What is newspaper layout
What is newspaper layout
What is newspaper layout
The Electronic Broadsheet
9.1 Automating the Layout Process
Without the ads the problem is surprisingly similar to the computer game Tetris; blocks are to be placed to minimize white space.
Through grants from the American Newspaper Publishers Association, J F Reintjes of MIT and his students have done a substantial amount of work on automating newspaper layout. Their research focuses on assisting newspaper personnel in the layout process rather than automating the entire process:
«At the other extreme, a fully automated layout system is conceivable where layouts would be created according to pre-conceived algorithms. Ideally, such a system would be the fastest and most efficient approach; however, we believe the layout process is too complex and day-to-day conditions are too varied to permit the design of an algorithm that can achieve acceptable layouts consistently and cost-effectively.» [Reintjes et al. 77]
9.2 Templates
Kan [Kan 77] gives the layout process more information about the desired page design by introducing templates. Templates are dummy pages that have been designed with the overall page layout in mind. A library containing all allowed templates for a newspaper page would number between 100.000 and 1.000.000 entries. The estimate is the product of the number of different possible layout styles, ad dummies, story and picture sizes, and story and picture counts. Although is possible to store and process this amount of information, collecting the data in the first place would require a substantial amount of work.
By abstracting templates to contain geometrical data only, Kan reduced the number of templates to a few hundred. The new templates specify no metric data and each template can generate many different page layouts.
DeTreville [DeTreville 78] defines a template grammar that describes the set of legal templates. The purpose of the grammar is to outlaw templates that should be avoided. The descriptive grammar consists of a small set of rules, e.g., «The shape of a template must never become larger as one scans from top to bottom.» A large number of templates are in the set of legal designs, from which the template to be used is selected in a semi-random way.
9.3 The Layout of the Electronic Broadsheet
Unless news articles are constantly reformatted it is impossible to keep a dynamic page optimized with regard to open space. One story will be taken down and the new article will not cover the hole unless it is reformatted with the new space in mind. Doing so would delay the presentation, and the result could look awkward. But, virtual news space is cheap and since one white block will not multiply into large areas of white paper the problem is not critical.
* if the priority of the article is high, it will try to get a position in the upper part of the page
* if it’s a one-column article it should go to one of the edges
* there should be a horizontal balance of articles
The layout program never moves an article after it has been placed since that could interfere with news reading. However, there are situations where one would want to move articles to make room for the new story. E.g., if a high priority article comes in and there is only room at the bottom of the page, it would be better to move the top articles down instead of placing the new article at the bottom, which is where it goes now.
9.3.2 Recycling Real Estate
9.3.3 The Layout of the Front Page
A possible solution is to format two versions of the article; one intended for the front page and one for the section page. This approach would require more processing power, and deciding how much of the article to put on each page is not trivial. Another approach is to format the whole article, but only display parts of it and let the user scroll through the content. Unfortunately, the performance of the current system is not adequate to handle the increased burden of scrolling; it is already burdened by the X11 server and a formatting process running simultaneously. Also, both of the above solutions would hide parts of the article for the user while reading. As long as it’s possible to fit the article on a page, I believe it should be shown in full.
Three different ideas of how the front page should look crystallized during the course of the project:
* The traditional: The newspaper front page is a highly successful channel of communication and should be transferred intact onto the screen. The most important articles are displayed with a tiled layout. This approach wastes screen space in a dynamic environment where articles come and go, but it is the most organized. Also, it is consistent with the layout in the sections.
* The volcano: The front page displays all articles in full with overlapping windows. Important stories float to the top of the stack, less important articles may be partly visible, while the articles with the least priority are totally overlapped. The page contains a lot of information and looks chaotic at times.
By clicking in a partially visible article, it will float to the top. This alternative quickly fills the front page with a segmented compound of articles. It is both serendipitous and chaotic.
* The headlines: As many articles as possible are stacked with the headline visible. By clicking and holding down the mouse button, a user can temporarily bring an article to the top of the stack. This approach offers a structured interface to a lot of data.
People feel strongly about front page design and opinions are diverse. The three alternatives all have their merits and some users might want to use them all.
Layout of a newspaper. Why is layout important The objective of newspaper make up: Indicate the most important news To make the page easy to read To make.
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Presentation on theme: «Layout of a newspaper. Why is layout important The objective of newspaper make up: Indicate the most important news To make the page easy to read To make.»— Presentation transcript:
1 Layout of a newspaper
2 Why is layout important The objective of newspaper make up: Indicate the most important news To make the page easy to read To make the page look attractive It gives the newspaper an individuality Arrangement of illustrations, graphics and text is done in a way so as to give an aesthetically appealing newspaper
5 Who assembles the paper In english newspapers mostly the chief editor devotes time to the composing room and the news room both to direct the assembling of the stories Almost all urdu newspapers have a one person assigned full time for the layout of the paper.
6 Broadsheet Broadsheet newspapers have large headlines. They use simple fonts, which don’t look quite as interesting, also there is lots of writing on the front page it’s kind of as if it’s a page that’s inside the newspaper. Also they don’t really have much colour on the front pages its basically just black and white although there are some bits of colour. Broadsheets look more formal and have much more formal fonts
7 Tabloid Tabloid newspapers have big bold headlines and large images, there is also very little other writing if any. They also have plenty of colours in them which make them very appealing and really grab your attention. They also tend to have lots of different interesting fonts to make each separate part stand out, also there not normal generic fonts which quite boring. See Pakistan Today, The Sun, The Mirror for reference.
8 Front page THE FRONT PAGE IS A NEWSPAPER’S front door. It’s the first thing a reader sees. The stories that appear there are ones that will be talked about all day. What makes a front-page story? Important news, of course, about decisions the president has made, wars that have broken out or planes that have crashed. But editors—the people who run newspapers—want a mix of stories. A good front page might also include articles about a come-from- behind sports victory, a medical breakthrough or an ordinary person who has done something extraordinary—what’s known as a “human interest” story. Photographs that grab the readers’ eyes also are important parts of the front page.
9 Editorial page – op ed The editorial page is one place in the newspaper where opinion is not only permissible but encouraged. The editorial page is dominated by comment and analysis rather than objective reporting of factual information. Here, the opinions of the newspaper’s editorial board are put forth in editorials. Some newspapers identify the author of each editorial, others do not. Opinions of newspaper staff members and outside correspondents appear in by-lined columns usually located on the facing page, which is called the «op-ed» page. The op-ed page also contains analysis and background pieces.
