The canons of page construction are a set of principles in the field of book designused to describe the ways that page proportions, margins and type areas of books are constructed.
The Van de Graaf canon is a historical reconstruction of a method that may have been used in book design to divide a page in pleasing proportions. This canon is also known as the "secret canon" used in many medieval manuscripts
The geometrical solution of the construction of Van de Graaf's canon, which works for any page width:height ratio, enables the book designer to position the text body in a specific area of the page. Using the canon, the proportions are maintained while creating pleasing and functional margins of size 1/9 and 2/9 of the page size. The resulting inside margin is one-half of the outside margin, and of proportions 2:3:4:6 (inner:top:outer:bottom) when the page proportion is 2:3. This method was discovered by Van de Graaf, and used by Tschichold and other contemporary designers; they speculate that it may be older.
“A method to produce the perfect book.”
The perfect book. This is how designer-genius Jan Tschichold described this system.
Manuscript grids — are the simplest and they work well when presenting large continuous blocks of text or images.
Column grids — work well when the information being presented is discontinuous and different types of information can be placed in different columns.
Modular grids — work best for more complex problems where columns alone don’t offer enough flexibility. The introduce horizontal spaces between blocks of content.
Hierarchical grids — can be used when none of the above grids will work to solve the problem. They tend to be created organically by first placing design elements on the page and then finding a rational structure for presenting those elements.
After studying these methods, I have gained a deeper understanding to the fundaments of graphic design. However I still have trouble with this concept. It works in the same way, of deciding what typeface to go by, there are certain laws to which types you can use and cannot. I have forgotten the name of the guy who suggested 7 typefaces you only need. Similar to the selection process of the grid.
Do I believe these should be sacred or fundamental to the design process. No. But I still appreciate it and will try warm up to using it because I do see the benefits. I believe it should be fundamental to the book design process. But not every design process. I find it is distracting to employ when making your design. It gets in the way, unabling me to for see a picture of where I want the design to go. I find it a very mechanical method of design. Which for me eliminates a creative aspect of design. I have a very post-modern approach to design, I love the works of David Carson, who I believe invented a new style deploying away from avante-guarde conceptions. But in a process such as book design, it will only aid you in the construction of your book, guiding your format and layout.
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