Earning a two- or four-year degree, becoming proficient with industry software, and honing design skills are all common prerequisites for becoming a paginator. Understanding how to use and manipulate text and photos, select fonts, and create visually appealing pages is also beneficial. When studying to be a paginator, it’s a good idea to start a portfolio of your work to show potential employers, such as book, newspaper, and magazine publishers, your skills and abilities.
A paginator job candidate must typically be able to demonstrate proficiency with common publishing software. Completing college-level courses to learn the skills required for the position is one of the first steps to becoming a paginator. These abilities include the ability to work with a variety of computer programs that are commonly used in pagination jobs. Paginators must also be capable of working with photos, graphics, and text.
For someone who wants to work as a paginator, the ability to choose appropriate text sizes and fonts, as well as manipulate their placement, is crucial. Editing text and combining a variety of fonts within a page are common paginator responsibilities. Because paginators work with text, they should have good grammar, word usage, and the ability to edit text for a specific format. Certain editing styles are used specifically for specific publications and are referred to as editing formats.
Another skill required for most people studying to be paginators is the ability to create and manipulate graphics and logos. Many publishers are looking for paginators who can produce artwork on demand, such as logos and graphs. Photo skills are also desirable, ranging from the ability to take photos to the ability to make adjustments to achieve a desired color, contrast, and tone. In order to be compatible with computerized software used during the printing process, photos used in the pagination process are usually processed with a computer program.
Paginators are frequently held responsible for the spelling, punctuation, and usage of text on the pages they layout or design. A person who wants to become a paginator should focus on honing his vocabulary and grammar usage skills in addition to honing his design skills. A paginator with excellent writing and editing skills is often a highly valuable and versatile employee, as his skill set allows him to perform a wide range of tasks within a company.