Grids & Layout
©typedesignclass 2021
Grids &
Layout
The Guidebook
For best experience, go fullscreen
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©typedesignclass 2021
Viktor Baltus Type Design Class
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Welcome to
class
Graphic design is as much an art as it is a
science. In this guidebook I will teach you the
steps to creating professional looking layouts
Everyone can look at a laid out spread and judge if
filled with text and images. We’ll look at how the
it’s professionally done, it’s harder to quantify that
product you are designing for changes the layout,
professionalism. Why do some layouts work and
and how style changes are perceived by your
others do not? And more importantly, how can you
audience. You’ll learn how to choose your fonts
recreate that professionalism?
and how to lay out a perfect single column design
for your text that is both pleasing to the eye and
which has high readability, because that’s where
creating beautiful layouts starts: with typography.
— Viktor Baltus
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Contents
01. The Basics of Typography
04. Professional compositions
Typeface versus font, serif versus sans serif, display fonts,
Golden ratio composition, 4 steps to create a golden rectangle,
font sizes and is 12pt the best font size?
Fibonacci sequence, rabatment composition,
rule of thirds, and lots of Gestalt theory
02. Building The Page
The anatomy of a grid, columns, alleys, margins,
rows, baseline grid, line length and column width
03. Creating your grid
05. Artboard sizes
The A-Team A-Series, B-series, C-series, US-series
06. Practical tips
Who are you designing for?, determine the width of the column,
Margins and white space, modular grids for multiple designs,
create balanced alleys, how to use line spacing (or leading),
drop caps, range, or text alignment and indents and outdents
baseline grid, and adding rows
“A grid is only useful if it is derived
from the material it is intended to handle”
— Derek Birdsall, designer
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01. The Basics
of Typography
Before you start your design, you must have a
basic understanding of how typography, fonts and
paragraphs work. In this module, we’ll take a look
at fonts, styles, and sizes.
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Typeface
PT Serif
Typeface versus Font
The terms ‘typeface’ and font’ are often used
interchangeably, but they are in fact two different
things. A typeface is a font family, made up of fonts
of different weights, and a font is a single weight. For
instance, PT Serif is not a font but a typeface; PT Serif
Regular is a font. The whole PT Serif typeface (family)
contains four fonts — also called ‘weights’ — ranging
from Regular to Bold.
Fonts
PT Serif Regular
PT Serif Italic
PT Serif Bold
PT Serif Bold Italic
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Aa Aa
Serif versus sans serif
Fonts for body copy are split into two main categories:
serif and a sans serif. The origin of the word ‘serif’ most
likely lies in the Dutch word ‘Schreef’, which means ‘to
write’. Serif fonts have a decorative stroke that finishes
off the end of a letters stem, sans serif fonts do not.
‘Sans’ comes from the Latin ‘sine’, ‘without’.
Serifs help the eye to connect letters, making it easier for
the reader to read longer texts like in books. Sans Serif
fonts have a more modern look than serif fonts and are
often used for larger sizes.
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Smillingen
It’s hard to read a text like this, set in one of the fonts I created for
Heritage Type Company in Berlin this year. Smillingen is designed for
vintage headlines, short paragraphs and logotypes.
Display fonts
The term ‘Display’ comes from the purpose of the design:
to display headers and titles at large and short format,
not for long paragraphs of text. They are often used in
applications such as posters, logotypes and headlines.
They can be either serif, slab serif, script, sans serif,
and so on.
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72pt = 1 inch
Headlines
Captions
Body text
Subtitles and pull quotes
Font sizes
Have you ever noticed how all word editors and design
programs have the same size stack sequence in their
type menu? It goes: 6pt, 7pt, 8pt, 9pt, 10pt, 11pt, 12pt, 14
pt, 16 pt, 18 pt, 21 pt, 24 pt, 36 pt, 48 pt, 60 pt, 72 pt.
Why is there no 22 or 55?
That’s because they follow the same typographical scale
that’s been used for more than 400 years. This is how it
works: Type for print is measured in points. There are 72
points to every inch. If you divide those 72 points into six
you end up your first set of sizes: 12, 24, 36, 60, 72.