10 Make up of the editorial page A typical editorial page consists of the following: Editorials – although written by individuals, editorials reflect the corporate opinion of the newspaper; the viewpoint expressed is the result of consensus among the editorial board members Letters to the editor Editorial cartoon Columns By-lined pieces by newspaper staff (some newspapers divide this material between an editorial page and the op-ed page).
11 Horizontal make up this is usually how magazines are Vertical make up Newspapers are designed vertically
12 Vertical make : Balanced make up Off balance make up Imbalanced make up
13 Balanced makeup there is a balance throughout the page. There can never be a perfect balance as one headlines at the top of the page is sometimes a banner, bolder than the rest. Over all there is balance, concentration of news is in the top half of the page
14 Off balanced make up has two types: Focus make up is in which a line is drawn vertically and horizontally. The page is divided into four sections. A common form of focus make up employs a brace in which the focus shifts diagonally. Contrast make up which has the opposite sides of the paper giving a mirror image. The stories and headlines on the opposite sides are somewhat alike in terms of size of the text and the size of the story etc
15 Photographs in the newspaper: Historically speaking, the first newspaper to use photographs was Kohistan back in the 1950s. They pioneered the trend.
16 Types of pictures Politicians, social issues etc Sources of pictures Staff photographers News agencies provide pictures Freelance photographers
17 How do you select a picture for the paper or the story: Exclusive pictures Selecting pictures according to the space available Interesting picture File photos are used for politicians that are stored in the digital library with newspapers and television channels
Today we are going to talk about styles in website design, and the accent we make is on the newspaper style. In this post, you will find out the most distinctive features of this design and get some useful tips to follow to gain better outcome with your project.
Style is a total combination of how you design your website. Style is also a way of communication between you and your audience. Each web design style has its specific set of components.
The main styles in web design are:
Newspaper style was primarily used for online newspapers and magazines, as their printed versions have this structure. Today this design is appropriate for any website, especially if it must be content-heavy. Website done in a newspaper style is easy to recognize among many others by a content-rich layout, multi-column structure, simple and contrasting colors.
Newspaper Website Layout: Characteristics
1. Black on White
Traditional printed newspaper is white or gray and the text is black. This color combo is perfect for our eyes. The contrast of colors facilitates the readability and that is why this color scheme is the most suitable for newspaper style websites, which are usually stuffed with much content. You can step aside from this classic color mix, but you should always keep in mind that contrast is a must. You can turn over the regular color choice making the background black and the typography white. But never use yellow on black, green on blue, pink on blue, etc. Try to read the website yourself, if your eyes feel well after, you can adopt the picked colors on your web project.
Neutral light and dark are basic colors, yet there can be more accent colors used. For example, blue is good to use for headlines, red would be perfect for buttons. The navigation menu tabs can be decorated with a lighter or darker shade of the primary color, or colored the same as accent details. So, the menu will stand out on the canvas and bring a perfect visual experience to users.
2. Minimal Graphics
The website with newspaper layout is clean, informative, structural and has graphic elements designed accurately and in the minimalist way. Graphic elements are:
As we already mentioned, the color palette is always simple on such websites. The textures are rarely used on newspaper web designs, because a wall of text with images on a wood or grunge texture will distract your visitors and aggravate the readability of the content. Nevertheless, paper texture is right to the point here. It can be a background texture, buttons texture or used for just Header or Footer areas.
The regular grid-based design or multi-column layout cut down the use of shapes and lines, because there are enough of them anyway. There would be too much geometry if you design your right form website with an extra set of figures.
3. Grid-based Design or Multi-column Layout
Newspaper website layout is the one with perfectly organized structure. These are content-rich websites that usually have this kind of design, and so structure comes to be the first. Grid or columns are the most useful types of content arrangement. It is true that “well designed grid systems can make your designs not only more beautiful and legible, but more usable” (Mark Boulton). The grid-based layout allows you to break the content into comprehensive blocks; thereby engage users to read your website not skim.
Similar but not the same is multi-column layout. These should be a few columns of a right height, but not necessarily the same width. The wider the columns are, the more readable the text is. Two columns can make great look, though three and more are definitely better. The columns, as grid, help to differentiate the content, make it easier for users to find an interested section. While, going for this style of layout you shouldn’t forget about the column gap. The website will be extremely hard to read, if the columns are too tight to each other.
4. Headlines and Excerpts
Do you want to open each post and read it when you enter a website or blog with many texts? Headlines help us to differentiate interesting article from the secondary one. So, each content block needs to be entitled. Whether it is a small section on a grid or a full-height column, it should have a headline. The headline is to be of a bigger font, typed in bold or highlighted with a different color. This point is clear, I suggest.
Excerpts are short descriptions of the text articles. These are always done to raise readers’ interest and give them an understanding of a long text in a few sentences. This element is useful, if you run a blog, online periodical, news website, etc.
5. Primary and Secondary Content
Draw a borderline between the parts of your content. Define what is the most important and which texts can wait to be read. For example, you can design your front page with a large header section for new posts (one or a couple). This is a featured area with large images and graphics. The other content will be smaller and based on grid fractions. This makes a strong focus on the latest arrival and help to gain more social shares.
6. Intuitive and Consistent Navigation
Newspaper website layout is designed for content and this content must be easy-to-navigate. Consequently, the navigation menu is characterized by its simplicity, and right position.
The best position is a top page area, because this zone is the first to be mentioned and it always on the same place – just scroll up if you are at the bottom. In case, you love vertical navigation and can’t stop loving it – make your menu oriented vertically but do it on the left. We read from left to right and not vice versa, so the elements on the left fall into eye earlier than on the right.
Newspaper style websites share tons of texts, and they need to be reachable for users.
7. Categorization
Better use of categories is available within newspaper website layout the most. It refers to blogs particularly, and any other websites too. Most sites fail, because they have content purely organized. Categories are necessary if you post frequently and on diverse topics (e.g. news websites).
Divide your content into categories and display them either on a sidebar or on the navigation menu bar.
8. Space for Advertisement
How are you going to make money before your website become popular? Advertisement is how many website owners make rather big profits. Ad banners have to be placed not just somewhere but this position has to be defined exactly. The right places are sidebar, both left and right, Header or Footer. Promotion banners are often seen right in the middle of the text articles, but this point is controversial: it is good for you as a person who takes money for this, but these elements can also irritate your readership.
