Technical Writers’ Companion

The title page must provide:

▪the name and the manufacturer of the product

▪if the product has versions: the version of the product

▪the title of the manual

▪if the title doesn’t make this clear: the audience and goal of the manual

If your document will be translated: Bear in mind that texts may be longer in other languages.

Picture:

▪If your product is hardware, include a photo or drawing of the product.

▪If your product is software, include a logo of the product instead of a screenshot or a boxshot. A logo is more characteristic at first glance.

Basic design elements:

▪A simple design only needs some background color and a few basic shapes.

▪Other than on body pages, on a title page it’s OK to add some purely decorative elements. However, make sure that decorative elements don’t dominate the key information, in particular that they don’t take visual precedence over the name of the product and the title of the manual.

▪Sometimes you can make use of a key element taken from a product logo, or you can use another shape that’s characteristic of the product. Later, maybe you can even use the same element or shape also within the document, for example, as a bullet for lists or for marking headings.

▪For the main document title, inverted text (a light color on dark background) is often a good solution. Inverted text can put a heavy emphasis on the text without needing to be very large.

▪Arrange all elements harmoniously (siehe Use the golden ratio).

To get started, you can adapt one of the following generic examples. Change colors, resize elements, and add pictures as required.