Text and photos

  1. Our first preference for visual materials is digital photography. In case of amateur photos we prefer unedited pictures so that we can edit them ourselves. In case of digital photos we ask you to consider the size of the picture. If the sides of the photo are smaller than 1000 pixels, the photo is small. When necessary, we can scan paper photos – glossy photos provide a better result. It is better to avoid photos scanned from prints. When scanning yourself, the picture should be scanned at 1:1 aspect ratio at 300 dpi. If you wish to enlarge the picture in final print, the resolution (dpi) should be higher. Scanned photos should be saved as .tiff files or minimum compression rate .jpg files.
  2. Paper photos must be labelled.
  3. The materials must include a table of contents and photo titles. The materials should also state the recommended positions of the photos or illustrations.
  4. Text materials have to be saved as .rtf, .doc or .docx files, if possible in one file. In case of more comprehensive materials, there can be more text files as long as they are in accordance with the table of contents.
  5. The text must be inserted in accordance with text entry rules (see below) and it has to be spell-checked by the client.

 

Text entry — especially important in case of longer texts

  1. Use one space at a time don’t insert two spaces next to each other. Don’t create tables using spaces. For tables, use Insert Table from the menu. To align columns, use the TAB key (above Caps Lock key on your keyboard). If you wish to put the titles in the centre of the page, use alignment tools.
  2. Don’t break text lines in a paragraph with the ENTER key the computer will do it on its own. If you use Enter, the text won’t flow freely.
  3. Determining a paragraph each paragraph is separated from others with ENTER. For indents don’t use spaces or the TAB key. Use the menu and change document settings (in MS Word navigate to Format/Paragraph/Special/First line).
  4. Don’t use empty lines to start a new page. For the next page use CTRL+ENTER in MS Word (press both keys simultaneously). Using empty lines may disrupt the layout of the document in a different computer.
  5. For emphasis use bold or italics, never capital letters or spaces – don’t emphasise a word by creating a space after each letter. In special cases it is OK to write a word in capital letters in short advertising texts, but never in case of print layout texts.
  6. In case of double punctuation marks (brackets, quotes) it is not necessary to add a space between the punctuation mark and the text. The opening bracket or quote is followed by a space and the closing bracket or quote is preceded by a space. Comma, full stop, semicolon, colon, question mark and exclamation mark immediately follow the text without a space before them.
  7. E-mail and URL addresses never contain spaces.
  8. Don’t confuse the hyphen and the dash, the apostrophe and stress marks! The print technique distinguishes three types of strokes: the hyphen, the en-dash and the em-dash which all need to be used correctly. To find the correct character navigate to: Insert > Symbol >Special characters.
    The hyphen (-) is used for hyphenating the words, in case of some compound words and some prefixes.
    The en-dash (–) is used as a minus sign, to represent a range of numbers or connections, for example: –9,5; pages 2–7; Tallinn–Berlin.
    The em-dash () represents a pause than is stronger than the comma, unlike the hyphen and the en-dash, the em-dash requires spaces between and after it, for example: When the sofa was finally delivered — nearly three months after it was ordered — she decided she no longer wanted it.
    The stress mark ( ´ ) on an Estonian keyboard appears only after the corresponding key has been pressed twice on the keyboard (and then you get two symbols at once).
    The apostrophe ( ‘ ) key on an Estonian keyboard is located next to the ENTER key below the Õ key.
  9. There is no need to hyphenate words manually. The layout program will do it for you. If you do hyphenate the words, in case of changes in the text, the hyphenated words may shift from the end of the line to the centre.
  10. Don’t use automations in grammar for Estonian (it works based on English rules). Navigate to Tools/ AutoCorrect and uncheck all the boxes.

 

And finally – if you can laugh about yourself, everything is OK:

Two IT specialists are driving a car. All of a sudden the motor stops. They try to start the car again, but they can’t. So, they think about what they know about technology and then they decide: let’s switch off everything, let’s get out of the car and come back in again! Maybe that’ll work!!

/Our joke-book /