Effective Church Communications

Effective Church Communications provides Timeless Strategy and Biblical Inspiration to help churches create communications that fully fulfill the Great Commission

Effective Church Communications provides Timeless Strategy and a Biblical Perspective to help churches create communications that fully fulfill the Great Commission. Our tools constantly change; our task doesn’t; we can help.

Typefaces that look great for an entire publication

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You can save yourself a lot of time and trouble if you don't keep changing typefaces throughout your print publications. You can use a different typeface for your headers and your body text, but you certainly don't have to. Especially type-setting longer printed pieces, using one typeface throughout and varying the weight and style will give you a timeless and professional-looking piece.

Remember, the type itself should always be invisible—you want people to grasp your message—not notice the type that contained it.

Some of the typeface families that work well for this are shown in the PDF below. To download the PDF, click here or on the image below.

Typefaces that look great for an entire publication

Variety in typefaces makes church bulletins easier to read

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PDF Typeface choices for church bulletinsThe choices you make in the typefaces you use and where you place your headings can make a big difference as to how hard or how easy it is for people to follow along as they use the bulletin during the church service.

If you vary the typeface noticeably between the body and the header, it is easier to read.

If you have the header on the outside left margin instead of centered, it is MUCH easier to find your place.

These may seem like little changes, but anything that makes your church service more comfortable, especially for a visitor might make it easier for them to listen and respond to the message.

To download the PDF, click here or on the image.

note: this PDF is from Yvon Prehn's archives and is the only format of this article available presently. Not the greatest quality to be sure, but shared with the belief that the content is useful.

The Five Commandments of Effective Typesetting

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PDF of the Five Commandments of Desktop PublishingWhen you create communications with the computer you are immediately in the role of a typesetter, but without any training.

In addition, if you first learned to type with a typewriter, many of the habits you learned, (such as two spaces after a period), though correct with typewriters, are completely incorrect for a typesetter.

This chart gives you a quick overview of some of the most common changes you need to make in how you handle typesetting.

Please download, study and follow these guidelines on typesetting your church communications and your communications will look much more professional.

To download the PDF,  click here .

note: this PDF is from Yvon Prehn's archives and is the only format of this article available presently. Not the greatest quality to be sure, but shared with the belief that the content is useful.

Typography: an overview and key guidelines for effective design

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Typography Chapter PDFType is one of your most powerful design tools and even though we can easily change typefaces, it takes much more to learn how to use it effectively.

This PDF includes sections on how type is measured, how to choose typefaces, and rules for usage.

To download a copy of the PDF, click here or on the image.

note: this PDF is from Yvon Prehn's archives and is the only format of this article available presently. Not the greatest quality to be sure, but shared with the belief that the content is useful.

VIDEO: Video review of Cute PDF, free PDF creator

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PDF stands for "portable document format."

Though there are many uses for PDFs, one of the most practical uses is that if you save a document as a PDF you can transfer it files created in ANY program from a volunteers home to be printed at the church office. For example, say a church communication volunteer only uses PrintShop, another only PageMaker, and the church office only has MS Word and MS Publisher. How do you print communications they create for the church?

This brief little video shows you a great little program you can use to create PDFs. Cute PDF is a free program (it has a paid version, but the free works great). For some specialized uses printers require PDFs be created with Adobe, (which costs $99-$499), but this program works great for most church communication uses

If they all have Cute PDF (which anyone can download for free), they can save the file as a PDF and then email it to the church. The church can print out the publication using the PDF and the church office does not need to have the program that created the communication.

The only negative of this situation is that any corrections need to be made by the original creator of the communication, but if all goes well this is a great tool.