Excellence in Printed Liturgical Programs

francis

We were discussing excellent layouts and typography for printed liturgical programs on another thread, and it seemed it needed its own thread. My career in visual art spans working as a professional graphic artist, designer, marketing manager and webmaster for 25 years. My only platform is a Macintosh using the Adobe Creative Suite.

Here is a program I created for my son's wedding a few months ago. Feel free to post other layouts you yourself have created.

The cover is parchment cover stock (1 sheet) and the internal pages are blue linen (1 sheet) text, saddle stitched with one small staple in the center.

The font family is Weiss (Linotype Postcript 1), the image is a stained glass window which I corrected in Photoshop, and the layout was completed using InDesign.

Depending upon what app you use to open this file, the facing pages may not show correctly. If you use Adobe Reader, make sure to set the view to facing pages.

Gavin

for my sons' wedding

Punctuation matters, too.

francis

Gavin:

LOL.

Yes. I always have someone else (1 or more) proof any printed matter. For books and large runs I always employ many eyes and get a sign-off from the customer or the CEO. I even had pastors sign off for very important programs... (Christmas, Easter, etc.)

And if you scrutinize the program carefully, you may even find a glitch or two here or there even though we all proofed it over and over.

Adam Wood

Ok, so- to be honest, I don't care for your choices.

But, on the other hand, as I was saying in the other thread, I think the fact that you care about it and think its important is 90% of the battle, as compared to other people doing this sort of thing who don't care at all.

My own personal preferences are for a solid late 19th c. book printing style, not something that looks reminiscent of late Victorian hand-written letter.

My own preferences:
-Garamond or similar font (palatino linotype, georgia, and several others are in that larger family of book fonts)
-white, sturdy paper
-square margins
-a bit of drop cap, a bit of small caps

Generally, i like the printing press look.

I'll upload a sample at some point if I can.

fcb

I'm wondering, aesthetic questions aside, if for an event like a wedding, where guests come from all sorts of religious backgrounds, one might want to include the people's responses in the program. I encourage couples to do this, but they rarely listen to me, so "The Lord be with you" is usually greeted with a few mumbled "And also with your spirimnmnmnmnm." It seems to me that attending to these sorts of things is also a part of program design.

matthewj

THE WORLD IS WAITING FOR COMIC SANS HYMNAL

RomanticStrings

I recently produced a program for my parochial school's Advent/Christmas concert using LaTeX and Gregorio. I had some trouble with the booklet package, rendering the pages off-center, but I think it came out nicely, considering no one looked at it (instead of printing from the PDF, copies were made from one printed version, so that reduced the quality of the physical copy... oh, well, it was dark in the Church).

I used the day's proper Vespers chants from The Mundelein Psalter (my priest's copy, which he hadn't looked at before I borrowed it; now he might want to use it :).

I really appreciate when people care what font they use, and how it's set, but it does take lots of time.

And yes, I know that the image is after the Nativity, but the perfect line art I wanted to use turned out not to be free (it printed with that awful faint X).

Adam Wood

using LaTeX and Gregorio

JonLaird

I used to use LaTeX for papers but never tried it for programs. I will have to give it a shot when I have time.

Here is one I did recently.
Missa Cantata for Our Lady of Guadalupe

I will post our Christmas one when I have a chance, and funeral and wedding programs as well.

canadash

Wow. That is beautiful Jon! Thanks for sharing.

MatthewRoth

Question: What is the best way to include chant in a PDF? I am working with Acrobat, and I do not like the compressed picture versions of scans from the Liber Usualis. Not only is the Liber not well-set for most people, the picture makes it worse. I am going for what Jon did in his excellent OLOG program.

Also: Garamond. Yes. I decided to use it for sheets where the front is the Marian antiphon chant score and the back the verse, collect, and translation. It is great, and it looked nice with the Latin in plaintype and the English in italics.

Adam Wood

BEST WAY: Include gregorio into LaTeX and render all together.
(This takes some geekery, but can be done.)

SECOND BEST: Output chant from gregorio (PDF) and then insert the pdf into your layout program (this is what I do, because I use InDesign for layout).

THIRD BEST: Better scans. Most people scan things poorly. Use photoshop. Scan 600dpi in Black and White mode. Use photoshop to straighten (scans are always crooked) and crop. Export as PNG (not JPG).

Ben

I should add that second best is quite close to first best, but third best will typically be far behind, even when done well.

I also always use method 2.

Matt, text me and I can give you a hand with getting setup with this.

ryand

THE WORLD IS WAITING FOR COMIC SANS HYMNAL

The director for a "youth mass" I worked for got a lot of materials from an online source for contemporary music, and comic sans or something EQUALLY AWESOME (I can't remember) was used on every piece.

francis

ryand

I believe that is Spirit and Song, but I could be wrong.

kevinf

May I ask:How is LaTex better than Adobe InDesign/Photoshop/Illustrator? And how does one integrate Gregorio into it?

As an Adobe user for some years, inquiring minds....

chonak

Gregorio is an add-on to LaTeX, so it requires it.

