GeoPublish Tutorial Part 19 – A Quick Poster

In this installment of the geoPublish Tutorial we are going to see what can be done using just the Page Graphics Mode of geoPublish.

Once again, our process starts with a planning session. For this Tutorial we are going to stick with materials that everyone has on hand. The graphics we will use come from the geoPublish Manual Addendum and Photo Albums that were provided with the 2-disk geoPublish version. Looking over these graphics I have picked out 3 images to use in our Poster.

From the `Just for Fun' album we will use the `Cityscape' and `Hour Glass' pictures. The third graphic will be the `Balloon' from the `Work & Play' Album. We'll use these images to create a flyer for our Hot Air Balloon company which will be offering special discounts for rides over the city during the annual 2-week summer festival.

We are going to have a large headline that says "Hot Air Balloon Rides". We'll overlay a box and some text to set our company apart from the rest of the Balloon Companies. Below our headline we'll place the picture of the balloon floating over the city. Some text will go alongside these images outlining the special deals. Below all of this we will use the Hour Glass to remind people that these are limited time discounts. Finally, we'll include our business address, phone number and regular prices.

Before continuing on we need to get our graphics ready. The easiest thing to do is to use Rick Coleman's Photo Mover to copy the graphics from the two Albums into our Project Album. With our graphics in the proper Album it is time to fire up geoPaint and color the graphics black with a white background. This will make them print off better as we have previously discussed. Since we don't need a geoWrite file we are now ready to make our poster.

In geoPublish open the `Poster' document you were told to create in the format19 geoWrite file. Select the Text Tool. Set the Attributes (LW_Roma font, 95 pointsize, Black, Center, Across and Bold). Click your pointer at the 1/2" mark on the Left Guideline and enter `Hot Air Balloon Rides' for the text. Press OK, line the text box up with the right guideline and then expand the text box down to allow for print expansion.

Select the Zoom option under the disp menu and set the Zoom box in the middle of the page over the words Hot Air. Select the Rectangle Tool (Square, no Frame Width, Opaque and Blank Pattern). Click OK and then draw the box across the middle of the letters "ot Ai". We want it to be about 3/8ths of an inch high. Select the Line Tool (Square, Narrowest Width, Opaque and Black). Draw a line along the top and bottom edges of the box we just drew. Select the Text Tool (LW_Cal, 18 pointsize, Black, Left, Across). Place your pointer near the top left corner of our box area and enter `Environmentally Friendly' for the text. After placing the text select the Pointer, click on the text, change the Attributes to Center and then re-size the text box to match up with the lines we drew. Select the Text Tool (LW_Roma, 9 pointsize, Black, Left, Across and Bold). Place a number `1' to the top right of the word `Friendly' to indicate a footnote we'll enter later. Select Preview under the disp menu.

Select the Line Tool, increase the width by one and draw a line across the page at the 3" mark.

Now we need to add our first two graphics. Use Photo Manager to copy the Balloon to a Photo Scrap and place it with the Graphic Placement Tool at the 3 1/4" and 1 1/4" location. Select the Balloon, open the Attributes, set Stretched & Scaled to fit and drag the bottom corner down to the 5 3/4" and 4 1/4" mark.

Open Photo Manager again and copy the Cityscape graphic to a Photo Scrap. Place this at 5 5/8" and 3/4", set to Stretched & Scaled and drag the bottom corner to 7" and 4 3/4".

Draw vertical lines down the page at 4 3/4", 5" and 5 1/8" marks. These will be temporary guidelines.

Select the Text Tool (LW_Roma, 24 Pointsize, Black, Left and Across) and place your pointer at 3 1/4" on the line at 5 1/8". Enter the following text:

Hot Air Balloon Rides over the City! (Return)
See the Parade like never before. (Return)
Excellent view of the Fairgrounds.

Click OK to place this text. Start another text box at 5 1/4" on the line at 5 1/8". Enter these two lines next:

You can see your house from here. (Return)
Multiple Flight Times per day.

Place the Zoom box at the 3" and 4" position so you can see our first line of text. Select the Line Tool (Narrow width) and draw a dash mark before each sentence using the vertical lines (4 3/4" and 5") to keep the dashes lined up and the same length.

Use the line tool to underline the word `can' in the second last sentence. Select the Pointer and then highlight each of our three vertical lines in turn and press the `Delete' icon [gP Page 3-6].

Still in Zoom mode select the Text Tool (LW_Roma, 9 pointsize, Black, Left, Across and Bold). Place a number `2' to the top right of the word `here' in the second last line and a number `3' to the top right of the word `day' in the last line to indicate footnotes we'll enter later.

Change back to Preview and use Photo Manager to copy the Hour Glass to a Photo Scrap. Place this graphic at the 6 3/4" and 6" location, Stretch and Scale it to 8 1/4" and 7 1/2".

Select the Text Tool (LW_Cal, 10 pointsize, Black, Left and Across). Click to place the text box just below and a bit to the left of the Hour Glass and enter the following text:

Don't let time run out (Return)
on these special prices!