But what about those other sizes? 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 14,
16, 18, 21? Back when type was made of lead, even
smaller sizes were needed for the finer printing, so
the scale was expanded. You can always create your
own system of scaling for your design, as long as the
increments are consistent.
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Ascender
x-height
Descender
12pt is the best font size
I always cringe when I hear someone say that 12pt (or
16px in digital designs) is the best font size, or when
someone claims you can’t use font sizes lower than 8pt
on business cards. While that is true in most standard
computer fonts like Arial, it is not the case in all fonts
and printing methods.
All of these fonts have their own ascender height,
x-height, and descender height, it’s up to the type
designer to decide what their values are within the
range of maximum height, so even when they are all the
same point size of 72pt, their appearance can be totally
different when printed.
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02. Building
The Page
The secret to professional looking design lies in
Layout is the overall way of presenting your text
the arrangement of visual elements and how they
and images and includes things like size and
are positioned in relation to each other. It’s a
product. Grids are the backbone of a layout and
combination of layout and grids. The words ‘lay-
are used to create the hierarchy of your text,
out’ and ‘grid’ are related but are different things.
images, and other visual elements.
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The anatomy of a grid
Knowing the names of objects, white spaces and
other elements in graphic design can give you a better
understanding of what you are designing and avoid
miscommunication.
In this chapter we will go through all of these technical
terms so you’ll know exactly how to use them and what
values to give them to create professional layouts.
Column
Alley
Column
Column
Alley
Column
Column
Column
Column
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Column
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Column
Alley
A grid can contain one or multiple columns, a vertical
space where you can place text and or images.
Literature generally has a single column while media like
newspapers can have up to six columns dividing text
and images.
The space between columns is called the alley, just like
the alley between two houses.
Margin
Margin
Margin
Margin
Margin
Gutter
Gutter
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Margin
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Book Margin
Single page Margin
Depending on the end product, the space around your
columns can have different names. For books, the inside,
where the spine is holding the two pages together, is
called the gutter, the outside is called the margin.
In a single page or digital format, all outside spaces are
all called margins.
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Row
Row
Row
Row
Rows
Baseline Grid
Besides the vertical columns, your layout can have
horizontal spaces as well. We call these rows.
These rows come in handy when you want to add
images to your layout, add shorter columns in a
controllable order, or break up certain elements that
will repeat on multiple pages.
A baseline grid consists of horizontal rulers on the base
of each paragraph line. These lines help your text align
on columns with different heights or font sizes.
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500 px
In 1919 he was travelling on the railroads in Italy
carrying a square of oilcloth from the headquarters of
the party written in indelible pencil and saying here
was a comrade who had suffered very much under
the whites in Budapest and requesting comrades to
aid him in any way. He used this instead of a ticket.
He was very shy and quite young and the train men
passed him on from one crew to another. He had
no money, and they fed him behind the counter in
railway eating houses.
In 1919 he was travelling on the railroads in Italy
carrying a square of oilcloth from the headquarters of
the party written in indelible pencil and saying here
was a comrade who had suffered very much under
the whites in Budapest and requesting comrades to
aid him in any way. He used this instead of a ticket.
He was very shy and quite young and the train men
passed him on from one crew to another. He had
no money, and they fed him behind the counter in
railway eating houses.
Line length
Column width
Line length and column width are terms that are closely
related. The line length is expressed by the number of
characters or words per line.
Column width is measured in units like millimeters,
points or pixels.
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03. Creating
your grid
In this module you are going to learn the basic
rules of the ideal column width, how to structure
your columns and align your text with your images
and other design elements.
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Who are you designing for?
Everything in graphic design is geared towards one thing:
showing off your content so it can achieve its purpose.
Maybe you’re laying out an ad for a perfume brand, or
you’re writing a newspaper article about current events.
In either case, your goal and your audience will dictate
your design.
A perfume ad is most likely geared towards one gender
and plays up gender stereotypes. It’s heavily dependent
upon fostering emotion and encouraging a potential
customer to buy. A newspaper article is clean by default
and doesn’t distract: all the focus be directed towards
the information contained in the type and imagery. The
purpose is to inform, not activate.
Before you open your design program, study layouts that
are similar to what you are looking to create. What kind
of fonts are used? What kind of colors? What is your eye
drawn to first? What is most important on the page? Keep
this in mind when you start your own design.
