Legal notices worth some design attention
By ED HENNINGER
For some newspapers, legal notices are a significant percentage of revenue. As such, they deserve design attention just as much as other elements.
Legals may not be pretty. As a matter of fact, they can be downright plain. But that’s OK, because being plain is an asset for them.
The true beauty of legals lies in their ability to communicate quietly and simply.
Here are some of the elements you want to consider for your legal ads:
TYPEFACE: Keep it simple. Keep it readable. Serif works OK, but sans serif is more desirable in smaller sizes. Look for typefaces that are known for their readability: Utopia, Cheltenham and Bookman will work well for serifs while Helvetica, Frutiger and Franklin Gothic will do for sans serif faces.
TYPE SIZE: No need to run legals any larger than required by your advertiser. Some are OK with seven point, some want larger sizes. My guess is that anything smaller than seven point, depending on the typeface, is just too small.
LINE SPACING: Line spacing in legals can be kept tight. I suggest no more than one point larger than type size—even a bit less if that works better for you.
COLUMN WIDTH: Especially if legals are run in smaller type sizes, it’s a good idea to keep them no wider than one column, unless your advertiser dictates otherwise. Wider column widths can get in the way of comfortable readability.
GUTTERS: You can tighten up here. Your gutters need be no more than six points if you run a hairline or half-point rule in the gutter.
JUMPS: Some legal advertisers will ask you not to jump their listings. Others don’t mind. Jumps can often be avoided if you can change the order in which the ads run.
LEGGING: Some advertisers may want their ads to be fully contiguous: that is, not “legged” from one column to the next. Again, that can be avoided by changing the order of the ads.
Legals may not be the prettiest ads on the block. But they don’t have to be ugly—or difficult to read.
© Edward Henninger
Ed Henninger is an independent newspaper consultant and the Director of Henninger Consulting, which offers comprehensive newspaper design services including redesigns, workshops, staff training and evaluations. You can contact him at (803) 327-3322 or
edh@henningerconsulting.com.