[scribus] Canons of page construction

[John Culleton]

On Saturday 25 July 2009 03:24:03 pm jwminer at accessvt.com wrote:
> Greg wrote:
> > I think that such information is useful for conceptual and
> > instructional
> > purposes, but for many uses not so practical except for
> > purists. It's
> > easy to see that hardly any if any modern books use the
> > Gutenberg proportions. What we see is that there are different
> > plans depending on
> > the content and purpose of the book.
> >
> > This isn't to say that there are not abundant examples of poor
> > design
> > and layout all around us. My advice would be to continue your
> > quest for
> > the opinions of others recognized as having something useful to
> > say, but
> > in the end pay attention to the layout of various publications
> > you see,
> > and when you find something displeasing, unattractive, or which
> > contradicts its apparent intended purpose, try to understand
> > why, so you
> > can avoid making similar mistakes.
>
> The "content and purpose of the book" exist within constraints,
> particularly financial. Ideal proportions of white space mean
> more pages, and more pages mean more costs all down the line:
> paper, printing, binding, shipping, stocking. So modern books
> typically skimp on the white space and if it looks fine to us,
> we've become inured to it. But do we want to pay even more for
> books in order to have a beautifully designed page? There's no
> free lunch.
>
> There are a few principles I keep in mind when setting up a book
> page. The inner margins should be smaller than the outer margins.
> When we hold an open book, it presents itself as a unit and a
> double-wide inner margin looks odd. The bottom margin should be
> larger than the top margin. A bottom margin that's smaller than
> the top margin makes the text block look like it's going to slide
> off the bottom of the page. Make the bottom margin large enough
> so readers' thumbs don't cover the text when they are holding the
> open book. Outer margins large enough to hold some reader's
> annotations are desirable.
>
> The right type size for the length of the lines is important. One
> and one-half alphabets per line (39 to 45 characters) is a common
> suggestion, though you can't always adhere to it. 

Bringhurst would accept as little as 45 characters for double column 
newsprint but would prefer 65 for normal book work. 
-- 
John Culleton
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