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Determine the width of the column
The first thing on the page will be a textbox, and in order
to create that, you need to determine your column width.
To determine the width of your column, you must first
decide what font you are going to use as not every font
stretches out over the same amount of width with the
same amount of characters.
Choose a font for body text that’s easy to read and fits
your design goal. For the column you are reading right
now I have used Roboto Condensed Regular set at 24pt.
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A
In 1919 he was travelling on the railroads in Italy carrying a square of oilcloth from the headquarters of the party written in indelible
pencil and saying here was a comrade who had suffered very much under the whites in Budapest and requesting comrades to aid him in
any way. He used this instead of a ticket. He was very shy and quite young and the train men passed him on from one crew to another.
He had no money, and they fed him behind the counter in railway eating houses.
B
In 1919 he was travelling on the railroads in Italy carrying a square of oilcloth from the
headquarters of the party written in indelible pencil and saying here was a comrade
who had suffered very much under the whites in Budapest and requesting comrades to
aid him in any way. He used this instead of a ticket. He was very shy and quite young
and the train men passed him on from one crew to another. He had no money, and they
fed him behind the counter in railway eating houses.
C
In 1919 he was travelling on the railroads in Italy carrying a square
of oilcloth from the headquarters of the party written in indelible
pencil and saying here was a comrade who had suffered very much
under the whites in Budapest and requesting comrades to aid him in
any way. He used this instead of a ticket. He was very shy and quite
young and the train men passed him on from one crew to another.
He had no money, and they fed him behind the counter in railway
eating houses.
Which of these texts reads best?
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If you make a text column too wide, it will be difficult to
keep track of the sentence. Make it too short and the
reader will get tired quickly as the eye needs to skip to a
new line every few words. Both hinder readability.
Research has shown that most people read body text
columns best at 45-70 characters per line. This includes
spaces in between words. We call this ‘cpl’; Characters
Per Line. Depending on the language you are using, you
can also use 10 to 13 Words Per Line or ‘wpl’. Some
languages have longer or shorter words than others. The
Dutch language doesn’t have single letter words like ‘a’
and ‘I’, therefore our lines will be wider.
So, before you start your design, choose a font, a font
size, and count the words or amount of characters
per line (wpl or cpl). Now you can move on to creating
columns.
Little exercise
Grab five books from your shelve that you find to have
a beautiful layout and count the words per line.
Do they match the ideal characters per line width?
Column
Alley
Column
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Alley
Column
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Create balanced alleys
The space between your columns is called the ‘alley’ or
as modern design programs like Adobe InDesign likes
to call it, the ‘column gutter’. For this guidebook we will
stick with the old anatomical naming of alley as a gutter
only appears in a book.
If you want to use multiple columns you’ll need to set
the alley width. There is no hard rule for the width of
the alleys, but there is a trick I like to use: type out the
letters ‘MM’ and use that width to set your alley. This way
you have an alley width that feels natural to the font you
are using. A fast way to see how wide two M’s are is by
drawing a rectangle below the MM and using the width
value of it. You can also use the same value as your
leading, or line space.
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How to use line spacing (or leading)
Line spacing is the amount of space between your lines.
It’s also called a leading, pronounced ‘ledding’, like
‘sledding’, but without the ‘s’. It comes from a time when
typesetting was done by hand and pieces of lead were
used to separate the lines. To make your body text easy
to read you need to adapt it to the font size.
One of the easiest ways to determine the line spacing for
body text is to add +2pt or +3pt (points) to your font size.
So if you are using a 11 point font size, make your line
spacing 11 + 2 = 13pt or 11 + 3 = 14pt, whichever looks
more appealing.
You can also use the percentage method: Keep your line
spacing at 120 to 145%. A quick way to calculate this:
120 × 0.XX. So, 120 × 0.11pt = 13.2pt or 145 × 0.11pt =
15.95. Type that is not set in body copy sizes, like titles,
headers, and sub-headers, need less leading.
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Baseline grids
Make sure that when you are using design software like
Adobe InDesign you have a baseline grid to align your
type. It helps you control your text over multiple columns
and makes it look professional.
When using multiple font sizes you need to keep in mind
that they should all align to the baseline grid. You can do
this by using leading that is incremental with the baseline
grid. A 13pt baseline with two smaller font sizes should
have a 13, 26, 39pt leading. All ×2.
