard laser printer fonts, like Helvetica or Times.
Using similar typestyles on the same page--for instance, Bookman and Times, both of which are serif types.

Tombstoned headlines. This is when two headlines are side by side, whether at the top or middle of a page, on separate columns.
Cluttered text. Use white space around columns, text sections, etc.
Long captions in small type. They're hard to read.
Placing headlines and subheads too close to the bottom of a column.
Uneven, two-line headlines. A headline which has just one word on the second line looks strange. Break the headline into lines of similar length.
Long lines of small type, or short lines of large type. Both are hard to read.
Putting type in unusual shapes--a diamond, a circle, an animal shape, etc. It may seem clever, and you may be able to do it easily on your computer, but it's annoying to read.

Putting two spaces after sentences, like you were taught to do on a typewriter. That is only done with mono-spaced type--when all characters take up the same space, like on a typewriter. Computers use proportional spacing, which means an "i" will receive much less space than a "w."
Using typewriter techniques for highlighting words--like underlining and ALL CAPS. You have better options with your computer--bold type, italics, larger type, different type styles.
Too much hyphenation. The narrower the column, the more chance you'll have a lot of hyphenated words. You may want to correct that manually, or set your word processor to hyphenate less often.
Justifying all text, just because it's so easy to do on a computer. Left-aligned text is usually easier to read.
Justifying narrow columns. It creates unequal spaces between words, sometimes big gaps. The narrower the column, the smaller the type you should use and the greater the advisability of using flush left alignment.

Avoid Wide Indents. The default indents in word processors are very wide. It looks odd. Use a pica, or a pica and a half, indent for paragraphs. Look at any magazine and see how much of an indent they use.
Never Hyphenate a Headline
Avoid Very Uneven Two-Line Headlines
Avoid Widows and Orphans. That doesn't sound very biblical, but we're talking about those terms in the graphical sense. A widow is a word or two stranded alone on a line at the end of a paragraph. An orphan is a single word or a few words at the top of a column. Sometimes, a little simple editing, perhaps changing or removing a couple words, can eliminate widows and orphans.