9. Functional Sidebar
Sidebar can feature not advertisements only, but content categories, recent content, search box, email newsletter bar, navigation, social sharing buttons, discounts/special offers, etc. Newspaper website layout is great to implement sidebar on, because it would be just another column in the row.
There are a couple of ingredients of a successful sidebar design:
A sidebar should be smaller or equal to the regular column on your layout, no way bigger. It should be kept in neutral colors, but with visible typography. The placement can be both left and right but as we already said everything on the left is seen immediately.
10. White Space Maximization
So far as we are creating a multi-functional website with impressive layout, we can’t but remember about white space. This is an essential component even for a newspaper style design. Let it be space between columns, empty sections from the sides or at the bottom. Users should have a chance to avert their eyes from the text wall and think over.
Generally, white space is considered to be a section where nothing is typed. There is a more narrow meaning: white space is between text lines and letters, around content elements. It is everything that makes your website more readable and simple, even though it is filled with an excessive number of content items.
11. Frequent Content Updates
Newspaper website layout obliges you to work on your project constantly. The website with many columns and grid sections being empty will look awkwardly. You need to fill the website thoroughly, and keep with the tendency to upgrade the content regularly, make your publications frequent and change the featured content in the Header (or wherever you do it).
Content and frequency is a couple, like king and queen. Besides the website look itself, frequent content affects on your results in search engines. People visit your website rarely, if it is outdated, and Google sees it. So, your content gains worse scores in search results.
12. Social Sharing Encouraged
Blogs and news sites are the most common to use newspaper style, and these websites can’t exist without social media integration. It’s the epoch of mass sharing, and social networks are where people spend much of their time. You should use cool follow and share buttons for each network: Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Pinterest, LinkedIn, etc. The only caution: don’t use the accounts you abandoned, use just those you post on oftentimes. Create these buttons the most visible on the website to ensure yourself a better visual exposure on the media platforms.
One more thing we would like to mention about the peculiarities of newspaper website layout is the responsiveness. This layout will never remain the same on mobile devices, and there is no way to make a mobile version keeping it in a newspaper style. Mobile website should not have a multi-column content arrangement, and this is a must for newspaper web design. A mobile website can’t have sidebars. And it is better to reconsider the navigation, because it is more useful to make your mobile site scrollable instead of clickable.
30 Awesome Newspaper Layout Examples & Tips
Posted by Yesta Desamba on October 5, 2013 No Comment
A newspaper has particularly traits that can be seen from its format (e.g. broadsheet, tabloid, magazine, etc.), from its pagination techniques (use of columns), or of its use of typography (font), and the use of color, all of these factors will ultimately distinguish a market segment of print media, such as middle-to upper, or upper class only, or for a particular reader such as children, adolescents or adults.
Adjusting the reader’s eye movements makes the layout of a newspaper.
In preparing the layout of a newspaper, it is necessary to have knowledge about the type and color of font or typeface, besides an artistic soul. Because of the size of the font for headlines, long story, and a large color photograph or writing affects the reader’s eye. The position of a message, the content and patterns used are all designed to facilitate the reader in scanning. Thus, newspaper layout needs to be adjusted to its target audience.
Awesome Newspaper Layout Examples
The layout designers, which have only one objective, which is about how to make the reader to be comfortable while reading, will carry out various methods and so the reader can quickly capture information to be conveyed in the news or contents. Below are just a few examples of how designers have used awesome layout for their newspaper design project.
2. Lorem Ipsum via Diana Kettern
3. Doku Daily Newspaper Layout via Erdis Driza
4. NEWWORK MAGAZINE via STUDIO NEWWORK
5. 5 BRGHS Magazine via Esther Li
6. Jornal Mais Oeste via Joana Santos
7. west attica | newspaper via Thodoris Manolopoulos
8. Word On The Street Newspaper & Style Guide via Todd DeRemigis
9. Newspaper Design via Candace Hensarling
10. The New York Times Layouts via Travis Vargas
11. Smoking breaks newspaper via Polina Tyurnikova
12. Thiers Newspaper via Cerise H.
13. Information Hierarchy in Portuguese Weekly Newspapers via Kateryna Mishyna
14. Dreamland Newspaper via Laura Strange
15. Strathclyde Telegraph via Craig Adams
16. You’ve Seen the Future Before via Adam Drake
17. Café littéraire via CONCEPT MACHINE
18. The Universe Letterbox via Marjory Kho
19. Panther Prints via Trudy Vinson
21. Modern Architecture In Film via Sam Lane
23. Journal Galerie Vis à Vis via Daphne Aboulker
24. PARIS ÉROTIQUE via Lena Caussimon
26. curriculum via josefine p
28. What is Research? Publishing and Narrative via Hope Aylen
29. My Heritage Paper via Elena Lujan
30. Finance Weekend via Mojca Zavolovsek
Newspaper Layout Design
Based on its type, newspaper layout can be divided into seven sections:
#1 Symmetrical layout
Also called foundry / vertical layout, because it looks like a clothesline, the location of the news balanced. Layout of this type usually used to organize the classified ads.
#2 Informal balance layout
This type of layout is widely used by newspapers that want to pursue the perfection of a balance. Black picture would be better if placed on the right top of a page, and it will look ‘heavy’ if placed in the bottom of the page.
#3 Quadrat layout or rectangular layout
It is best used on newspapers to be sold at retail on the curb, because the newspaper will quadruple, and in a quarter of the visible part will be disclosed news of the most interesting or important.
Highlighting big news, layout like this often uses «Banner Headlines», the long title. Important news is placed to the right of the newspaper, so it binds the reader a view in that direction, then the other titles on the left, and right again.
#5 Circus layout or Carnival layout
Because of the height of the front page, all the headlines can be displayed on the first page, and then it continued on another page. This layout is often used in weekly newspapers.
#6 Horizontal layout
Headlines can be made horizontally, with the contents of the news that is not too long.
#7 Function layout
Depending on the development of the hard news content. When things happen unusually often used the so-called «heads skyline». Weekly newspapers also often use this layout.
Newspaper Layout Tips
Layout should follow the reader’s eye habits, which rotates from left to right, advertising or sponsorship should not be placed on the main page. If a newspaper has a color, it should not be too much to use more colors, the editor should be able to learn or pick an artist who understands the meaning of color. Always remember that the written word is not to please the news source, but for the benefit of the readers.
Column forms layout is important for the newspaper, but other than that there is another one that is not less important, the white space. The use of white space is useful to help the reader focus on the main content; white space also separates the elements. Proper use of empty space also helps the reader to enjoy a newspaper page, so that makes the reader feel more comfortable. White space is usually well placed as the distance between the news with advertising.