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Row
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x-height
Row
Row
Row
Adding rows
Just like vertical columns can be used to align text,
horizontal fields can be used to align images or create
columns of a different height. We call these rows.
Add as many rows as the amount of images you use on a
single page. If a page does not have images and columns
in different heights you don’t have to add them.
To create a professional looking alignment of text with
your images, design elements, or lines, align the bottom
of a row to the baseline grid of your paragraphs and the
top part of your row at the top of the x-height (or the
descender height) of your chosen font.
You can choose to either skip one, or multiple baselines
when placing multiple rows.
Margin
Margin
Margin
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Margin
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Margins and white space
You wouldn’t start writing a letter at the edge of the
paper and you wouldn’t place a column on the edge of an
artboard. To make it readable and pleasing for the eye,
you need to add white space or margin around them.
But how much margin do you add?
There is no hard rule for this, there are however methods
like the ‘thumb rule’, where the margin should be more
than a thumb wide so as to not obscure the text when
holding an item.
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You can also use the Gutenberg method: Draw a diagonal
line from the inside top corner to the outside bottom
corner, then align your column along it with the top left
or right corner. With multiple columns, this creates a
system we’ve seen used in the first printed bible by
Johannes Gutenberg.
You’ll find a Gutenberg grid in the attachments of this guidebook which you can use in your desired design software
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04. Professional
compositions
By now, you’ll have learned how to choose your
There are multiple ways to create professional
column width by taking into account your font and
looking compositions so let’s take a look at some
font size, and you know how to layout rows for
mathematical, optical and psychological theories
your images and shorter columns. The next thing
and rules that can be used to create layouts for
you need to know is how to compose your design
your texts, images and other design elements.
elements in an attractive manner.
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1
Golden Ratio Composition
The Divine Proportions, Golden Ratio or Golden Mean is a
well-known way to create beautiful layouts, but how does
it work? The golden ration proportions are all based on
elements we find in nature. From the shape of a nautilus
shell to the proportions of your arm to your hand. They
describe the perfectly symmetrical relationship between
two proportions, approximately equal to a 1:1.61 ratio.
1.61
4 Steps to create a Golden Rectangle
No need for mathematical formulas and a calculator
to create your own golden ratio, just follow these
four steps to create a perfect Golden Rectangle
1.
Draw a square
2.
3.
4.
Draw a diagonal line from the bottom
Rotate the line on the bottom corner
Use the end of the line as a guide for
center to the top right corner
point until it is in line with the square
the long side of your Golden Rectangle
You’ll find a Golden Rectangle grid in the attachments of this guidebook which you can use in your desired design software
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Golden Ratio to Golden Spiral
If you turn and place the golden rectangle in the righthand side, it will have the same proportions as the
original golden rectangle. This could continue infinitely.
In each square of the Golden Ratio you can also draw a
curved line, resulting in the famous Golden Spiral and
ratio we see everywhere in nature.
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13
21
3 2
5
8
Fibonacci Sequence
The Golden Ratio also relates to the Fibonacci Sequence
in which each number is the sum of the previous two:
1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21 etc.
Drawing circles in them create another way of scaling
elements in your design in a controlable way.
Fibonacci sequence as a grid
2
3
5
8
13
21
2 3 5
8
13
21
You’ll find Fibonacci grids in the attachments of this guidebook which you can use in your desired design software
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Rabatment Composition
Not every image, artboard, or end product has a perfect
Golden ratio of 1:1.61— or needs one! A lesser known
composition method can often replace this theory and is
called Rabatment. Rabatment is a composition method
that consists of overlapping squares in a horizontal or
vertical rectangle, regardless of the dimensions.
When you overlap two Rabatment squares in a rectangle,
they create another rectangle. We call this secondary
Rabatment.
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Public Domain: Death of Marat - Jacques-Louis David
You can continue even further with this by dividing the
squares into even halves and drawing diagonal lines from
their corners to create a new grid, on which you can align
focus points.
In the painting ‘Death of Marat’ you can see that the
Rabatment starts of at the bottom of the painting.
As the squares dividing more, and more diagonal lines
are created, notice how each focal point is neatly aligned
with the composition of the painting.
