DESKTOP PUBLISHING

Course Syllabus


Course Description: Students develop proficiency in using graphic arts/desktop publishing software to create a variety of business publications such as flyers, brochures, newsletters, etc.


Instructional Philosophy: This area of instruction provides content for employment in career areas which include graphic arts/desktop publishing skills. Demand in this area will continue to expand as businesses utilize advanced graphic arts skills to increase their production efficiency and improve the creativity and quality of business documents and publications.


Major Course Goals:


  1. Discuss introductory concepts.

  2. Perform publication set-up.

  3. Demonstrate typography concepts.

  4. Manage images appropriately.

  5. Demonstrate design concepts.

  6. Perform print process.

  7. Develop a portfolio.


Major Course Objectives / Benchmarks by Quarter:


3rd Quarter:

1. Define terms related to graphic arts/desktop publishing.

2. Explain copyright issues related to graphic arts/desktop publishing (e.g., legal, ethical).

3. Manage electronic files (e.g., storage, naming files, retrieval).

4. Plan a preliminary layout for a publication using manual or digital tools.

5. Use correct grammar, punctuation, and spelling.

6. Set facing pages, margins, and columns and use editing tools.

7. Import text files; measure type in points, picas, inches, and centimeters; adjust typography attributes; apply character and word spacing; and manipulate text features and formats.



4th Quarter:

  1. Use a digital camera to acquire resolution images, import files from a digital camera, import images from various sources, create images, edit images, apply image modes, manipulate images, determine appropriate image file formats, and adjust color.

  2. Plan the proper use of white space, apply the proper use of color, create an effective focal point, create appropriate headlines, position captions, apply design principles, apply layering techniques in publications, and match the design to the appropriate audience.

  3. Use print preview or WYSISYG layout before printing, select appropriate printer attributes, and select an appropriate printer.

  4. Select sample projects to show graphic arts/desktop publishing concepts mastered, explain the reasons for selecting the sample projects in the portfolio, and arrange a selection of same projects into professional presentation.


Major Course Projects and Instructional Activities:


  1. InDesign – Work with text, paragraphs, and graphic objects and techniques and assembling and printing publications

  2. Photoshop – Apply vignette effect, cropping, opacity to mute an image, warped text, recolor one item in an image, remove background from an image, black and white image with one colored object, fix red eye, restore a damaged photo, and use clone stamp to remove an object from an image

  3. Create portfolio


Course Assessment Plan:


The following assessments will be used in Entrepreneurship:

  1. Objective tests

  2. Performance tests

  3. Projects assessed using scoring guides


Course Expectations: Students are expected to conduct themselves in this course just as they would in a business office by always respecting themselves and others, following through on work commitments and responsibilities, and striving their best to earn a good wage, which in this course will be their grade.


Supplies and Materials Needed: Paper, pen, and a cooperative attitude.


Homework Policy and Grading Scale: Graded assignments, both written and computer, will be given a percentage grade. The grading scale for these percentage grades will be:


A 100-95 B- 82-80 D+ 69-67

A- 94-90 C+ 79-77 D 66-63

B+ 89-87 C 76-73 D- 62-60

B 86-83 C- 72-70 F 59 and below


Your Desktop Publishing grade will be calculated as follows:

Daily Work and Assignments 40%

Tests 50%

Work Habits and Attitude 10% (partially determined by attendance)


Extra Help: Students may stay after school on Tuesdays and Thursdays for extra help or to work on the computers to catch up on assignments.


Time and Place to be Reached by Parent:

E-mail kreese@mail.bloomfield.k12.mo.us

Phone 573.568.2146

Best Time to Reach Monday through Friday from 11:55 a.m. to 12:35 p.m. or 3:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.