CUTLINE TYPOGRAPHY

If you are writing cutlines for external release, do not concern yourself with the way the cutline will be set in type. However, if you edit a ship or station newspaper, you will need some knowledge of cutline typography.

Good cutline typography heightens the impact of a photograph by making the explanatory text as visually appealing as possible. It is a good idea to rewrite and reset Navy Editor Service (NES) cutlines, because they may violate your local style, and the typefaces used may not match yours.

For better display, cutlines are usually set in a larger or a different typeface than that used in the news columns. Some papers use the same size and style as their body type, except that it is set boldface.

Cutlines under multicolumn photographs are best displayed when set two columns wide for two-column photographs (fig. 9-15) or a column-and-a-half wrapped for three-column photographs (fig. 9-16). The term wrapped means to place two or more columns of type side by side under one heading or piece of art. Cutlines should not be set wider than two columns.

Captions

The word caption, while often used as a synonym for the word cutline, has a second meaning. It is a small headline, or display line, sometimes used with cutlines.

Figure 9-16. - Cutline for a three-column photograph set a column and a half wide.

Figure 9-17. - The four basic caption forms: (A) overline (B) underline, (C) side catchline and(D) lead-in line.

Its function is essentially the same as those used over a news story as follows: c To summarize . To attract attention l To dress up the page

There are several kinds of captions in this context. An overline runs above the photograph. An underline runs between the photograph and the cutline. The side catchline is used with photographs of three columns or more and runs on the left side of the cutline. If a headline is not used, the first few words of the cutline maybe set in boldface or all capital letters to serve as a lead-in line. These four types of captions are shown in figure 9-17. All such display lines should be in large type, preferably the kind used in a small headline.

Mortised Photographs

Photographs that contain dead areas of sky or unimportant background can be mortised (a rectangular window, or space, is cut out and the cutline is placed in the space). This saves page space and may actually improve the photograph.

CUTLINE LAYOUT

When laying out a page, you should treat each photograph and its cutline as one unit. The relationship of photograph to cutline must be obvious. Readers will seldom spend much time hunting for misplaced cutlines. In addition, cutlines may be run beside or above photographs. This adds variety, and in some cases, enhances page layout.

It is a common practice for most newspapers to run the story and accompanying photographs side by side. Because of space limitations, however, this is impractical at times. If a story and an accompanying photograph must be separated in a newspaper for any reason, the two are still "keyed" together. For example, if the photograph appears on page one and the story on page four, the cutline will carry a line that says "Story on page 4." This keys the two together for the reader's convenience.

There are times when a newspaper may not have space to publish both story and photograph. When this happens, one or the other will be discarded. If it is the story that gets the toss, the cutline must be rewritten to include more details.

When a photograph and cutline are released with a story or when you are writing a story and cutline for your command's newspaper, the best practice is to write the story first. After the story is written, write the cutline for the photograph. There are two important reasons for this - (1) it enables you to avoid any duplication of phrases or ideas that appear in the story and (2) it enables you to write tighter, more compact cutlines. After writing the story, you have the salient features clear in your mind, and the act of paring the cutline down to its essentials becomes much easier.

DATELINES

When preparing cutlines for photographs to be released externally, you need not concern yourself with display lines. You merely write your cutline in complete and simple sentence form. An additional component must accompany a cutline for outside release - the dateline.

The dateline answers the question "where?" and is used as a lead-in to the cutline. For example, a datelined cutline might read: "ABOARD THE USS UNITED STATES AT SEA - Carrier pilots leave . .."

Additional information on datelines maybe found in The Associated Press Stylebook and Libel Manual.