Holiday Bulletin Deadline Schedule 

          Bulletin for                        Due on

          November 27, 2022           Friday, November 18, 2022

          December 18, 2022           Friday, December 9, 2022

          December 25, 2022           Thursday, December 15, 2022

          January 1, 2023                Thursday, December 22, 2022

Current Concerns: Gun Violence

We live in a world where our prayerful attention can suddenly be drawn to a tragedy or a great need. As Church, it can sometimes be our duty to invite our parishioners to pray for something in particular. Part of the service we provide at J. S. Paluch is to give you the resources to help you do just that.

After recent highly-publicized tragedies involving gun violence, we thought it would be appropriate to create covers and suggested prayers to address the issue of gun violence. You can find these materials on the Current Concerns page of the J. S. Paluch Subscriber Resource Center bulletin resources (SRC). To get there from the home page, click on the Current Concerns tile:

 

Or from any page within the SRC, click on the Concerns tab at the top:

 

We try to stay on top of events in the world that you might want to put in your bulletin. If something comes up, we will post it in Current Concerns and let you know in the banner at the top of every page in the SRC. If there is something that you would like to see us include on this page, please let us know, and we will give it thoughtful and prayerful consideration.

How Much Clip Art is Too Much?

Clip art is fun, easy to use and abundant these days! But how do you know when to stop? How do you determine which articles warrant a graphic and which articles would be best left to stand on their own? 
Although there are no steadfast rules in regards to clip art and page layout, there are a few tips that can be followed to ensure your layout is not too graphic heavy. 

First, prioritize. Where is it that you want your reader's attention drawn first? Readers are naturally drawn to large, strategically placed graphics. Use fewer, larger graphics to draw attention. 

Next, keep it consistent. If using multiple graphics on one page, line them up on the same margin, or keep them in the same style, ie. cartoon, artistic or contemporary. 

Another way to minimize the clutter is to skip the graphic altogether. Keep in mind that borders, shading, drop caps and bullet points are all competing for attention alongside your graphics. Review your document layout and scale back those elements that compete for your reader's attention. Too much visual stimulation just means that your message gets lost in the clutter. Use fonts and font attributes to draw attention when the graphics count is climbing. 

The first sample has many, smaller graphics all competing for the attention of your reader. The second sample, with one oversized image, draws focus. As a bulletin editor, understanding the power of graphic placement is another important tool in your design toolbox! 

Ouch!

Browsing through bulletins from around the country, one will not go long without encountering images contorted like the ones above. For sure, fitting everything into your weekly bulletin can sometimes seem like pouring ten pounds of flour into a five-pound sack. And at times it can be really tricky to fit an image into the space available to you. But there are alternatives to stretching and squishing images until they are unrecognizable. Here are a few tips to help you avoid such pain.

• Not every image has to go all the way across the top of a column or page. You can take a square image, place it at the top on just one side (usually the left side) of a column, and wrap your text around it. 

• If you have to shrink the image, do so while maintaining the relative horizontal and vertical proportions. Usually you can do this by grabbing a corner and dragging. And if there is text in the image, don't make it so small that it can't be read.

• Enlarging an image is seldom a good idea. While some will still look OK, many images start to look pixelated as you make them larger.

• Look for a different image to fill the space you need. The SRC has images in many different shapes and sizes to help you fit your available space.

• If you find that you repeatedly end up trying to re-shape images to fit your space, LET US KNOW. We will be happy to work with you on creating images to fit wherever you need them. But we can't do so if we don't know what you need. 

Taking a little care to present the images available to you in the way they were intended will help to make your bulletin attractive as well as informative.

Introducing Micro-clips

This year we have added a new feature to the resources available on the J. S. Paluch Subscriber Resource Center: Micro-clips. These are postage-stamp-size photographic images that can be used as headers or accent pieces for any of a number of different kinds of bulletin announcements. 

One distinguishing feature is that almost none of them have any text on them, which makes them even more versatile. You’ll find one or two of them listed toward the bottom of the first page on any given Sunday. The filename given to each image also indicates its content. There are names like USFlag3 or ChaliceHost.

Some of the Micro-clips are seasonal, but most are not. So a better way to see all the Micro-clips that are available is to launch a keyword search. On the main Bulletin Resources page of the SRC, click on All Resources, or if you are already on a resource page, click on the All tab. Then in the box under Type Keywords, type in “Micro clip” (without the quotes), hit Enter, and all the Micro-clips will appear in your browser. Scroll through them to see what’s available and start adding these versatile accents to your bulletin today!

PS: We are in the planning stages for next year’s resources, so if there is an image that you’d like to see included in the next round of Micro-clips, be sure to let us know.

I Remember When: Posting Your Bulletin Online

I frequently hear myself telling my fifteen year old daughter that "I remember when. . . . " For example, I remember when candy really did cost a penny. And I remember when we waited all week for our favorite television show instead of binge-watching an entire season in one afternoon. 

Well, I also remember when bulletins were only printed and handed out at Mass on Sunday. Today's technology allows us to put the bulletin right into the parishioners hands via their smartphones, laptops, and tablets with just a click of a button. 

Parishioners and visitors can access the current issue as well as past bulletins with ease. JS Paluch makes it easy to download your complete bulletin via our website, www.jspupload.com, and then post it to your parish website for all to find and read. 

1. Use the drop-down menu from Download and select Download Bulletin

2. Key in your six-digit bulletin number

3. The most current issue of the bulletin will be displayed. (Or click Previous Bulletins to see older issues of the bulletin.)  

4. Open the bulletin that you want to download and on the upper right corner, click the download button to save the file onto your computer. You can now share this complete file, ads included, on your parish website or via email. 

And now I remember when JS Paluch made it simple and quick to stay connected!