Bo Aakerstrom Design
creative solutions for print & web publishing

Writing for web publishing

People read differently on a screen compared to something that is printed.

Instead of actually reading every word we tend to scan for the information we are seeking, so remember to be brief and to the point when you write the copy for your web site.

It is also a good idea to keep paragraphs short in order to break up the content into manageable chunks as it is easy to loose where you are when you are reading dense text on screen.

Image assets

The requirements for print and web publishing are very different and in order to get the most from you visual content you need to know some facts.

What looks good on a computer screen does not neccessarily print well. You will usually end up with pixellated images that just simply looks plain ugly. The colour space used in most commercial printers is CMYK had also got a smaller colour gamut - meaning that the colours and gradients that looked good on your computer might not print well.

On the other hand; on a web page you need small file sizes and optimising images is vital to make the pages load quickly.

When your site visitors have to wait too long (which isn't all that long...) they loose patience and usually moves on to the next site.

Copyright issues

There are a number of myths surrounding this important part of publishing.

One I hear often is 'If it is on the internet anyone can use it', which is of course no true. Whoever took the picture or wrote the text does own it unless they have either sold the rights or specifically have made the content free to use.

So if you do not own it - do not use it.

'If I change a design minutely in five places I can use it' is another untrue statement I have heard more than once. One time by someone who wanted to use design owned by one of those large corporations who will sue you if you do use their stuff as a logotype.

I did not agree to do it and lost the contract, but I like sleeping soundly at night!