LaTeX is not a visual editing product; with it, you have to write documents as text files, process them through the program and get PDF output. Instead of continually viewing a visual representation of the page, you have to edit your input file, process it, and review the PDF output; edit, process, review. It's a very old-style sort of document prep. It's very powerful because LaTeX involves some *programming*. LaTeX has a tough learning curve and is complicated to install. So if you're a coding nerd, you can take it on.

(I invented the web interface to Gregorio at gregorio.gabrielmass.com in order to provide users an easy interface to Gregorio for simple use cases.)

JonLaird

Two more:

1. Our Christmas program for this year.

2. A funeral program (one in fact that I'm using for a funeral tomorrow except with the name redacted) typical of what we print here for every funeral.

The style of these programs developed over the past four and a half years while I have been at this parish. My first attempts were awful, but at least I was getting something out. The key for me is to use styles and gradually modify them over time to get something that works a little better. But I'm always looking to improve, so suggestions are welcome. I use only Linux Libertine font except for the "rubrical" instructions in small caps, which are Linux Biolinum (the sans serif partner to the former).

MatthewRoth: Most of what you see in that program was cribbed from the Parish Book of Chant. Rather than scanning it in anew, I used the PDF along with the Snapshot tool in Adobe Reader. If you zoom in enough you can snap an image of sufficient resolution.

The width of the chants in PBC is (in my opinion) perfect for statement-sized programs.

Adam Wood

Attached is a program that illustrates almost all of my preferences with regard to liturgical print design. I made it (with InDesign and Gregorio) for an Englished Sarum(ish) Mass at CDSP (an Episcopalian seminary).

Notes on content: A lot of things were adapted, changed, or dropped altogether from the actual Sarum Use, and the whole thing was done as a "dialog Mass" with the people making the responses and singing the Ordinary. Also, I'm aware of some of the anachronistic musical choices- we chose each chant for the Ordinary based on which would be the most well known.

So - NO, this program is not a good illustration of authentic liturgical scripting. But I think it is a good illustration of program design, so please look at it with that in mind.

Also- I printed to PDF as a series of page speads, so you'd see what it really looked like. But the first and last pages (singles) are printing in the middle of the page. Imagine they are not.

BruceL

Adam: I've been using GIMP as Photoshop for the last year. I'm fine with it. That said, how would I auto-straighten a scan. I can get it fairly close, but always seems a little off...

Adam Wood

For music - I drag a guide line down and then line up a staff line with it.

BruceL

ARE YOU A WIZARD??????????????????????????????

BruceL

Hadn't thought about the guide line!

matthewj

HOW DO I REMOVE THE TIMES NEW ROMAN TEXT FROM A GRAPHIC AND REPLACE IT WITH COMIC SANS?

matthewj

HOW DO I MAKE MY FONT COMIC SANS ON THE FORUM?

Adam Wood

such font. many program. very layout.

kevinf

OK, I think I will stay with Indesign/Adobe and try to integrate Gregorio into ID.

francis

HOW DO I REMOVE THE TIMES NEW ROMAN TEXT FROM A GRAPHIC AND REPLACE IT WITH COMIC SANS?

Join the GNUchurch and it becomes automatic to your thinking.

JonLaird

Adam, that's great and gives me some ideas for reducing the clutter in my programs. Thank you for posting it!

melofluent

I don't know if this is excellence, but I'm sure happy my wife mastered it up for me!

Adam Wood

Adam, that's great and gives me some ideas for reducing the clutter in my programs. Thank you for posting it!

Thanks!

I try to focus on typography and clarity. I think programs should be beautiful, but also transparent.

Ben

Since everyone is sharing their programs, here's a few I did for various people. I don't claim it's any standard of excellence, but I think they're decent.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/l3ageammmyb21an/jan-15-Storer-worship-aid.pdf?dl=0
http://blog.yankehome.com/liturgy/getFile.php?file=st-christopher-mission&filetype=pdf
http://blog.yankehome.com/liturgy/getfile.php?file=storer-nov-20-cong&filetype=pdf

Adam Wood

Yanke's are mostly pretty good. They could be improved by letting the content breathe a little, and focusing on some of the details of readability.

francis

An example of what you CANNOT do in Word. (It may look a little "fishy", but this is the truth!)

This is a brochure I designed a couple of years ago. It was accomplished using InDesign, Photoshop and Illustrator (the big three in publishing tools). I don't think you could EVER pull this off in Word nor in a host of other apps that say they can.

M. Jackson Osborn

Ben -
I am particularly impressed that you seem to accomplish true antiphonal singing of the psalmody by the congregation at your vespers. Is this normal for your people? Most praiseworthy!

Ben

We do! A big part of it is the schola (about 15 guys in all) which splits and sits in the front pews, so there is about 7 strong voices on each side leading things along. But yes, they sing!

Gavin

I'm going to insert an uneducated opinion:

I strongly prefer Ben's product to Adam's. What Adam's lacks for me is any organization. It's just a big wall of text, and easy to get lost in.

