Again, layout sheets are marked with vertical lines that correspond to the column widths of your publication, as well as horizontal markers that correspond to the units your newspaper uses to measure the height of the ad, usually inches or centimeters.

Sometimes, they're modular sizes like full page, half page horizontal, half page vertical, quarter page, and sixteenth of a page.

Either way, using the information given to you by the advertiser, you need to create a layout using one of these sheets. Basically, draw a box the exact size of the ad you're creating using the column and inch markings as a guide. Next, working from the information the advertiser gave you, begin writing the information in the box as indicated in the figure below.

Usually an advertiser will want a dominant headline, image, and logo in the ad. Write the headline in the box, indicate where the image should go and where the logo, if any, should go by either sketching the logo into the ad or even copying the logo and pasting it into the ad.

You can do this in a very low-tech way using a copy machine. I create a lot of ads while helping my clients sell and since I send the instructions to another location, I find it easier to use an interactive pen display instead of scanning a sketch or taking a photograph of it with my phone. Both get you to the same place, though.

Keep in mind, nothing you write, draw, or paste in this box will be reproduced in the ad. You'll be matching or "keying" this rough sketch to separate copy and art sheets that your production people will use for the actual information and art.

Continue entering the information you want in your ad. If you have small type in the ad and you can't write that small, don't worry. Simply indicate where you want the small type to go with horizontal lines, again, as indicated in the figure above. This may, in fact, be the way your production department wants you to indicate all type, and in some cases, even the headline, as we've done here.

Next: The copy sheet