What is newspaper layout
P age layout is the process of composing text, image and negative space on the page to produce a balanced, and harmonious visual impact that would allow for a collaboration of the author of the text, the artist of the design and the reader to construct collectively a meaning and a message for the text. No text has a single meaning or a unique message, and different designs create different meanings and different messages for the same text. A layout designer usually uses a grid system to subdivides a page into geometrical spaces that would constitute the grammar of layout design made up of vertical, horizontal, oblique and curved borders, margins, columns, inter-column spaces, lines of type, and negative spaces between blocks of type and images. The visual grammar of a layout communicates a particular emphasis of the text message, which, depending on the skill of the designer, may clarify or obscure the author’s idea.
W hether the design is simple or complex, the way the story, photos, typeface and negative space are composed is a part of the visual communication package as a whole. If a page is designed poorly, the reader may miss the whole or the major part of content. Poor design can cause boredom, stress, and even hostility towards the text or the author.
From manuscripts to the early prints
L ayout design appeared on the pages of manuscripts in the medieval time well before the emergence of typesetting and printing. A scribe hand-copied an entire book composed very often in a beautifully designed layout. Many scribes were monks who would complete the task of writing a book, usually made from vellum, in a year or so. In fact, monasteries produced most of books until the 13th century. But as literacy diffused among the populace, and major universities were expanding, secular scribes outside the monasteries began to take up the work of bookmaking to increase the supply of written material.
W hen each script was finished, it was decorated with an artist’s ornamental design—known as illumination. The composition of these layouts most often were surprisingly modern, using various page format, with different number of columns, applying artistically composed lettering in harmonic colors and variations in letter size for emphasis. After the invention of the printing press, the first printed page layouts were modeled on the manuscript layouts. But over time one major difference was introduced—justified setting. In this, spaces between words in continuous text are adjusted in each line so that columns align on both left and right sides. Although manuscript pages were symmetrical when viewed as spreads, the ranged-left lettering made them essentially asymmetric.
Incunabula’s layout Design
B efore the year 1501 in Europe, the printing technology was not at the stage to be able to publish texts on both sides of a page. An incunabulum (plural; incunabula) is a book printed on a single sheet. In Latin «incunabulum» translates literally to «swaddling clothes» or «bands holding the baby in a cradle.» The word first appeared in English in the 19th century, referring retroactively to those books produced in the first decades of printing press technology. However, the first recorded use, as a printing term, is in De ortu et progressu artis typographicae, Of the rise and progress of the typographic art, a pamphlet by Bernard von Mallinckrodt, published in Cologne in 1639. Mallinckrodt’s pamphlet was to mark the bicentenary invention of printing by movable type in Europe, in which he defended the pioneering role of Gutenberg; and includes the phrase prima typographicae incunabula, the first cradle of printing. The ad hoc cut-off date of 1501 was also selected by Mallinckrodt.
F amous incunabula include the Gutenberg Bible of 1455 and the Liber Chronicarum of Hartmann Schedel, printed by Anton Koberger in 1493. Other well-known incunabula printers include Albrecht Pfister of Bamberg, Günther Zainer of Augsburg, Johann Mentelin of Strasbourg and William Caxton of Bruges and London.
There are two types of incunabula: the xylographic (made from a single engraved woodblock for each page) and the typographic (made with movable type on a printing press in the style of Johann Gutenberg). Some authors reserve the term incunabulum for the typographic ones only. Most of the early typefaces were modeled on local styles of writing or were derived from various European Gothic scripts. As well, there were also some that stemmed from manuscript documents; such as most of Caxton’s types. In Italy, in particular, types were modeled on humanistic typefaces, which in digital formats are still in use today.
T he early layout designs were based on standard works in Latin inherited from the medieval time, however as printing costs declined, because of technological advances, more books were printed, particularly in translations from Latin and other languages.
N evertheless, the layout designs still resembled the medieval compositions using classical ornamentation, initials and bordering. However, with a greater use of white space they were no longer as dark and dense as the medieval illuminated manuscripts. Some of this can be attributable to the advance of paper manufacturing technologies which created whiter and lighter papers. The incunabula layout designers made a grater use of columns for aesthetical effects.
Canonical Structures of classical design
F rom the the mid-fifteenth century, when printing press emerged, until the late eighteenth century, when the Industrial Revolution created the consumer society and hence generated a demand for advertising posters, leaflets, magazines catalogs and newspapers; the printing process was exclusively used to produce books. During this relatively long period book printing was considered a true art form. Typesetting, or the placement of the characters on the page, including the use of ligatures, was passed down from master to apprentice. In the classical layout type was generally set in one justified column per page, placed symmetrically on the spread with larger outer margins than inner, and a larger margin at the foot than at the head. From the start, printers understood the importance of the relative relationships of various elements of layout. The mathematical proportions of various segments and margins were determined by geometry, and designers adhered to the aesthetic rules that governed the harmonious relationships of points, lines, surfaces, and solids to one another. Perhaps it was because of such rules that in Germany the art of typesetting was termed the «black art».
Fibonacci’s Golden proportions
W hen artists think of shapes with golden ratios they typically think of a golden rectangle where one side divided by the other is 1.618. This is the value of what is called the golden number φ or Phi, which is defined as;
(a+b)/a = a/b = φ
its value is;
φ = (1 + √5)/2 = 1.6180339887.
0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55…
2/1 = 2.0
3/2 = 1.5
5/3 = 1.67
8/5 = 1.6
13/8 = 1.625
21/13 = 1.615
34/21 = 1.619
55/34 = 1.6176
A s the following chart shows, designers can partition their layout space in a much simpler way than calculating the length of the sides which satisfy the golden proportion.
T here are many geometrical constructions that can produce a beautiful page, but the golden section is usually cited as the most successful. By adding a square, with sides equal the long side, to the long side it is possible to arrive at the next measurement in the sequence to give a bigger rectangle of the same proportions. This also works in reverse in order to make a smaller rectangle, that is subtracting a square with sides equal to the short side of the rectangle, and extending it to become a rectangle one can produce a smaller golden triangle.
Rosarivo’s conclusion that Gutenberg used the «golden number» or «secret number» to establish the harmonic relationships between the diverse parts of a work, was analyzed by experts at the Gutenberg Museum and re-published in the Gutenberg Jahrbuch, its official magazine. Historian John Man points out that Gutenberg’s Bible’s page was based on the golden section shape, based on the irrational number 0.618. (a ratio of 5:8) and that the printed area also had that shape. This was indeed the case.
