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(Berkeley, CA)  Four simple design principles will vastly improve the appearance of most desktop-published documents, according to the newly-released The Non-Designer's Design Book from Peachpit Press. The principles -- contrast, repetition, alignment and proximity -- are used in virtually every well-designed document, explains author Robin Williams, best-selling author of The Little Mac Book and The Mac is Not a Typewriter.

"The Non-Designer's Design Book assumes you don't have the time or the interest to study design and typography," explains Williams, "but you would like to know how to make your pages look better."

The slender volume is geared for the visual novice, someone with no training or background in the field. It's ideal for secretaries who are expected to design the company newsletter, church volunteers trying to reach the congregation, or the small business owner creating his own advertising. It's also a brisk refresher course for the graphics professional.

Williams' four principles are:

Contrast -- often the most important visual element on a page. Above all, avoid elements that are merely similar. "If they're not the same, make them very different," urges Williams.

Repetition of the same colors, shapes, line thickness, for example, improves organization and strengthens the unity of a document.

Alignment signals the visual connection among certain design elements.

Proximity dictates that items relating to each other be grouped together, forging them into a single visual unit.

The compact, 140-page trade paperback also contains a section on fonts, which the author calls "the basic building block of any printed page". She reviews fonts from old-fashioned to ultra-modern, explains how to choose and blend type faces to achieve appealing results, and offers tips on how to design documents that contain nothing but type.

"Although I focus on the aesthetics of type," she writes, "never forget that your purpose is communication. The type should never inhibit the communication."

The award-winning author has taught traditional and electronic design for over 12 years, and The Non-Designer's Design Book is a distilled version of what she views as the most common pitfalls of beginners.

"If you follow the principles in The Non-Designer's Design Book," says Robin Williams, "I guarantee that your work will look more professional, organized, unified and interesting. And," she adds, "you will feel empowered!"

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The Non-Designer's Design Book is 140 pages, illustrated, from Peachpit Press. ISBN:1-56609-159-4. List price $14.95 ($20.95 in Canada).

About the author: Robin Williams is the author of eight books, including How to Boss Your Fonts Around, The Little Mac Book, The Mac is Not a Typewriter, The PC is Not a Typewriter, and PageMaker 4: An Easy Desk Reference. She lives in the high desert outside Santa Fe, NM, with her three children and three dogs.

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