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And once you
choose a grid, do you have to use it everywhere? Or can grids
vary from page to page?
Good questions.
For years, newspapers have been using the same dull grids:
6-column grids for broadsheets, 5-column grids for tabs.
That’s usually because the standard 1-column ad is about
2 inches wide, and news columns are sized to accommodate ads.
Which is fine for pages with ads. But what about when ads
aren’t a factor -- on open pages, or inside pages above
the ad stacks? Wouldn’t it be nice to have more
flexibility? More options for column widths?
So -- want to
explore new grid options? Take a typical page from a recent
issue of your paper and rebuild it on an upgraded grid. If
you’re a tab, try 7, 8 or 9 columns. If you’re a
broadsheet, try 9, 10, 11 or 12. Resize the art, reflow the
text, rewrite the cutlines and headlines, and see if you
discover an advantage -- visually, typographically,
journalistically -- to fitting your stories onto a different
grid.
Two warnings,
however:
• An
oft-quoted typographic adage suggests that the optimum width
for standard text is a column that’s an alphabet and a
half wide. You can certainly put narrower legs to use for
cutlines, liftout quotes, decks, etc. But legs skinnier than 5
picas wide are tough to pour type into. And remember, the
narrower the leg, the more necessary smaller, condensed type
becomes.
• If
you’re designing a tab, you may want to avoid a 6-column
grid; if you’re designing a broadsheet, beware the
7-column grid. Both force columns of text to be uncomfortably
narrow, resulting in pages that look messy and stripey.
And yes, you can
mix grids within a newspaper. For example, you could design all
your open pages on a 9-column grid -- but on most inside pages,
when that grid won’t accommodate standard ad sizes, you
could revert to a simpler grid using wider columns. No one but
you will know (or care).