Printing Press and Page Layout in the Nineteenth Century
E uropean book production increased enormously, from somewhat more than 12,000 manuscripts per century (or 120 per year) in the six to eight centuries, to more than one billion books published during the eighteenth century (the peak year is 1790, when more than 20 million copies were printed). Nevertheless, even four centuries after the introduction of movable type, scientists and men of letters still were publishing their works in the form of manuscript during the eighteenth century. For example, early in that century, there were many clandestine manuscripts circulating in the French society and in the discussions that took place in the salons and cafés of Paris. The rise of the print and publishing industry in the early 19th century stemmed from the need for communications in the modern industrial age.
T he invention of the steam powered press, in 1812, credited to Friedrich Gottlob Koenig and Andreas Friedrich Bauer, made it possible to print over a thousand copies of a page per hour. In 1803, Koenig, a 27-year-old German printer who had studied mathematics, physics, and mechanics at Leipzig University traveled throughout Europe in search of funding for his project, but was only greeted with deep-seated skepticism and rejections. In November 1806, he traveled to England where he was able to sell his idea to Thomas Bensley, the country’s most prominent book printer. Koing built the press with the help of a fellow named Bauer, a German precision instrument maker whom Koenig had met in London. In April 1811 the machine, for which Koenig had received a patent a year earlier, was first presented at a printing trade show in London. The Times of London bought two of their first models in 1814, which was capable of producing 1,100 impressions per hour.
L ater on, Friedrich Koenig traveled to Germany in search of new customers where he was able to sell two presses to the Berlin-based publishers Decker and Spener, in 1822. Soon after, Germany’s top printing establishments became interested in the new technology. As well, Koenig traveling in Europe, brought in orders from Denmark, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Spain, and France. Koenig and Bauer went on to perfect the early model so that it could print on both sides of a sheet at once. This began to make newspapers available to a mass audience (which in turn helped spread literacy), and from the 1820s changed the nature of book production, forcing a greater standardization in titles and other metadata.
I n 1875, the company started making so-called web-fed presses, or web presses. First introduced in the United States, the new presses printed on paper from rolls instead of paper sheets. In 1886, Wilhelm Koenig, Friedrich’s son, invented a web press that was able to cut the paper fed from a roll into sheets before they were printed. The machine also allowed for a variety of sheet sizes. Two years later, he constructed the first web press that was able to print in four colors. In 1890, Koenig & Bauer launched another novelty web press with two integrated printing units, a twin web press. In the early 1890s, Wilhelm Koenig laid the groundwork for two other of Koenig & Bauer’s important product lines. He began to design presses for printing luxury color products and for printing securities and bank notes.
Layout Design in 20th century
A t the beginning of the 20th Century, modern art movements such as Futurism, Dadaism and Constructivism revolutionized the European layout and typography. Germany was at the epicenter of this revolution, where young layout designers distanced themselves from the traditional approach of the publishing houses and printing companies, whose layout design and typographic culture was rooted in Art and Crafts movement or Art Nouveau style of the eighteenth century. At the same time Cubism departed from Realism and opened the vista for abstract art. Cubists analysed the representational art in three-dimensional view points and added a fourth dimension, time, which rendered the composition complex and rather unwieldy. But upon a more careful study they revealed a deconstruction of the geometry of space into rectangles, triangles and ellipses in a dynamic trajectory that redefined the aesthetics of perspective.
I n the aftermath of World War I, the German Die Neue Sachlichkeit, The New Objectivity, movement that was founded by Otto Dix and George Grosz may be characterized as an anti-war realistic style that was informed by their cynical stance towards the existing European socio-political power structure. The spirit of a «New Objectivity» and its ideological stance influenced layout designers like Karel Teige, El Lissitzky, Herbert Bayer, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, Marcel Breuer, Jan Tschichold, Paul Renner, Kurt Schwitters and others. They fell in love with the «new» Grotesk typography, or what in the English speaking world is known as Sans-Serifs, and was supposed to represent the proletarian spirit of socially-oriented internationalism and fraternization of the new industrial society.
T hese young artists recognized the power of layout and broke with all previous design traditions, using type in the spirit of cubism, at unexpected angles or on misplaced curves; introducing extreme variation in type sizes; using drawn, abstracted letterforms; and generally ignoring the vertical and horizontal nature of type. For the first time, space was used as a dynamic component in typographic layout.
T he Italian Futurist layout designers who were literary enthusiast, called into question the typographical philosophy of simplicity, clarity and transparency which dominated print culture since the advent of the printing press. Led by F. T. Marinetti’s 1909 manifesto, they used the metaphor of «second-hand clothes,» to describe the traditional layout designs of visual communication, particularly the layout of the book itself, which Marinetti called «stale» and «oppressive,» a symbol of the old guard that the Futurists were working against. He began experimenting with unusual layout and degenerated typography, creating poems that were simultaneously textual and visual, such as the 1919 work «SCRABrrRrraaNNG.
A round the same time, Dada was gaining strength as a coherent artistic movement in Europe. Their layout design aimed at accentuating the sound of words, even the sound of individual letters or numbers, both by unconventional composition and typographic innovations similar to those of Italian Futurists.
Bauhaus and Moholy-Nagy’s ‘typofoto’
R ethinking the approach to layout design started with Johannes Itten’s expressionist layout at Bauhaus. Itten’s designs were strikingly bold and original. He took a dramatically different path towards typography and abandoned the prevailing classical layout conventions. He was a trailblazer for powerful ‘typofoto’ ideas of the Hungarian painter László Moholy-Nagy, who arrived at the school in 1923, the year after Itten’s departure.
I n 1923, Moholy-Nagy wrote a short treatise on the new typography for the Bauhaus exhibition catalog Staatliches Bauhaus in Weimar, Munich. In it he firmly grounded his argument for the design of layout which he later dubbed ‘typofoto’, which he defined as a new form of expression using type and photographic images. In fact, Moholy-Nagy’s tenure as a teacher at the Bauhaus (from 1923 to 1928), played a crucial role in the development of modern page layout which was reflected in the design of a number of publications embodying the tenets of his treatise for the Bauhaus press. Moholy-Nagy wrote:
‘Typography is a tool of communication. It must be communication in its most intense form. The emphasis must be on absolute clarity since this distinguishes the character of our own writing from that of ancient pictographic forms. Our intellectual relationship to the world is individual-exact (e.g.,this individual-exact relationship is in a state of transition toward a collective-exact orientation). This is in contrast to the ancient individual-amorphous and later collective- amorphous mode of communication. Therefore priority: unequivocal clarity in all typographical compositions. Legibility-communication must never be impaired by an a priori aesthetics.
