Students may have noticed that Dickinson’s alternative magazine, the square, has upgraded this semester.

The new square is printed on glossy magazine paper rather than matte newspaper. Editor-in-Chief Sarah Gray ’13 explained that the magazine has also upgraded by switching layout programs from Quark to InDesign, which allows the magazine to run better graphics and pictures.

Gray said that after eight years of printing in the same format, it felt like time to “move forward” and “bring the square into the 21 century. We had the potential, we just needed to ask somebody.”

Gray approached the Student Media Board to request funding to finance the Square’s upgrades. According to Pat Mullane, Assistant Vice-President of Student development and Advisor to the Student Media Board, each student media organization has a yearly budget but can request increased funds from the Board.

“[It used to be that] the administrator in charge of the media fund was in charge managing the [media] budget, but this year we have established a media board with all the editors and station managers. [Gray] came to one of the media fund meetings [to discuss the upgrades] and we decided we had money to put towards this. All publications have a yearly budget, but she put in for additional funds.”

“Quark is a layout program that is kind of obsolete,” explained Gray.  “InDesign was the next step, especially since we work with Photoshop. InDesign allows for a higher quality of design, look, colors and organization.” Another advantage of InDesign is that it allows for higher quality printing, and that it saves all  files and images in a centralized location.

The staff worked with Professor Todd Arsenault, who teaches digital art classes at Dickinson, to learn the basics of layout, images, and saving.

The upgrade went relatively smoothly, with the exception of a delay in getting the computers set up in the square’s office, located next to the Davidson-Wilson laundry room.  Until  the office is set up, the staff is working in the Goodyear building.  Gray says she misses the office, as there were only three computers available to them in their temporary Goodyear location, which forced the editors to avoid distractions to be more productive.

The new computers will also have Incopy, a new program that allows multiple staff members to work on the same document at once, making the layout process more efficient.

“It will be simple and fast,” said Gray.  “Hopefully, the layout will no longer be a two day process.”

The changes have been well-received by staff members of the square.

“The square was one of the aspects of Dickinson that made me fall in love with the school after reading [it after]…my first visit,” said Rachel Schilling ’16, a magazine. “I think the new look is only an improvement and matches the square’s image and ideas better and in a more original context.”

Gray is also happy with the response to the new look.