Newspaper Generator

Common questions

How do I make my own newspaper page?

Fill in the fields on the left of the stage: the masthead (your paper's name), an optional date and edition line, the headline, the byline, a photo and its caption, and the story, one paragraph per line. Under Page settings choose the paper (Letter, A4, Tabloid or A3), one to four columns, a template (Classic, Modern or Bulletin) and a story text size from 9 to 12 pt. The preview redraws as you type. When the flags under the readout are cleared, press Download PDF or Download PNG, and print the PDF at 100% (Actual size) rather than Fit to page.

Can I use the name of a real newspaper, like The New York Times?

No. The masthead refuses the names of well-known real newspapers, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, The Times, the Daily Mail, The Times of India, Hindustan Times, The Hindu, The Indian Express, Dainik Jagran, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Globe and Mail, plus short forms such as NYT, WSJ, WaPo, NY Post and LA Times. Capitals, accents, punctuation, spacing, words run together and a leading The make no difference. Characters that reverse the direction of text, and invisible spaces and fillers, are taken out before the check and left off the page. Common lookalikes are read as the Latin letters they resemble: letters from other scripts shaped like Latin ones, such as Cyrillic, Greek, Armenian, Cherokee and Lisu, small capitals, and a 0 typed for O or a 1 for I or l. That catches the usual disguises, not every one there could be. A name of two or more words is also refused inside a longer title, so The New York Times Kids Edition is refused, while a one-word name such as Times or Guardian, or the everyday phrase Daily News, is refused only on its own, so The Maple Street Times and Room 12 Daily News work. A refused masthead does not print, and the page cannot export until you give it an original title. A headline, byline, date, edition line or photo caption that is nothing but one of these names is refused and left off the page the same way, and with no masthead printed, the headline is checked as a masthead is, because it becomes the top line. The templates are original too and copy no real paper's lettering, emblem or layout.

Why does every page say it is a novelty page?

Every page, in the preview and in every PDF and PNG, carries a line at the foot in 7.5 pt type: "A novelty page made on gizmobench.com. Not a real publication." There is no setting that removes it. A page laid out like a newspaper can be mistaken for one, and the line says plainly what it is, however the page is shared.

How does the story flow from one column to the next?

Each line you type in the story box is a paragraph, and blank lines are ignored. The story runs down column 1 to the bottom, then continues at the top of column 2, and so on, so a paragraph that does not finish at the foot of one column picks up at the head of the next. The row under the readout says what happened, for example "column 1 ends inside paragraph 3, column 2 picks it up: 1, 2, 3, 4 in order", and The page as text lists every column's words in the order they are read. Classic justifies the text and indents every paragraph after the first; Modern and Bulletin set it ragged on the right with a little space between paragraphs.

What happens if my story is too long for the page?

The words that do not fit are overset: they are counted, not printed, and flagged before export. The Story cell of the readout shows how many words there are and how many are overset, and Show overset selects exactly those words in the story box. You can shorten the story, choose a smaller text size or a bigger paper, move a wide photo to the top of column 1, or tick Export with these flags to print the words that fit. A headline that needs more than six lines at 16 pt, or a caption longer than three lines, is cut and flagged the same way.

Does the newspaper generator add today's date?

No. The date prints as you type it, on the left of the line under the masthead, and if you leave it empty no date prints and none is filled in. The tool never reads the clock, and the PDF is written without the creation date that PDF writers usually add.

What size and resolution are the PDF and PNG?

The PDF is one page at the paper's exact size: Letter 8.5 x 11 in, A4 210 x 297 mm, Tabloid 11 x 17 in or A3 297 x 420 mm. The page is drawn as a picture at 300 dpi for Letter and A4 (2550 x 3300 and 2480 x 3508 pixels) and at 250 dpi for Tabloid and A3 (2750 x 4250 and 2923 x 4134 pixels), and the PNG is that same picture. Because the page is a picture, the text in the PDF cannot be selected or searched. The fonts are the ones on your device, Georgia and Helvetica or their nearest match, so line breaks can differ slightly from one computer to another.

How is the photo placed?

Add photo takes one picture, which is kept as a JPEG copy of at most 2400 pixels on its long side. A picture over 100 megapixels, or over 16,384 pixels on a side, is refused, so save a smaller copy of it first. A picture whose size cannot be read from the start of its file is refused too, before it is opened, so save it as a PNG or JPEG and add it again. It prints either across all the columns under the headline, taking at most 45% of the height left for the story, or at the top of column 1, taking at most half of that column. It is cropped from the centre to fill its box, never stretched. A caption prints under it, up to three lines, and does not print when there is no photo.

Can I save my newspaper and finish it later?

Yes. This browser remembers the words and page settings, but not the photo, and Start over forgets them. Save project downloads a .json file holding the words, the settings and the photo, and Open project brings the whole page back on any device. Nothing is uploaded: the page is laid out, drawn and written into its files here in the browser tab.

Is the example page the tool opens with mine to print?

The page opens with an example, The Maple Street Gazette, with a headline, byline, caption and story written for this tool about a fictional class planting trees. Each field still holding example text carries an Example tag, the preview outlines it with a dashed line, and export waits until you replace it, press Clear example text, or tick Export with these flags.