After placing the text select the pointer and size the text box to be a little wider than the Hour Glass and then change to Center justification.

Scroll to the left and draw an ellipse from 7" and 2 3/4" to 8 1/4" and 5 1/2". Open the attributes and set Round shape, Narrowest Frame width, Transparent and press the Pattern up arrow 7 times from blank to set a lightly shaded background.

Select the Text Tool (LW_Giannini, 14 pointsize, Black, Left Across, Bold) and place the box at 7 1/4" and 3 1/8". Enter the following text:

Flights only $65 (Return)
per person during (Return)
Summer Festival Days (Return)
July 9 - 23, 2005

Select the Text Box with the Pointer Tool and stretch it across to the 5 1/4" mark. Open the Attributes and set `Center' justification. Press OK and then drag the bottom corner down to the 8 1/4" and 5 1/4" mark. Scroll to the left edge of the page.

Place the Text Tool at 7 1/4" and 1" and enter:

Limited (Return)
Time (Return)
Offer

Click `Attr', set left justified and press OK.

Select the text again and change to `Center' justification. Drag the box to 8" and 2". Use the Connected Line [gP Page 3-6] to draw a starburst around this text. I used 17 clicks for my starburst.

Scroll to the bottom of the page and place a text box at 8 3/4" and 5/8". Enter the following text:

To make a reservation (Return)
Contact Barb at: (Return) (Return)
We're Full of Hot Air (Return)
102 Main St. (Return)
Springfield

Press the `Attr' button, change to Left and add Bold. Press OK. Place another text box just below the word `Springfield' and enter the phone number:

1-800-555-1212

Stretch both text boxes to allow for print expansion.

Select the Rectangle Tool (Square, Narrow, Opaque and blank pattern). Draw a box around our text. Select the box with the Pointer tool and press the Background Tool [gP Page 3-5]. This makes our text visible again. Select the Rectangle tool (Black Pattern). Draw another box over our existing one but offset it to the right and down by the width of the crosshairs. After drawing this box select it with the Pointer tool and, once again, press the Background Tool to move this behind our other box and text. This solid box gives us a nice shadow behind our text.

Scroll to the right of these boxes and open a Text Box at 8 3/4" and 3 1/8". Enter:

Regular Prices: (Return) (Return)
Adult - $110 (Return)
Senior - $75 (Return)
Youth (13-17) - $65 (Return)
Child - $50

Draw a box (Narrowest width, blank pattern, transparent) around this text and then scroll to the right edge of the page. Draw a thin vertical line down the screen at the 5 3/8" mark.We have a couple of text boxes to create to hold our footnotes and this will ensure they are lined up properly.

Select the Text Tool (LW_Cal, 10 pointsize, Black, Left and Across). Place the Text Box at 8 3/4" and 5 3/8" and enter the following text:

1 - Environmentally Friendly balloons (Return)
are heated by Electric Heaters (Return)
powered by Fuel Cells. (Return) (Return)
2 - if you live in Springfield

Create a second Text box an appropriate distance below the first one and enter:

3 - All flights last at least 1 hour. Flights are
scheduled to depart at 7:30 AM, 10:30 AM,
1:30 PM and 5 PM daily. (Return)
(weather permitting)

Stretch both text boxes a little to allow for Print Expansion and then delete the vertical line. Draw a box (Square, Narrow, Blank, Transparent) around our text. This time we will use a different technique to create our shadow effect.

Select the Line Tool (Square, two clicks up from Narrowest width and Black). Draw a line down the right edge of the box and a line across the bottom of the box to create the same shadow effect we previously made with the solid box. This can take a bit of practice to get the lines just the right distance from the edge of the box (about 2 pixels with this line width) and to get the two ends to line up properly.

Change to Preview and select the Rectangle Tool (Round, 2 clicks up from Narrow, transparent, blank). Draw a border around the entire page and our Poster is finished. Print it off, post it around town and tell Barb to get ready for a lot of phone calls.

A couple of tips

You may have noticed that for some of the text I forced new lines (Return). The Text Tool will wrap text if it is too long for the text box but, until you get the box sized, this can work against you by stretching the text all the way across the page. By entering the text on separate lines you save some effort in re-sizing text boxes.

Once you have the entire page created you need to do some print tests. You may find when you print the page off the first time that you haven't re-sized some of your text boxes properly, that some lines aren't the right thickness or positioned quite right or that some of the Opaque items cover up things you don't want them to. Always allow time to make corrections after Laser Printing a new project the first time as PostScript Laser output isn't exactly `What You See Is What You Get' (WYSIWYG).

Next time we are going to start working on our Title Page section and then we'll be ready for printing. Which is really what all the rest of this is geared towards.

Until then, enGEOy your Commodore!

Previous Article - Drawing Tools Part 2
Next Article - First Impressions
Return to the GeoPub Index
Return to the Main CUE Web Page