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Pull-Quotes: Pull-Quote Is A Display Element Which Is Used To Attract The Reader and To Break Up Long Blocks of Text

Pull-quotes are display elements used to attract readers and break up long blocks of text. They must be interesting and provide important thoughts from the main text. Pull-quotes can vary in length, size, color, and formatting but should contrast from the surrounding text. They are most commonly placed inside the body text to break it up but can also be used at the top or bottom of pages. Care should be taken to avoid issues with placement like pull-quotes being too wide or mistaken for headlines.

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148 views4 pages

Pull-Quotes: Pull-Quote Is A Display Element Which Is Used To Attract The Reader and To Break Up Long Blocks of Text

Pull-quotes are display elements used to attract readers and break up long blocks of text. They must be interesting and provide important thoughts from the main text. Pull-quotes can vary in length, size, color, and formatting but should contrast from the surrounding text. They are most commonly placed inside the body text to break it up but can also be used at the top or bottom of pages. Care should be taken to avoid issues with placement like pull-quotes being too wide or mistaken for headlines.

Uploaded by

Pedih
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Pull-quotes

One of the page elements that brings visual power to the page is the pull-quote. Pull-quote is a display
element which is used to attract the reader and to break up long blocks of text. The effect of pull-quotes
depends on their attractiveness, both visual and textual.

Pull-quote is a display element which is


used to attract the reader and to break up
long blocks of text.

Regarding the text, pull-quotes must be interesting, they must provide some rich, important thoughts.
They can be pulled directly out of the body text, or they can be summarized, and it is the role of copy
editor to find or write something interesting that will attract the reader.

If the pull-quote is copied from the main text move the pull-quote further from the place where the
original text is residing.

As a visual element they must be instantly recognizable and different from the rest of the text on the page.
The size, color and texture of the pull-quotes must be different from the surrounding text. Depending on
the style and look of your publication, pull-quotes can have a calm, traditional design or you can create
some extravagant looking pull-quotes.

Size and length of pull-quotes


There is no rule how long or big pull-quotes must be. It all depends on the other elements on the page.
When creating pull-quotes they should have at least several words. Few words are not enough, but more
than two sentences are too long in my opinion. Pull-quote can be in one line across the whole page or
even a spread or it can be arranged in several short lines. It all depends on the nature of the story and the
layout that you plan to create.

The design of the pull-quotes

There are infinite possibilities how can you design your pull-quotes. Let your imagination play but do not
go overboard.
There are infinite possibilities how can you
design your pull-quotes. Let your
imagination play but do not go overboard.

You can separate your pull-quotes with quote marks (often exaggerated in size), you can use horizontal or
vertical rules, you can put them in a box with background color but whatever you do make a contrast
from the rest of the text so that the pull-quotes are instantly recognizable as such. The options are endless.

The size of the font is not as important, but it should be at least several points bigger than the body copy.
In my experience do not go below 15 pt., but it all depends on the size and the look of the font you are
using. The best way is to use your judgement by the eye. If it looks too big, make it smaller and vice
versa.

When placing pull-quotes inside the body copy make some room around it. Give it some space to breathe
because this will emphasize the pull-quotes even more.

Placement of pull-quotes
Most usual placement of pull-quotes are inside the body copy. This is good because you will break large
chunks of body copy so it can be easily digested by the reader.

If you have body copy laid out in three columns, pull-quotes can span across two columns.

If you leave one column on the outside of the page empty you can place pull quotes, there. This will
create a very elegant layout. You can even cut the quotes into the columns a bit. This will create a
dynamic layout and will break the vertical lines that can sometimes create a monotone layout.

You can place pull-quotes at the top or at the bottom of the page, but this will not break up the body copy.
To break the body, copy instead of pull-quotes use some subheads and drop caps to spice up a page a bit.
You can place pull-quotes at the top or at
the bottom of the page, but this will not
break up the body copy

What to avoid while placing pull-quotes


If you place pull-quote between two columns do not make it too wide because this can result in too
narrow space on the outsides of the columns which can affect readability. Make them thinner, or even
better, make them thin and tall. Of course, do not make them too thin so that the words break up too often.

It is best to turn off the hyphenation option for pull-quotes.

Try not to place pull-quotes on top of the single column, because they can be mistaken for the headline.

When placing two pull-quotes on the page do not place them on the same horizontal line. Space them out.

Do not place pull-quotes between the paragraphs because they can be mistaken for a subhead. Always
place them inside paragraphs.

Be a journalist
Although it is the role of the copy editor to choose or write pull-quotes sometimes you can do it by
yourself. For this you must have some experience in magazine publishing, and you must have an
understanding what will attract the reader!

Someone said that the designers are visual journalists. Well, now you can be a real one. If you are on a
tight period or your editor is not nearby, you can take some interesting (but it really must be interesting)
piece of text and use it as a pull-quote. It is not quantum physics, just take some appealing and attractive
sentence from the body copy. The copy editor did not already choose some instead.

When you have placed the text in the spot intended for the pull-quote, read it. If it does not read clearly,
improve it. When I say improve it, I do not mean you should rewrite it. Let me give you an example and
you will understand what I mean.

If you read these two quotes you will see the difference. The left one does not have the right flow, the
right one has. Always inspect (read) pull-quotes and see if the flow of the words is right. You can see how
the words “copy editor” and “pull-quotes” are separated in each row while they should be together. Also,
the last line contains only one word, which is also not good. The right example has a natural flow, and it
is easier to read.

Sometimes you will not be able to do it right because awkward ragged lines may appear and you will
need a help of the copy editor to adjust the text or rewrite it, but in most cases, you will manage to correct
the text flow.

This wraps up our topic about pull-quotes. Hope you like it and if you have any comments or questions,
feel free to contribute.

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