You’ll find Rabatment grids in the attachments of this
guidebook which you can use in your desired design
software.
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In layouting, this method can help you align columns and
images for a structured look.
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Rule of thirds
The rule of thirds is based on the human optical vision:
when you hold out your arms to the side and look straight
ahead, you can see your hands at about 170 degrees.
When you split up your optical field in three identical
blocks, you end up with 9 equal spaces on both the
horizontal and vertical axes. These lines and cross
sections are places where your eyes unintentionally look.
You’ve probably noticed this grid when you open up the
camera on your phone.
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You can use the rule of thirds to align elements to either
the lines or the cross sections for a better composition.
Because we’re so familiar with perceiving the world this
way, looking at a layout which is in line with the Rule of
Thirds is often pleasing to the eye.
You’ll find a Rule of Thirds grid in the attachments of this guidebook which you can use in your desired design software
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Gestalt Theory
After you’ve taken a look at the mathematical
composition theories (Golden Ratio and the Fibonacci
sequence) and the optical theory (Rule of Thirds), we
can add a third type of theory: Gestalt, the psychological
theory behind compositions.
Back in the 1920s a couple of German psychologists
published a series of theories about the psychology of
our perception of the world as whole forms, rather than
individual elements. The German word Gestalt literally
means pattern, figure or unified structure.
It describes a series of multiple theories which can be
applied to graphic design as well: simplicity, figure/
ground, proximity and similarity, symmetry, continuity,
and connectedness.
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Simplicity
The theory of simplicity states that forms are easiest
perceived in its simplest form. We see this clearly when
looking at typography: letters that are grouped together
form words; letters that are separated on your artboard
are more actively perceived as single shapes. A good
layout design makes use of simplicity to balance the
components on your artboard.
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Figure/ground
The figure and ground theory will help you make your
layout more dimensional. The so-called ‘figure’ is often
perceived by the mind as the focus object while the
‘ground’ is automatically placed in the background.
A figure doesn’t have to be an actual figure, it simply
indicates the text, image, or other object that the
observer should pay most attention to.
The ground frames this element so it stands out more.
Keep in mind that convex elements are often perceived
as figures while concave elements are often perceived as
ground elements.
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Proximity and similarity
Elements that stand in close proximity to each other are
often perceived as being from the same group. This does
not only apply to columns or images but also to elements
that have a similar shape, color, direction, or font size.
When designing a layout, like for instance a music
program with lots of information about the music, times
and musicians, it will help the viewer better understand
the structure if items about the same event are grouped
together or when all times are displayed in a timeline.
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Symmetry
Design elements that are symmetrical are perceived as
part of the same group. We can see this in the layout of
spreads, where the right page is a mirrored copy of the
left. This can also be applied to the layout of elements
that have the same value in terms of importance.
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Continuity
Design elements that are aligned with each other are
perceived as being from the same group. The example
above has letters of the title missing, but because they
are placed in line with the beginning of the word, we can
extend the word easily in our mind. The same theory can
be applied to placing the columns on different fields of
the modular grid, forming a structure the viewer can follow.
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Connectedness
Connecting elements like lines, dots, and shapes are
perceived as connected. A good example of this theory
can be found in the layouts of infographics, flowcharts,
or timelines, where arrows, lines, and dots help connect
one topic to the next.
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“Styles come and go.
Good design is a language, not a style”
— Massimo Viglenni, designer
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05. Artboard
sizes
A business card has a different size to a client
If you are going digital, do you want your end
proposal or book. Before we place anything on
product to be visible on the iPad, a laptop or is it
paper we must first determine what size we want
going to be projected on a wall during a presenta-
our end product to be. Do you want it to have a
tion? All of these possibilities need to be taken
standard size ratio like A5, A4, Letter or B5, or are
into consideration before designing anything.
you going to use your own measurements?
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A8
A7
A4
A6
A5
A2
A3
A-Series
Unless you live in the US, Canada or parts of Mexico, you
probably grew up with A4 paper in your home printer. This
size of paper is known as the International Paper Size
Standard ISO 216, better known as the A-series.
The height to width ratio of the A-series is the square
root of two (1.4142 : 1). In other words, the width and the
height of a page relate to each other like the side and the
diagonal of a square.
