Thursday, February 3, 2011

Make A Simple Brochure

Make a Simple Brochure


Brochures are an effective way to deliver a message. Even a simple brochure can deliver a message effectively. Brochures are used for everything from business advertising to advertising for local events. Creating a simple brochure isn't difficult if you have some concept of what you want to achieve. With desktop publishing software, you can design and print a brochure for your business or organization that will deliver your message to the public in an appealing, professional format at little cost.


Instructions


1. Open a desktop publishing program or even a word processor that has brochure templates. There are several programs you can use to do this, ranging from Word and the free OpenOffice, to PagePlus and Scribus, both of which are free desktop publishing applications. All these options work the same way and feature simple brochure templates to make the creation process easier.


2. Select "New" from the "File" menu and choose the template option. Browse the brochure templates to select a template. For creating a simple brochure, choose a two-panel template.


3. Click the template to open the two-panel brochure in the edit window. The brochure template will have graphics in place, as well as generic templates text. If the images fit the theme of your brochure, you can leave them in. If you have your own images to use, click the template images to select them, then hit the "Delete" key. This removes the template images and makes room for your images.


4. Go to the "Insert" menu and choose the "Picture" option. Go to the location where the images are on your computer and click on the image you want to insert into your brochure. You can use as many as you want, but you should consider no more than two per panel. This will help balance the text and graphics of your brochure.


5. Select the template text and press the "Delete" key to remove it, then type in your brochure text. The headings and body text will already have the font set. All you need to do is add your own words. You can change the font by selecting your text and using the drop-down font menu, but the template font will typically be optimized for brochure presentation. If you choose another font, pick one that's easy to read. Fancy fonts look good, but if your intended readers have to struggle to read your brochure's message, the font defeats the purpose.


6. Save your brochure. Purchase brochure paper at an office supply store. You can buy brochure paper in a variety of colors, textures and designs, which allows you to give your brochure any look you want. Standard two-panel brochure paper will work. Print your brochure on this paper to produce professional brochures you can hand out to the public.

Tags: your brochure, brochure paper, brochure templates, desktop publishing, deliver message