1. Electronic Publications In General
Electronic publications are becoming more and more common as web-based/online publishing increases as a sector. It is easy and fast to publish online and the costs are very much lower than for conventional printed publications. Because of this, many people and organisations are relinquishing some, or all, of their conventionally produced publications in favour of electronic ones.
As an example, many catalogues are currently produced online as well as in printed format, and many suppliers of goods and services also offer online purchasing (for example, books, clothes, food, travel tickets, hotel accommodation, and so forth). And all the major daily newspapers have online versions on offer.
Although electronic publishing is straightforward, online publications are not always of high quality, as many people think they do not need to be as stringent with their writing, or believe that they can do wonderful graphic design simply because their computer has a software package that can be used for this purpose. So, if you are considering online publishing, you will need to think through your objectives, resources and capabilities before starting.
Although many aspects of magazine and newsletter production are similar in both printed and electronic publications, there are some notable differences, in particular the following:
- writing style
- graphic elements
- timescale
- readership
- online marketing
Let’s consider each of these briefly.
Writing Style
I am assuming that your publications are going to be read on screen. If they are simply meant to be downloaded, printed out and read subsequently, they are effectively equivalent to a publication that was originally produced in printed form, in which case many of the comments that follow here are irrelevant. However, if the text is mainly intended to be read on a computer screen, it is important to remember that most people find it slower reading material on screen than reading it on a printed page held in front of them.
This means that their tolerance for large volumes of text is much diminished when they have to access it via their computer. So the writing style for this purpose generally needs to be clear, concise and lively, or people will lose concentration and interest. Of course, writing should normally be all of these things anyway, but it is even more important with on-screen material.
Graphic Elements
Columns
Having columns, rather than text going right across the page, can look inviting, but if you do this you must make sure that it is readable. If your articles are long, it may be hard to read if people have to keep scrolling up and down to follow the same article across different columns – and this is compounded if you have set your margins so that they are wider than a screen width and people have to keep moving the page to get to the end of lines. This is impossible to do for any length of time.
Text going right across a page is simpler, but long lines are generally difficult to read, so you have to assess which format is best for your content and your readers. If you are going to have columns, it helps if most of your items are short and take up only one column width each. One option is to have columns of different widths – one wider and one narrower, so that the main items can be printed in the wider columns, and shorter pieces, or accompanying notes, in the narrower ones.
Typefaces And Sizes
If your text does go across the whole page it needs to be in a reasonably large (but not too large) type size and in a clear typeface, otherwise it is, again, difficult to read. A good principle is to use a 12 point ‘sans serif’
(see Glossary, Appendix 3) typeface, such as Arial, which is clear and easy to absorb.