This aspect ratio is especially convenient for paper
sizes. If you place two pages next to each other, then the
resulting page will have the same width to height ratio.
The largest size in the A-series, A0, measures exactly
1 square meter. Other sizes are derived from that size
where every size smaller is half the previous size, leading
up (or down, depending on your view) to A1, A2, A3, A4,
A5, A6, A7, A8, A9, and A10.
A1
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B8
B7
B4
B6
B5
B2
B0
B-series
You may never have heard of the B-series, but you’ll have
seen it: it’s a standard poster size (50×70 cm). If you
multiply 50cm by 2 you end up with 100cm (or 1 meter),
this is the longest side of the B-series measuring one
meter. Every size smaller is again half its previous size,
leading up to B1 (50×70cm poster format), B2, B3, B4, B5
(often used for books), B6, B7, B8, B9 and B10.
B1
50cm
100cm
B3
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C-series
Last but not least, the C-series. This series is designed
for envelops, with a little bit of room for the ‘placing the
paper in the envelop’ maneuver. For example, an unfolded
A4 size paper fits nicely into a C4 envelope. If you fold an
A4 to A5 format, then it will fit nicely into a C5 envelope.
If you fold it again to A6, it fits into a C6 envelop. Easy to
remember when ordering envelops right?
C4
A4
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US-series
In the US, Canada and part of Mexico, the ISO standard
sizes are not widely used. The standard paper formats
are Letter, Legal, Executive, and Ledger or Tabloid. While
all ISO A-series paper formats have consistently the
same aspect ratio of the square root of two = 1.414, the
US-series has two different alternating aspect ratios
17/11 = 1.545 and 22/17 = 1.294.
Therefore, you cannot reduce or enlarge them to the next
higher or lower size without leaving an empty margin,
makes designing for these sizes trickier.
US-series versus A-series scaling
Letter
If you use US formats, beware
that 95% of the world does not.
So if you are designing
international printables, mockups,
or even send out invoices
worldwide, it would probably be
best to keep in mind that those
paper formats are not standard or
even available as printing paper.
A4
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06. Practical
Tips
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This chapter is filled with all kinds of practical
tips you will find in your design. From margins
and white space, to modular grids for multiple
designs, drop caps, range, or text alignment and
indents and outdents.
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Modular grids for multiple designs
A modular grid with multiple columns and rows can be
used to create a wide variety of layouts. By placing text
fields that overlap multiple columns or rows, you can
change the look completely while maintaining the same
overall design structure in your document.
Here I’ve used a 4 column and 2 rows grid to create
a wide variety of layouts. By placing images and full
color fields that align in the center of the alley, you can
even add extra margins. Modular grids works best for
designs that have a large array of design elements like
text, graphs, and images. Make sure to use a modular
grid with a baseline grid as this will help you anchor all
elements together.
Litte exercise
1.
2.
Print out the Modular Grid Template and draw as many
Recreate them in your desired design software
variations as you can think of
You’ll find a Modular Grid Template in the attachments of this guidebook
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Drop caps
Drop caps or initials are an effective way of grabbing the
reader’s attention. Here are five things to keep in mind
when using them:
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01
02
The first word or phrase should be set in small caps to
provide a smooth transition for the readers eye
The initial cap can be set in a different font
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03
04
05
Make sure your initial can aligns with the top of the small
caps and the bottom sits on the baseline of the second
or third indent
A fitted cap (the words flow around the capital letter) is
needed for English words that only have one syllable, like
this letter A
When using wide or script letters as initial caps, you can
place them outside of the column
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Flush left aligned text uses a left
alignment. This is what you use
most when typing on your computer
or phone. The words at the end
of sentences near the right wrap
naturally where the words break,
leaving a ‘ragged’ end, which is why
flush left is also called ‘ragged right’.
Range, or text alignment
Range is the structuring by which you align text to the
side(s) of your column, which is why it’s also called text
alignment. Text can be aligned flush left or flush right,
justified, or centered.
Flush right aligned text is the opposite
of flush left aligned text. This will
feel the most unnatural when you
have longer paragraphs that spans
multiple lines, unless you are used to
reading and writing in Persian, Arabic,
or Hebrew. You end up with a ragged
left edge as your eyes and because
we’re not used to that in most Western
countries, our eyes have to search for
the start of the new line.