In my church's programs, we've recently added headings for the major elements of the service: "The Word of God", "The Holy Communion", etc.

I find for myself that I like having things clearly broken up and organized.

Adam Wood

Interesting.

I frequently do have section headings. I removed them for that one because I kind of wanted that sense of one thing flowing into the next, without clear delineation of different sections of the liturgy.

BruceL

Ben, yours looks very nice. A couple things...

1) Dialogue, not Dialog :)
2) A bigger deal (to me): Nomenclature. I think "opening hymn" is less preferrable than "Entrance hymn". The latter is descriptive of what is going on at that time (i.e., the purpose of the music) as well as a reminder that hymns are a substitution in the Roman Rite. It's not a big deal, just something that gets me subconsciously.
3) Do you all typically use color week-to-week? That must be extraordinarily expensive.

ghmus7

Here's a few that I have done. I have not progressed past the Publisher/scanner level.

ryand

I believe that is Spirit and Song, but I could be wrong.

We had hard copies of that collection. He would also have printouts from another online source for the recent radio hits. They looked worse than spirit and song.

Felipe Gasper

Here is what I’ve been doing at Annunciation in Houston, TX.

francis

Thank you all for promoting the true worship of the church. Most if not all the programs contain the GC... and your efforts are very much appreciated by the Church which is in eclipse.

RomanticStrings

Credo recto tono, that's a great idea!

Gavin

"2) A bigger deal (to me): Nomenclature. I think "opening hymn" is less preferrable than "Entrance hymn"."

At my (Episcopal) church, we usually use "At the Procession, Hymn" or something like that. That way you don't have to label the hymn!

Adam Wood

I'm not sure that any label is needed.

M. Jackson Osborn

Felipe -
I'm not sure that this wasn't discussed here several months or so ago.
There is nothing wrong with having the entire congregation sing all the verses of the psalm. It might, indeed, be an Admirable Thing. The only thing is that you can no longer call it the responsorial psalm, for doing so makes it in directum, not responsorial, i.e., it's no longer a responsorial psalm, it is a psalm in directum. As for the responsory, or what would have been a responsory, it is no longer the responsory since there are no cantor's verses to which it is the responsory. What is it, then? Well, um, one could call it an antiphon, except that the psalm is not being sung (as it is in Ben's church) antiphonally with all joining on the antiphon. There really isn't a name for it, since in chant-dom, an in directum psalm actually (and obviously) has neither 'responsory' nor 'antiphon'. Why don't you do like Ben does and teach your people to sing gospel and epistle side antiphony while everyone one sings the antiphon? This would be something that actually exists in liturgical chant lore. Though, if you are really wedded to the in directum manner, omit that responsory that is no longer a responsory. (You are certainly familiar with this from your days at Walsingham.)

M. Jackson Osborn

Most of the Service Folders presented here are quite nice. They really are. The layouts are intelligent and the art superb. One thing, though, that I would avoid as being overly something or other (if not outright insulting) is putting directions for when to stand, sit, kneel, sing, etc., in large type and often bold letters. This really does detract from the 'order of service' as a worshipful work of art, a thing of beauty, intended to guide the faithful. Such 'rubrics', when they are felt necessary, should be in small print, never large nor bold!, and perhaps set off with brackets or some such to call attention to their rubricness. Another thing I would never do would be to put who is singing, playing, or whatever, in the body of the leaflet (this information should only appear on a separate page showing participants and sacred ministers). The only information that should be given is the Thing (left margin), its Composer or tune (right margin), and, below a text, its author or source. Lengthy explanations of when to sing and all that are an eyesore and are inherently demeaning to people whom one should expect to Know when to stand, sit, kneel, and sing. The Service Folder's layout should resemble a sort of simplified missal: main headings in a larger type, text and what is done in a standard size type, what and when and how to do it in small type perhaps in brackets.

Oh, and another thing - don't ever call them 'bulletins', a bulletin being a sheet of announcements or procedures of a commercial or military nature; nor call them the now ubiquitious 'worship aids', which hath about it the air of something that might be used in a Baptist or evangelical church. So - 'Service Folder' will do, as will 'Service Leaflet', or 'Mass Leaflet', 'Order of Mass', 'Order of Service', or some such - something that is considerably more treasured than a grungy bulletin or worship aid, or cool aid, or, heaven forbid, program.

Adam Wood

Also, if people don't know when to sit, stand, or kneel, all they have to do is look at what other people are doing. Written explanations, along with "please be seated" are superfluous.

chonak

To the contrary --! It depends.

I, and perhaps you too, live in a dark age in which civilization has collapsed. Not only do some people fail to know wrong from right, some don't even know when one should sit and stand. A few even make the mistake of taking a place in the front pew, despite this nescience, and fail to realize that everyone behind them is seated while they are not.

Unsurprisingly, the proportion of inexperienced churchgoers is fairly high at funerals.

Adam Wood

It depends.

Yes, most things do.

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