An equally decisive change in the typographical image will occur in the making of posters, as soon as photography has replaced poster-painting. The effective poster must act with immediate impact on all psychological receptacles. Through an expert use of the camera, and of all photographic techniques, such as retouching, blocking, superimposition, distortion, enlargement, etc., in combination with the liberated typographical line, the effectiveness of posters can be immensely enlarged.
The new poster relies on photography, which is the new story telling device of civilization, combined with the shock effect of new typefaces and brilliant coloreffects, depending on the desired intensity of the message.
The new typography is a simultaneous experience of vision and communication
At the time these were revolutionary ideas.
De Stijl; van Doesburg’s introduction of diagonal axis
T wo years before the appearance of Moholy-Nagy’s treatise, Theo Van Doesburg, leader of Dutch De Stijl group and editor of its journal, had moved to Weimar. In 1920 De Stijl magazine had published a Dada poem by a certain IK Bonset. In a genuine Dadaist tradition «IK Bonset» was actually a Spoonerism for «I am a fool» in Dutch (Ik ben sot): it was a nom-de-plume for Theo van Doesburg, who from 1912 had published a large number of articles, revealing himself as a committed artist engaged in a constant dialogue between the visual theory and practice and exploring the structural relationship of various elements of design. He signed his work under various names, including I. K. Bonset (as a Dadaist poet) and Aldo Camini (as a Futurist), as well as his own. As editor of De Stijl, he published the seminal Call for Elementary Art, urging the artist to be “the interpreter of energies that shape the world’s elements”. In his manifesto of 1918 he wrote:
«There is an old and a new consciousness of the age. The old one is directed towards the individual. The new one is directed towards the universal. The struggle of the individual against the universal may be seen both in the world war and in modern art.»
T heo van Doesburg made a distinctive contribution to the avant-garde layout by introducing the diagonal axis.The effect of diagonal lines on layout was dramatic due to the tensions between them and vertical lines of composition, and enhanced emphasis on horizontal vertical axis of the layout. In a letter written by Mondrian to van Doesburg in 1919 he refers to diagonal impetus of rectangular composition and indicates that this oblique lines, indeed heightened his awareness of the contrapuntal relationship between the composition and the frame.
I hang several pieces now like this <>, in order that the composition become like this +, whereas in this way [] the composition is like this X.
v an Doesburg celebrated the tenth anniversary of De stijl with an exceptional cover design, intended to mark the periodical’s influence. On the front cover was a grey portrait photograph of van Doesburg, with a laudatory text by Sigfried Giedion printed in blue; on the back cover, also in blue, the development of De stijl was symbolized by a grey tinted photograph of a globe, with ‘Neo-plasticism’, the starting point of De stijl, printed horizontally, and ‘Elementarism’ printed diagonally across it.
The Congress of Constructivists and Dadaists at Wiemar
I n 1922, Van Doesburg organized the Congress of Constructivists and Dadaists in Weimar, which included such luminaries as Hans Arp, Kurt Schwitters, Tzara, Moholy-Nagy, Max Burchartz, Werner Graeff and El Lissitzky, the Russian constructivist. All these artists contributed significantly to the creation of new layout. While both Constructivists and Dadaists were committed to revolutionize the conventional approach to art in general, and to layout in particular, they approached the task from two diametrically opposing perspectives. Constructivism was an invention of the Russian avant-garde that found adherents across Europe. It was, basically an ideologically driven art that aimed at addressing the Proletarian concerns. Their theory of aesthetics was an amalgam of Russian Suprematism, Dutch Neo Plasticism (De Stijl) and the German Bauhaus. Their outlandish aim was to integrate art and society so that art would disappear! Infatuated by the age of science, and scientific materialism, they believed artists were to experiments like scientists in a laboratory environment in order to construct the new world.
T he Constructivist and Suprematist rejected easel painting as an expression of bourgeois-dominated society. Its most famous representative, Vladimir Tatlin, announced the death of traditional art and constructed three-dimensional, machine-inspired, abstract sculptures and reliefs. Other Constructivists designed utilitarian products (chairs, clothes, dishware) with a distinctly industrial veneer to help “urbanize the psychology of the masses” and usher in the new Communist stage of civilization. Suprematism was born with Kazimir Malevich’s painting “Black Square” (1915) and other geometrical abstractions, which were supposed to lead proletariat towards liberation and away from capitalist exploitation. An Idealist, Malevich believed that his two-dimensional forms provided a cerebral “passage into the fourth dimension,” comprehension of which was vital if mankind were to imagine a higher reality and thereby alleviate earthly suffering.
Constructivists; the idealogical layout of Production Art
D uring the early years of the Russian Bolshevik regime, the artists led by their idealist visions became the staunch supporters of Lenin. This artistic attitude originated from the Utopian expectations generated by the Revolution and the desperate conditions of the Civil War during the 1918–21 period. Anatoly Lunarcharsky, the new Bolshevik Minister for Enlightenment, became an enthusiastic patron of the avant-garde art, supporting the artistic activities from theatrical performances to establishment of museums of modem art, and the design and commissioning of monuments. In particular, the regime fostered a debate concerning the role of art in industry, dubbed Production Art, proizvodstvennoye iskusstvo, to which critics such as Osip Brik and Nikolay Punin contributed, arguing that the bourgeois distinction between art and industry should be abolished and that art should be considered as merely another aspect of manufacturing activity.
T he artists themselves had been encouraged to believe they had a wider public role to play by their participation in the many official commissions to execute such propaganda tasks as decorating Russian cities for the Revolutionary festivals and designing agitational and educational posters. A brief period of brotherly love permeated throughout the land in which artists, architects, writers, poets, and critics joined in the quest to create a new egalitarian society. After 1917, industry and the machine came to be seen as the essential characteristics of the working class and hence of the new Communist order. In practical terms, industrial development was also regarded by the state authorities as the key to political and social progress. Hence, the machine was both metaphor for the new culture under construction and the practical means to rebuild the economy as a prelude to establishing Communism. During the chaotic Civil War period, the avant-garde had also helped to run artistic affairs on behalf of the government and seemed to have become a vehicle for expressing the Communist Party’s political objectives. The utilitarian ethos of Constructivism was a logical extension of this close identification between avant-garde art and social and political progress.