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Justified text creates nice blocks of text as it uses both the
left and the right as alignment. It is considered to be the
easiest to read, which is why most newspapers and books
use it. Only the last sentence of the text remains justified to
the left. If the last sentence is also fully justified, it’s called
full justification.
If you use full justification, make sure your column has 10
to 13 words per line and hyphenation is turned on. If you
don’t use hyphenation and you use less than 10 words you
end up with gaps in between words.
Centered text aligns from the center.
Every new line creates a new balanced space around it,
creating a symmetrical shape. Use centered text only for
very short headlines as the double ragged edges make it
difficult to read. Another thing to keep in mind is that when
there is a line break you need to remove any spaces at the
end, otherwise the text will align with that space,
making it align off-center.
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WALDEN
Economy
When I wrote the following pages, or rather the
bulk of them, I lived alone, in the woods, a mile
from any neighbor, in a house which I had built
myself, on the shore of Walden Pond, in Concord,
Massachusetts, and earned my living by the labor
of my hands only.
I lived there two years and two months. At
present I am a sojourner in civilized life again.
Indents and outdents
The function of a paragraph indent is to mark a pause in
your text. Here are 5 tips to make your paragraphs look
more professional:
I should not obtrude my affairs so much on the notice of
my readers if very particular inquiries had not been made
by my townsmen concerning my mode of life, which some
would call impertinent, though they do not appear to me
at all impertinent, but, considering the circumstances,
very natural and pertinent. Some have asked what I got to
eat.
If I did not feel lonesome; if I was not afraid; and the
like. Others have been curious to learn what portion of my
income I devoted to charitable purposes; and some, who
have large families, how many poor children I maintained.
01
02
Don’t indent your first paragraph. There is no hard rule for
this, but it is best practice in the industry
Avoid orphans and widows (btw, you should always
do that) followed by a paragraph indent; widows and
orphans are lines at the beginning or end of a paragraph
which are left dangling at the top or bottom of a page or
column, separated from the rest of the paragraph
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Moreover, I, on my side, require of every writer,
first or last, a simple and sincere account of his
own life, and not merely what he has heard of
other men’s lives; some such account as he would
send to his kindred from a distant land.
MMFor if he has lived sincerely, it must have been
in a distant land to me. Perhaps these pages are
more particularly addressed to poor students.
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SEARCH OF LOST TIME, IN Marcel Proust
One of the great novels of childhood, depicting the impressions
of a sensitive boy of his family and neighbours, brought
dazzlingly back to life by the famous taste of a madeleine.
THE GREAT GATSBY F. ScoTT Fitzgerald
Moreover, I, on my side, require of every writer,
first or last, a simple and sincere account of his
own life, and not merely what he has heard of
other men’s lives; some such account as he would
send to his kindred from a distant land.
Jay Gatsby is the man who has everything.
Everybody who is anybody is seen at his glittering parties. Day
and night his Long Island mansion buzzes with bright young
things drinking, dancing and debating his mysterious character.
For if he has lived sincerely, it must have been
in a distant land to me. Perhaps these pages are
more particularly addressed to poor students.
ULYSSES James Joyce Basically everything is very simple: James
Joyce tells what happened to his hero Leopold Bloom on just one
day in 1904 in his hometown Dublin. However, this is very ramified,
includes powerful streaming thoughts and a lot of language
03
04
05
Don’t use standard widths. Make up your own, relative to
the width of your column. I like to use the width of two
uppercase letter M’s as a standard, like we discussed
Use outdents (or hanging indents) for bibliographies,
glossaries or table of contents to make searching
a lot easier
Do not use extra leading between paragraphs that have
an indent
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There is always more to learn about typography and layouting, but I hope you
will feel like you have a base to start from now.
Pick your fonts, decide on your columns, alley and margins, and start building, using the theories you now know and the tools you can find at the end of
the guide.
This is where design becomes interesting: when you can put your own spin
on well-established base principles.
— Viktor Baltus
Type Design Class
Grids & Layout
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© 2021 Type Design Class
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
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requests, write to the publisher, addressed us per email at the address
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(Try to avoid Orphans like this)
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