The Bilingual Blood Donation Leaflet That Nobody Finishes Reading
The NSS unit of a +2 college is printing 3,000 two-sided A4 leaflets for a blood donation camp; the same information appears in Odia and in English. The draft sets Odia in a decorative display face at 9 pt with 10.5 pt leading and English in a condensed serif at 10 pt, both across the full 190 mm measure - roughly 100–110 characters per line. All headings are 12 pt bold. The camp date sits in the middle of the first side, between the eligibility list and the transport note. The NSS officer, who is 58, says he 'gave up after the first line', and the press has warned that 9 pt Odia with thick conjuncts may fill in on the 70 gsm uncoated paper already bought. Reprinting 3,000 leaflets is not affordable and the camp is in nine days.
1. Diagnose the typographic faults in the draft, linking each fault to a symptom the readers or the press have already reported.
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Fault → symptom map
- Odia at 9 pt. Odia glyphs carry a shirorekha plus matras above and below, and conjuncts stack strokes. At equal point size Odia looks smaller and denser than Latin. 9 pt is below a safe print floor for body text - the reader's 'gave up after the first line' is partly a size problem, not only a length problem.
- Display face used for body text. Display faces are drawn for headlines: tight sidebearings, thin strokes, small counters. At 9 pt with thick conjuncts, counters close up - exactly the fill-in the press warned about on 70 gsm uncoated stock.
- Leading 10.5/9 = 1.17. With matras projecting above and below, lines physically collide. Anything under about 1.4× is unsafe for Odia.
- Measure of 190 mm. At 10 pt that is 100–110 characters per line; comfortable is 45–70. The eye loses the return at the end of each line, which is the single biggest cause of abandonment in continuous text.
- Condensed serif at 10 pt on uncoated paper. Condensed faces have narrow stems and tight counters; on absorbent stock the letterpress-style fill-in risk is high.
- Headings only 12 pt. A 12 : 10 ratio is a 1.2× jump - not a hierarchy, just a slight weight change.
- Date buried mid-page. This is an information-architecture fault, not a type fault: the most important item is at the position of least attention.
2. Give the corrected specification - type sizes, leading, measure and alignment - with reasons tied to the Odia script and to the 70 gsm paper already purchased.
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Correction specification
| Element | Current | Corrected | Reason |
|---|---|---|---|
| Odia body | 9/10.5 | 11.5/16.5 pt | Restores matra clearance; 1.43× leading |
| English body | 10/11 | 10.5/14.5 pt | Matches the Odia optically |
| Measure | 190 mm | two columns, 87 mm + 16 mm gutter + 87 mm | ≈ 40–45 characters per column |
| Headings | 12 pt | 18–20 pt bold | 1.6–1.7× jump over body |
| Headline on side 1 | - | 28–36 pt | One dominant element per side |
| Alignment | justified | flush left, ragged right | Odia has no hyphenation; justification opens rivers |
Script-specific rules
- Use one Unicode-compliant Odia family with a true bold. Never apply faux bold - software emboldening smears conjuncts into blobs.
- Test the letter combinations that actually fail (conjunct clusters with three or more consonants) at 100% on paper, not on screen.
- Keep a minimum of 11 pt for Odia body on uncoated stock; anything smaller will not survive.
Paper-driven compromise The 70 gsm maplitho is already bought, so do not fight it: raise Odia body to 11.5 pt, keep ink coverage light in the solid areas, and if the proof still fills in, ask the press to run the job at a slightly lighter ink film rather than bumping the size again (which would break the 8-page fit). Only consider upgrading the stock for the inner pages if the proof genuinely fails - and price that against the cost of a 3,000-copy reprint.
3. What do you check on the printer's proof, and what instructions do you send with the file, given that there is no budget for a reprint?
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Before sending
- All Odia text in one embedded Unicode font; no fallback or tofu boxes; check the font's conjunct handling, not just the alphabet.
- Headline converted to outlines only after a final proofread - outlined text cannot be corrected later.
- Two columns on both sides, date moved to the top third of side 1 at 28–36 pt, and a clear call to action near the fold-free zone.
On the proof (this is the only safety net)
- Print on the actual 70 gsm uncoated stock, or the closest the press has, not on bond paper.
- Read the smallest Odia body text at 100% at arm's length - if a conjunct closes up, the size or the ink film must change.
- Verify the date, venue, camp timings and phone number character by character; these are the errors a reprint would be needed to fix.
- Check that nothing falls in the gripper/trim margin; keep 5 mm of clearance from the trim on both sides.
- Confirm the sheet count and that both sides back up correctly (side 2 head-to-head, not head-to-foot).
Instructions to send
- 'Print PDF, fonts embedded, images at 300 ppi, CMYK.'
- 'Please supply a hard proof on the actual stock before running; we will sign off the same day.'
- 'Run 3,000 + 50 overs for make-ready.' One day of proofing is cheaper than 3,000 leaflets that nobody can read.