T he First Working Group of Constructivists was set up in March 1921 within Inkhuk, Institute of Artistic Culture, in Moscow. The group comprised Aleksey Gan, Aleksandr Rodchenko, Varvara Stepanova, Konstantin Medunetsky, Karl Ioganson, and the brothers Georgy Stenberg and Vladimir Stenberg. The impetus for the group came from theoretical discussions concerning the relationships between composition and construction at Inkhuk between January and April 1921. ‘Construction’ was seen as a positive force of change towards the new society, characterized by technology and engineering and therefore a source of efficiency, economy of materials, precision, clarity of organization and the absence of decorative or superfluous elements.
I n their programme of 1 April 1921, written by Gan, the Constructivists characterized their work as ‘intellectual production’ grounded on ‘scientific communism, based on the theory of historical materialism’. Proclaiming their ideological belief, they emphasized that they no longer saw an autonomous function for art and that they wished to participate in the creation of a visual environment appropriate to the needs and values of the new Socialist society:
‘Taking a scientific and hypothetical approach to its task, the group asserts the necessity to fuse the ideological component with the formal component in order to achieve a real transition from laboratory experiments to practical activity’
A midst this heady artistic euphoria El Lissitzky and Alexander Rodchenko became the most prominent representatives of Constructivism and Supremacists. Lissitzky in visual design and architecture and Rodchenko in the areas of furniture design and photography. But their most far-reaching innovations were in the layout design. They created many of the Soviet propaganda posters and advertisements using geometrical shapes and bold, block lettering that combined the functionality of Constructivism with the visual elements of Symbolism. Their goal was to subliminally alter the mentality of the proletariat, infusing in them the values of both artistic movements and Communism. To achieve this they wantd to give their work the quality of ‘construction’.
The Constructivists sculptors who participated in the Second Spring Exhibition of Obmokhu, Society of Young Artists, opening on 22 May 1921, demonstrated their strong commitment to the materials and forms of contemporary technology. The Stenbergs, for instance, created skeletal forms from made of glass, metal and wood, to evoke engineering structures such as bridges and cranes, and Rodchenko displayed a series of hanging constructions based on mathematical forms; they consisted of concentric shapes cut from a single plane of plywood, rotated to create a three-dimensional geometric form. As one of their German followers put it, these designs “little by little…hammered into the mass soul.” Despite their rigid ideology, the contribution of Constructivists to layout was significant. As they introduced an antithetical order and discipline to the chaotic experiments of Dadaists and the Italian Futurists. The Russians were the ones who created the New Typography, and inspired many of the young European progressive layout designers of the twentieth century.
L issitzky also worked with Kurt Schwitters in coediting and layout design of Nasci, Nature, which was the double issue 8 and 9 of Merz, produved in Hanover, using Grotesk type.
Dadaists: The destruction of the old order and the rising of a new order
D adaists on the other hand wanted to embrace spontaneity and risk. They were adventurous and anarchistic. Van Doesburg belonged to both camps. His layout design and the integration of typography and image was a forerunner in the avant-garde movement.
J ohannes Molzahn(1892-1965), was the most influential avant-garde theorist for layout design. In 1919, he and Schwitters were actively promoted by gallery Der Sturm, Berlin. A second generation expressionist, he frequently exhibited in Der Sturm, and his articles were appeared often in the journal of the same name.In September issue he published his Das Manifest ties absoluten. Expressionismus,The Manifesto of Absolute Expressionism, in which, in highly colorful language, he proclaimed the destruction of the old order and the rising of a new order in the aftermath of destruction: “We want to pour oil onto the fire—fan the tiny glow into flame—span the earth—make it quiver—and beat more fiercely—living and pulsating cosmos—steaming universe.”
The leaflet was embellished with a simple orange square.
Tschichold; Revisiting the Canonical Layouts
He believed that society was on the verge of a great leap forward, born of the machine age. “These objects, designed without reference to the aesthetics of the past, have been created by a new kind of man: the engineer!” he wrote. Two years later reflecting on the impact of the white space in the layout composition he wrote; ‘White space is to be regarded as an active element, not a passive background,’ and in 1937; ‘The real role of the New Typography consists in its efforts towards purification and towards simplicity and clarity of means.’
The textually negative parts, the unprinted areas of the sheet, are typographically positive the smallest piece of type matter has typographic value: letter, word, piece of typesetting, puctuation mark
I t is clear that, in this statement he was thinking of «aesthtic» value of layout, a word that was ‘politically incorrect’to be used in Dadaist circles of the post WWI.
The American layout design revolution
I n the 1930’s, Alexey Brodovitch revolutionized the world of periodical publications by changing the accepted notions on the relationship between text and images in magazine spreads. Brodovitch was also a trailblazer in commercial and fashion photography, alongside such well-known photographers as Irving Penn (1917-2009) and Richard Avedon (1923-2004). Some of Brodovitch’s double-page spreads are considered classical magazine layouts.
The Americanization of Paris Match
Paris Match, the French weekly magazine that once had its own unique style of visual journalism, with photo reportages, and a clever mixture of news, analysis, commentary. In 2008, decided to change its style of layout and commissioned Garcia Media. Mario Garcia the leader of García Media, apparently supervises the work of all the company’s projects. Trained as a journalist, he claims that he is strongly committed to the idea that content is what determines the success of a brand. He calls his philosophy “WED”, an acronym he derives from combining writing, editing and design as basic principles for effective communication of ideas.
Garcia has consulted and redesigned publications such as The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, South China Morning Post (Hong Kong), New Straits Times (Malaysia), the business weeklies of American City Business Journals, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Handelsblatt (Germany), Die Zeit (Germany) and RIA/Moskovskiye Novosti (Russia); to medium-size newspapers, such as The Charlotte Observer and Göteborgs-Posten (Sweden); to smaller ones such as the Lawrence (Kansas) Journal-World and the weekly of the oil and energy industry, Upstream (Norway). At Paris Match, working with editor Olivier Royant and art director Michel Maiquez, Garcia Media took a look at the magazine from cover to back cover and analyzed storytelling processes, content flow and how the robust journalistic and photographic content of this 64-year-old magazine could be made more interesting, easier to find and more enjoyable to read. According to company:
The Case against capital letters
I n the 19th century, one of the brothers Grimm, Jacob’s philological research had led him to a history of the German language, Geschichte der deutschen Sprache, in which he attempted to drop capital letters. After researching into names and dialects, he used roman type and advocated spelling German nouns without capital letters. His ideas was supported, in the 1920s, by Benthverlag, the publishers who later issued the DIN standards. Soon it turned into an euphoria surrounding the New Typography, again the conventional practice in German texts of using capitals for initial letters of nouns was called into question, and in 1925 Bauhaus dropped them on some silly rationalizations.
