From Xylographs to Lead Molds; A.D. 1440-A.D. 1921 Part 4

THE MAKING OF THE FOOLPROOF NEWSPAPER DRAWING

SOME ADVERTISING PICTURES PRINT WELL--OTHERS DO NOT. WHY? IT'S ALL A MATTER OF GOING ABOUT IT IN A KNOW-HOW WAY

_By J. LIVINGSTON LARNED_

An advertiser--perhaps one of the largest users of newspaper s.p.a.ce in the country--sprang a surprise recently on his ad-manager. Into the office he came, one day, grim-visaged, jaw set, fire in his eyes, and armed with no less than fifty clippings from exchanges.

And on the amazed ad-manager's desk he placed two conglomerate piles of advertising matter. One represented the national newspaper campaign of his own industry; the other a collection of newspaper advertis.e.m.e.nts, picked at random.

"I think I have conclusive proof," said he, in no mild mood, "that you fellows are not as efficient as you might be. Here are our advertis.e.m.e.nts--from papers everywhere. The ill.u.s.trations print abominably! Look at them. The matter has been called to my attention many times--by the newspapers themselves, by our road representatives and by local dealers. They say our electro service and our straight national campaigns are all muddied up with pictures that n.o.body can decipher. Here's conclusive proof of it. Not a clean-looking cut in the series and you can't blame it on paper and press work and all that--they're _all_ bad!"

The advertising manager glanced casually at the exhibits. The criticism was valid. Here was a daily newspaper campaign, running into s.p.a.ce valued at approximately sixty thousand dollars, and the displays, three-fourths ill.u.s.tration, were mussy, involved, smeared up, and unsatisfactory from a reproductive standpoint. Solid black backgrounds were a sickly, washed-out gray and in other places intricate pen work had "run-together."

It was equally true that clippings of compet.i.tive advertising and advertising in general, selected at random, were strangely clean-cut.

The comparison was startling.

"Mr. X," finally observed the ad-manager, "I see what you mean; all of us in this department have known of it, kept track of it; and the remarkable part of the entire situation is that these results can be traced back to you and your personal insistence on a certain type of pen and ink design, executed in a specific technique. These matters came up for your supervision and O. K. You did not care for the bold, simple outline drawings first submitted. You preferred too many, and a glut of detail. All of which is not compatible with newspaper printing, even in large s.p.a.ce. We were afraid of this and said so at the time. Our objection was overruled. It's one thing to prefer a pleasing, perhaps highly artistic pen technique and quite another to apply it to fast presses, poor ink and hurried make-ready. A great many things can happen, and _do_ happen, to a newspaper design before it is printed and in the readers' hands."

DISREGARDING FUNDAMENTALS

Sometimes it is better to come out with the frank, brutal truth. In a great many instances, poor newspaper reproduction is the direct result of some executive's marked preference for a certain artist or a certain technique, regardless of whether the man is qualified to draw for this field, or whether the technique is fitted for the purpose.

On the other hand, there is, unquestionably, a strange, well nigh inexcusable disregard of certain fundamentals of the business. There is too much swivel-chair composure; too much beatific rea.s.surance, when proofs are submitted on good paper, from a flat-bed engraver-house press. A newspaper series is very apt to look 100 per cent when presented on the final electro sheet, or bound into a neat booklet for the dealer and printed on coated stock. These are ostrich methods!

In certain advertising agencies there is a standing rule in the matter of newspaper plates that all proofs must be pulled on newspaper stock--and a very inferior grade. A newspaper press is used, an entire series coming off at once. There is no make-ready to speak of.

By this process no one is deceived. You see exactly what will happen, or nearly so, when the series fares forth to newspapers all over the country.

The executive mentioned above had collected newspapers, big and little, from the four points of the compa.s.s. And he had collected a liberal number of perfectly satisfactory newspaper advertis.e.m.e.nts of the ill.u.s.trated variety. Blacks were clean black, Ben Day tints held their own, there was no congestion, no smudging, no mishap of any sort.

If certain rules are followed, any newspaper advertising ill.u.s.tration can be made "fool-proof." You can be absolutely certain of a printable result, despite all exigencies, all drawbacks, all hazards.

Failure usually follows a desire to attempt something beyond that which has been tried and is wholly practical. For the present, at least, users of newspaper s.p.a.ce _must_ bow to the inevitable. They _must_ realize that there is a well-defined limit to what can be done mechanically. They must _not_ defiantly experiment, although the desire to "do something new" and to be original is entirely praiseworthy.

THINGS YOU CAN'T DO

If you use half-tones, have them made very coa.r.s.e screen--nothing finer than 60 line. Stop out whites and eliminate backgrounds. The high-light half-tone is a modern development with many virtues. If a portrait is used, take out all background.

There is a way of retouching photographs that will minimize the danger of poor printing. The artist strengthens weak contrasts, not with a brush and paint, but with a pen and waterproof black ink. He also uses areas of pure white. Successful reproduction is dependent upon _sharp_, clear, vigorous _contrasts_.

Stippling is one of the best subst.i.tutes for the half-tone. This simply means dotting-in a subject. It is a time-consuming, laborious process, but it means line plates and the elimination of middle tones--which are disastrous.

