Anatomy of a Magazine LayoutPage elements can be divided into two basic categories: architecture (grid, mar-gins, standing heads, folios, typographical style sheets, etc) which stay consistentissue to issue and content, which changes with each page and each article. Thishandout looks at both, introducing students to the basic vocabulary of publication

design. While much of periodical design concerns style, which may seem trivial bydefinition, a consistently style is necessary, helping to create a magazine’s brandor identity. Readers rely upon, even when they do not notice the design decisionsthat make an isolated page function as part of a larger whole.

Not all articles have a deckbut most features do. When used, they usually are longer and provide morespecific information than the hed.

Depending on the article (fea-ture, column or brief) and themagazine’s style, “heds” canbe tightly proscribed or openin format

Deck

It can be here or at the end,but don’t forget it. “By” iscapitalized here, l.c. at the end.

Byline

Articles generally start with a “lead,” written anddesigned to engage the reader. After the leadcomes the “nut graf,” journo-speak for “thesisstatement.” Leads may be bigger and splashier thanthe body of the article. It pays to design your pagewith the content and pacing of the article in mind.

It doesn't matter if it’s aphoto, graphic or an illustra-tion. To a magazine designerit’s all “art.” This feature isorganized around a singlelarge photograph—an easy toparse, reader-friendly designstrategy. Every extra elementyou throw into a layout hasthe potential of adding clutterand confusion unless carefullystructured.

Lead

Art

Almost every photo needs acaption (or pull quote) to helpmake the image meaningful tothe reader. This one isdesigned, but most captionsare tightly formatted.

Caption

More than a page number,folios generally contain themagazine’s name and issuedate, In the old days, thename might appear on left-hand pages and the date onright (or the other wayaround) but most magazinesnow put all info on bothpages. The folio is not adesign opportunity—it shouldbe an unobtrusive part of your layouts.

Folio

Headline

The unit of magazine design isoften not the page but thespread. Even when there is nointeraction across pages,spread pages should bedesigned as a unit.

Spread

© Copyright 2007, Jandos Rothstein, George Mason University

Printing isn’t as pre-cise as hand-cutting.All items that go tothe trim shouldoverlap it slightly,“bleeding” off theedge.

Bleed

Larger than captions, pullquotes are used to explain aphoto or put words into themouth of the person shown.Pull quotes, decks, subheadsand captions all fall under thebroad category of points ofentry—call-out text thatinvites the reader into thestory.

Pull Quote

Subheads are used to breakup large chunks of text andhelp the reader understandwhat will follow. Drop caps,line returns, and dingbats arealso used to subdivide text.

Subhead

Turned on or off when you printor make a PDF, these define thepage’s edge or trim.

Crop Mark

Turned on or off with crops,these little targets help theprinter make sure CMY and Kplates print in the right place.

Registration

All art, with rare exception,should be credited. Somemagazines place credits at thebottom, others next to theimage, If there are severalimages by one person, theremay be a larger “Photographsby...” credit in one spot.

Credit

A small story that relates tothe main text. This sidebar isset off by a colored screen,and is on a two-column- ratherthan a three-column grid.

Sidebar

This text “locks to baseline”so that text aligns acrosscolumns automatically. Youcan build this feature intoyour style sheets.

Baseline

Presenting information inways other than columnar textmakes any magazine morescannable and more accessi-ble. This table is a (very) basicinfographic, but still addsvisual interest to the page.Most infographics credit thesource of the information atthe bottom.

Infographic

Most text in a magazine is in asingle size, style and leadingreferred to as body or text.

Body

One of the easiest mistakes abeginning designer can makeis not giving proper consider-ation to margins. A littlewhite space, particularly atthe top and outsides of yourpages helps make layouts feelopen and inviting.

Margin

or Alley. The spacebetween columns isat least a pica. It canbe more.

Gutter This page is laid outon 3-columns, acommon grid formagazines. You mustfollow a regular grid,though it can varywith section.

Grid

Trim

© Copyright 2007, Jandos Rothstein, George Mason University

Anatomy of a Magazine Layout (continued)Opening spreads are billboards, coaxing readers to tuck into the story to follow.However, subsequent pages must keep the momentum going—offering the readervisual interest, intellectual stimulation and entertainment. Readers will put themagazine down or flip to something else if they don’t perceive value.

Typographical Design & Vocabulary—mind the detailsYou know many of these terms from typography class, but may have trouble applying them to your own writing. However, it’s critical to use vocabulary correctly and con-sistently for clarity of communication. This guide is by no means exhaustive, see Bringhurst or another good type reference for a more complete list.

City Beat

LA Labor’s Myriad TroublesLOS ANGELES IS HOME to one of the best-or-ganized and most politically sophisticatedlabor movements in the nation, and the or-dinance, calling for a wage floor of $9.39 perhour with health insurance or $10.64 with-out it, had easily passed the city council themonth before. It had the public backing ofMayor Antonio Villaraigosa, himself a for-mer union leader. The hotel owners hadlaunched a drive to overturn it by referen-dum, arguing that the city had no businessimposing a living-wage requirement oncompanies that weren’t directly doing busi-ness with local government.

On the last afternoon of the protest, Vil-laraigosa put in an appearance with theworkers, to express his support and hand out

The trouble with the word“line” is it can be a line oftype or a line like this one.When discussing rules, be sureto describe them—thick, thin,length, color, texture.

A label or short deck abovethe head is a kicker.

Rule

Kicker

Literally “without ‘serifs’”(thelittle strokes that finish let-ters), these fonts are definedby what they don’t have. Notethat, by itself, serif or sans isnot a very good description.Compare Officina extra bold(used above) to Franklin #2used here. Both fonts areExtra Bold Sans, but have lit-tle else in common.

Auto lead, and defaultindents (which are usuallytoo large) are two of thesurest signs of incompetentlyand indifferently set type.Designers pay attention to,and care about the details.

Sans Serif

Indent

or line length. The width of acolumn of text described inpicas and points, never inch-es. This text is fully justified,most lines to the full width.The headline is flush left.

Measure

leading is the space betweenlines of type. Headlines oftenlook best with “negativelead”—less lead between linesthan the size of the type. Thisheadline is set 24/21, com-pare to the text below,9.5/11.5. You can tell by it’snegative by looking—thedescenders and ascendersoverlap.

The first paragraph in a storyor after a subhead often does-n’t have an indent—it’s obvi-ously the start of a new ”graf”and it allows a neater start.

Old-style numbers have ascen-ders and descenders, whichblend into text more gracefullythan lining numbers, which areall the size of capital letters.

Typographic color—the overalltone and consistency of colum-nar type, has nothing to dowith chromatic color. Don’t usethe word color without beingclear about what you mean.

negative lead

no indent

Old-Style #’s

Color

fijALOS ANGELES IS HOME to one of the best-organized and most politically sophisti-cated labor movements in the nation,and the ordinance.

Ligature twostuck-togetherletters

Serif

Serif

Caps and small caps Articles often start

with a small flourish like this.

Leading

is the space between lines of

text. This type and the grayed

text have the same lead even

though the size of the fonts are

different. Generous lead can go

a long way to making a page

open and inviting. Tight leading

feels newsy and serious.

Descendersgo below thebaseline

x-Heightscan vary. different fonts are differently proportioned.

Ascenders go to or above the cap height

Old Style (looks hand-drawn,

bradketed serif)

Transitional(precise,

bracketed serif)

Modern(fine strokes,

unbracketed serif)

Slab(serifs as thick as

body weight)

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© Copyright 2007, Jandos Rothstein, George Mason University