H erbert Bayer, one of the instructors in the school’s typography workshop asked: » why should we print with two alphabets? Both a large and a small sign are not necessary to indicate a single sound. Capital A equals small small a.» Obviously, it didn’t occurred to him that capital letters can play an important role in visual communication. For example signaling the start of anew sentence, among other functions. Soon at foot of the Bauhaus letterhead a bizarre statement appeared:
We write everything in lower case to have time, and besides, why two alphabets, were one will do? why use capital letters if we don’t use them when we speak?
I wonder if anybody told them that when we speak we use enunciations and various intonations which we don’t use them when we write. It was asserted that lower case alphabet is easier to learn and to read! It took less space and was more economical. The only argument that appears to me reasonable was that the operating machinery, such as mechanical type writer, could be simplified, (a reason that with the advent of digital technology also has become a rather mute point).
T he Bauhaus typographers, being interested in machines and mathematics wanted typography to assume the precise logic of the new industrial age, and somehow this brave new world of theirs could not accommodate capital letters. The Bauhaus books, set in sans serif, set a new standard for layout designs. The new style was called Functional typography on the ground that it was free of any conventional restrictions or obsolete clichés. The Russian avant-garde designers called it Constructivists typography because it was supposed to have architectural properties.
I n 1929, Vanity Fair magazine, the most important of Condé Nast’s publishing empire, jumped over the bandwagon of the European modern design trends, and under the direction of its art director Dr. Mehemed Fehmy Agha decided to switch its typefaces to Paul Renner’s Futura. As well, the magazine decided to eliminate all the capital letters in its feature articles headlines.
T his qusi-innovation, as was intended by Agha and Frank Crownishield, the editor of the magazine, visually redefined Vanity Fair as an avant-garde publication. However, it’s lifespan was really short, and after a trial period of only five issues was abandoned in the March 1930 issue. The editors explained their decisions in a full-page editorial titled, A Note on Typography.
A Note on Typography
Vanity Fair presents the case pro and con capital letters in titles, writing finis to an experiment.
Vanity Fair has for the past several months omitted capital letters in the titles and subtitles of its articles and illustrations. The hawk-eyed reader will note that this issue of Vanity Fair returns to capital letters. Posterity anyway will be grateful for a review of the considerations that have led Vanity Fair, first to dispense with capital letters in its headings and now, after a trial period of five issues, to return to them.Typography without capital letters was introduced in Europe soon after the Great War and has been working westward ever since. It has not been used so much in text, but in all situations where the value of display is paramount it has been extremely popular. Thus, the intense competition of advertising, where the least optical advantage makes itself felt at once, has already made some modern typography familiar to Americans.
Capital letters are obviously Roman in origin, going back to the beginnings of our era. Small letters, on the other hand, are derived from the alphabet of medieval script, of scholarly longhand, dating from the time of Charlemagne, about 800 A.D. Its characteristics are governed by the natural movements of freehand writing and therefore in stylistic opposition to the simple stone-engraved capitals of the Roman alphabet. With the Renaissance and the revival of classical learning in the fifteenth century, the Roman alphabet was merged into writing, and later into printing, wherever capital letters were indicated. It would now seem illogical to continue to submit to what was simply an historical accident, a symbol for the conceit the Renaissance felt in its newly acquired sophistication in the culture of Rome. Probably, as a matter of fact, the mere omission of a capital letter to indicate the beginning of a sentence or a title is the least significant or permanent item in the program of the new typography. Any art, particularly any art with a function as utilitarian as that of typography, consciously or unconsciously conforms itself in the peculiar temper of the living and contemporary civilization.The realization of this end takes the form of the arrangement of pictures on the page, of various kinds of type, of new methods of photography, of decorative treatment, of the massing of type on the page, and so forth. And incidentally the omission of capital letters in titles. All this is really compulsory for any magazine that pretends at all to a place in the modern parade. Nothing would amuse and shock the modern reader more than to pick up a current magazine composed in the fussy and dignified convention of magazines of the 1880’s
The eye and the mind can adapt themselves to new forms with surprising ease. An innovation stands out at first like a sore thumb but before it has passed its infancy it has become invisible to the conscious eye. The unconscious eye, however, is another matter. It is vaguely dulled by the stale and hackneyed, it is antagonized by the tasteless and inept, and it is completely stopped by the involved and illegible. The unconscious eye is a remorseless critic of all art forms, it awards the final fame and final oblivion. Thus, the conscious eye may endorse at the very moment that the unconscious eye is absolutely condemning. And, on the other hand, the conscious eye may continue to complain irascibly of innovations for some time after the unconscious eye has given them its final approval.In using, and continuing to use, the new typography, Vanity Fair believes that it knows very well what it is doing. In modifying one of the conventions of the new typography by returning to the use of capital letters in titles, it is obeying considerations that outlast any mere “revolution in style.”
Three main factors dominate typography: first, appropriateness, as affected by the time, the place and the function of the material; second, attractiveness, ingratiating the eye and so the mind; and finally and most importantly, legibility. The page may look as handsome as you please but if there is to be any authority in words and ideas the page must be read. A title set entirely in small letters is unquestionably more attractive than one beginning with a capital or with every word beginning with a capital, but, at the present time, it is also unquestionably harder to read because the eye of the reader is not yet educated to it. The issue is thus one between attractiveness and legibility, or between form and content, and Vanity Fair, not wishing to undertake a campaign of education casts its vote by returning to the use of capital letters in titles, to legibility, and to the cause of content above form.It may be said here that Vanity Fair has always and will always cast its vote in that way. While it has tried to perfect its appearance, it has continued to believe that to refuse to be a Magazine of Opinion is not necessarily to be frivolous. Better things are said in one moment of even-tempered gaiety than in a lifetime of spleen.
The notes on this page are not alone to announce a change in typographic style, an event sufficiently self-evident and hardly worth announcing. They are even more particularly to re-affirm some old pledges of Vanity Fair and to submit to the final tribunal of its readers the credo of present policies. The assumption of its readers’ interest may be naïve but Vanity Fair rests in the belief that it is not unwarranted and subscribes itself, your very obedient servant.