There was a time when certain clever inventions of the paper manufacturer could be employed for half-tone effects in line. For example, a Ross Board is manufactured with an a.s.sortment of patterned surfaces. When brush or crayon or pencil is drawn over them, they give effects that may not be duplicated in straight pen and ink on plain white drawing board. Some of these papers have a chalk surface. Some have imitation half-tone patterns, straight-line designs, etc. It is possible to scratch away certain portions with a sharp knife. _Do not use them_ as matters now stand in newspaper printing. They will not "stand reduction" and only very coa.r.s.e tints reproduce satisfactorily.

_Special Caution_--Do not allow artists to make original drawings for newspaper use much larger than twice the size. Here is one of the greatest evils of the day. The artist seems possessed to make his original on a full sheet of paper, when he knows that the plate is for two or three newspaper columns. What happens? An ill.u.s.tration which makes a handsome showing in the original will inevitably fill-in when reduced to "actual size." Figure it out yourself--look at it through a reducing gla.s.s. Lines that seem wide apart almost touch in the congestion that follows great reduction. The really wise and shrewd artist makes his newspaper drawing _actual_ size.

Not more than a dozen Ben Day patterns can be used safely--now--in newspapers. Do you know the meaning of "Ben Day?" It is a mechanical tint, printed mechanically either on the plate, by the engraver, or on the original drawing, from an inked gelatine surface and rubbed on with a stilus. Magazine reproduction accepts it in all its forms.

Newspaper stock muddies it up when it is too fine. In any event, when selecting a pattern, see that it is an open one and have it put on the engraving--not the design. If on the design it means a reduction. If on the plate it means no reduction, but precisely as shown in the Ben Day book of patterns.

Avoid complex line treatments and techniques, such as cross-hatching and the laying in of many very fine 290 pen lines close together. They look well in the original--they seldom print well on newspaper stock.

They reduce abominably.

Any newspaper ill.u.s.tration should have plenty of white margin to "relieve it." When a drawing is cramped, packed in, suffocated by side rules, borders and text, it suffers.

Clear outline drawings, with an occasional dash of black, prove most efficient for newspaper reproduction. They _can't_ fill in, they _can't_ smudge, they _can't_ become contaminated by clots of printing ink or defects in the newspaper stock. Not even fast press work can damage their printability. But remember, not all outline drawings are alike--great originality of technique can be secured.

CAREFUL OF BLACK AREAS

Large areas of solid black are not advisable. Think it over. Ink flows irregularly on newspaper presses. One copy may show up exactly as in the original; the next may develop a white halo, a gray tendency, a smeary, half-baked look. No two impressions will be quite the same.

And it is logical to see that this is apt to be so. Any imperfection or irregularity in the ink roller will cause it, or the collection of foreign matter on cut or roller. Any black area larger than two inches square is a hazard.

Advertisers often think that ma.s.ses of solid black will make an advertis.e.m.e.nt "stand out." They would if they printed a smooth, even black--which they seldom do. But liberal white margins are far more potent in attracting attention and in segregating an advertis.e.m.e.nt from mixed company than solid blacks.

The _appearance_ of large areas of black may be secured via subterfuge. One method is to form the background of heavy black lines, quite close together. The white s.p.a.ces between save the printing. Look at straight type through a magnifying gla.s.s. Not even type is printed clear black. Then what chance would an even surface of large proportion have?

Newspaper cuts should be "routed deep." Routing is merely the deepening or entire cutting away of extraneous matter on the engraving--that is, where there is no printing surface. The smudges of hideous design often seen are really an impression of a metal surface that has not been routed out properly. Every engraving should be examined critically for such defects.

Avoid placing a shaded area against a black area. As we have intimated, the heart and soul of the successful newspaper drawing is _contrast_.

The beginning of every advertis.e.m.e.nt or series of advertis.e.m.e.nts is represented in terms of a first visualization. It is in pencil. These should be made same size--that is, the actual size they are to eventually appear. Then no one, the artist least of all, is fooled by disparity of proportions.

KEEP IT SIMPLE

The visualizer should keep one cardinal point in mind. Keep newspaper advertis.e.m.e.nts simple. The less there is in them the better.

Thirty-two of the ads selected by our advertising friend, mentioned earlier in the story, were good because they were simple. Type was held to blocks, and with as little change in style, size and character of type as possible.

All of them were characterized by liberal white margins. It is the best known way of fighting back the opposition of the surrounding appeals on the same page.

There's a good test possible. Make a photographic print of your advertis.e.m.e.nt, the size it is to appear, and paste it on a newspaper page--not a New York or Chicago paper, but a page in the "Bingville Banner."

Before plates are made or even before pen and ink drawings are fully completed, you can change, rearrange, eliminate, or add to, as the case may be.

The wise advertiser is the one who in preparing an elaborate and extensive newspaper campaign keys it in its printing qualities, not to the best papers on the list, but to the ones that are worst printed.

This may mean the undreamed of thing of 100 per cent perfect!

No advertiser can hope to secure full efficiency from a campaign if it presents a smudged and confused appearance. Newspapers are trig things in their own right. Their column rules and their precision of type make this an arbitrary condition. There is really nothing finer and cleaner and more pleasing to the human eye than a well-composed newspaper, hot from the press. Ugly advertis.e.m.e.nts can make an ugly newspaper. They can even spoil the set-up and typography in general of the reading sections.

A newspaper is held responsible if returns from a single advertis.e.m.e.nt or a campaign are not satisfactory. It is looked upon as a "poor medium." Yet how many times the true fault can be traced to the message itself. Full efficiency in advertising is the result of full efficiency in the copy....

(Reprinted by the kind permission of The Bureau of Advertising, the American Newspapers Publishers a.s.sociation, Mr. William A. Thompson, Director.)