Here is my new theory about layout.

Fundamentally, people are capable of reading text, as long as it is printed in a clear font at a reasonable size.

But show this text to a layout artist and they say: "That has really bad layout. Give me money and I will lay this out for you."

So we do.

The layout artist moves the margins a bit, talks about widows and orphans, changes the font and gives it back.

However, people would happily have read it as it was.

I'm getting close to wanting to use DTP software to do layout for my games.

I've looked at the prices of InDesign, which seems to be the industry standard, and its waaayyyyhey outside of my budget!

I've already got MS Publisher courtesy of Work (who give us all MS Office pro so we can work from home) but my limited experience doing posters using it, leaves me a bit cold. Its ok but somethings are a bit wobbly imho.

Dear all,

I've bodged together the layout for Umläut using Word. I have Publisher, but I've never used it and didn't have time to learn it before the contest deadline. Anyone got any mad publisher skillz and doesn't mind doing a basic layout job on the text if I send you the Word file? Once the basic template is in place I can edit and tweak it, I just can't get the overall templates set up.

Anyone help me out? I'll owe you a pint!