Digital Design using QuarkXPress 4 gives you the ability to fully understand QuarkXPress, while developing a knowledge of the rules of design and how computers can exploit them. Students with non-visual backgrounds can rapidly improve, producing worthy examples of pages that integrate text and image. Knowledge gives you choices.

The authors approach the subject of teaching QuarkXPress from all the necessary directions.

Learning software enables you to lay out a page but not to design one. So this does not take the reader through a series of steps reproducing designed pages - that teaches you nothing. Instead, the authors provide an objective understanding of what makes your designs work.

CHAPTER 1

You, Intuition and the QuarkXPress Interface

Before beginning any class I've always found it useful for the student to understand how QuarkXPress describes the computer interface as a working graphic studio, and then position the student in relation to the computer and design. Learning software on its own is insufficient, and QuarkXPress training tends to be confined to program learning. Program understanding comes from your knowledge of the metaphor that the computer uses to describe the real world. If you, as a student, understand the logic of the metaphor and its functions, you are then equipped to self-learn, develop and exploit the nature of digital design.

When acquiring new knowledge, such as QuarkXPress, it is always best to understand the real world metaphor that the software uses to describe the tools and techniques that a graphic designer would use.

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Volume low.

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Volume high.

You understand the metaphor that the volume control uses to describe the real world, when you adjust the volume control this is exactly what you expect learning to use QuarkXPress is no different.

You learn to navigate through the real world by recognising representational symbols that describe objects, and the actions that you should take as a consequence. With a computer you are able to adjust the sound level with relative ease. The graphic representation of volume control is familiar; an unfamiliar image would not enable you to understand its function. Learning to use QuarkXPress is no different. By unpacking and understanding these processes you should be able to familiarise yourself each time QuarkXPress is upgraded or undergoes a major redesign of its interface and functions.

By doing so you can extend this approach and apply this method to any program, such as MacroMedia Director or Photoshop. This introductory chapter could be used for any program which has been written to operate in a windows environment for either Macintosh or PC. Therefore, what is important is your understanding of what the action words mean and how the desktop metaphor of noun and verb functions. When using Photoshop a photographer wouldunderstand the actions of a Noise Filter for Despeckling or altering the radius of the Median. A graphic designer will understand the language of typography used as the action verbs within QuarkXPress, such as track (overall space between letters and words) and kern (individual space between letters). Also, the nature of design using a computer allows you to reflect upon human perception, which tends to be altered through new possibilities that the digital capability of a computer can offer. By exploring the potential of design using computers, new opportunities can be established. There are three distinct parts to effectively using QuarkXPress as a tool:

The Computer You

• The QuarkXPress object/action computerinterface as a metaphor for working in a graphic design studio.

• Knowledge of design, its principles and its terminology.

• Objective reflection upon elements of design that remain constant, and what elements of design can be exploited using a computer.

It is assumed you know how to operate a Macintosh or Windows computer and are conversant with clicking and dragging, Open and Save dialogue boxes and so on. If not, you are advised to take time out to learn these basics after reading this chapter and before beginning the QuarkXPress tutorial in Chapter 2. Understanding the desktop metaphor encourages learning of these new opportunities through familiarity. Pointing and selecting becomes inseparable from the desktop assumption that people are inquisitive, they want to learn, especially if the environment appears recognisable and engaging. With QuarkXPress the design studio metaphor creates an interface that allows you to use the tools of graphic design. To operate the computer you look for objects that are familiar, these objects suggest their function – language and description of functionality needs only to be approximate and not exact.

The developers of QuarkXPress know the importance of an intuitive interface. This is reflected in any upgrades or major redesigns of the program. By understanding this, you can self-learn.

The Interface as a Metaphor for the Real World

The successful operating of a computer owes much to the rules of Isotype (International System Of TYpographic Picture Education). The important factor for computer interaction is the collaboration between Neurath and Ogden, who was the inventor of Basic English (British American Scientific International Commercial). Ogden had asked Neurath to publish an outline of his visual language; Neurath (1936) agreed if Ogden also allowed Basic to be combined with Isotype in an additional book, Basic by Isotype. Ogdens Basic English contained 850 core words which were mainly nouns or verbs.

Neurath, O. 1936 Basic by Isotype, Psyche Miniatures General series, Kegan Paul

These two fundamental paradigms of object and action are central to the computer desktop metaphor. The decision to publish an explanation of Isotype and a version underpinned by selective language is crucial to the systems understanding and adoption for other uses. The introduction of the 1980 facsimile International picture language/Internationale Bildersprache, cites instructions for telephone systems, traffic signs and so on. It was not until January 1983 that the concept of icons as a plausible interface between user and computer was made possible with the development and launch of the Apple Lisa by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak.

Neurath, O. 1980 International picture language/Internationale Bildersprache, A facsimile reprint of the (1936) English edition, Psyche Miniatures General series, Kegan Paul, Department of Typography & Graphic communication, university of Reading. Forward by Robin Kinross

Before the development of an intuitive interface all human computer interaction was through command-line instructions. This required a high level of computer understanding – computers were for computing and not for ordinary working tasks. Many graphic communication systems have evolved from the Isotype/Basic method, and it is only natural that the Apple Lisa developed the object/action interface. Learning complex Boolean logic was no longer required to operate a computer. People with real needs could now execute complex code sequences without the need to recall correct command-lines. For the PC, the metaphor was not truly complete until the introduction of Windows 95. Both Macintosh and PC operating systems have now become indistinguishable from each other – the interface metaphor is complete. Once QuarkXPress has been launched on either platform there is little or no difference.

However, it was the Macintosh operating...