shaping and design : Step by step : Page-layout : Type area tourbitte scrollen top tour top tour

If you have to shape more pages, it is useful to draw up a mirror image layout – this is a type area.





The inner margins (inner furnitures) should be drawn up the most cramped – with DIN A4 at least 10mm. The upper margin (top furniture) becomes a little larger, the outward margin even larger. The increase can take always from 2 to 5mm. The downer margin (foot furniture) is the largest – with DIN A4 about 20 to 25mm.

Satzspiegelbestimmung (zeichnerisch)







Satzspiegelbestimmung (zeichnerisch)
Jan Tschichold (1902-1974) developped a method, how to find an aesthetic type area graphically (see picture).



An other possibility is the golden section. The margins (and in the ideal case also the paper format) have the relation 3:5:8:13. These proportions are experienced to be very harmonic. With the golden section, the margins are rather spacious.
But taking this type area, you need much white space, which could lead to problems, if you have a lot of text.
Einzug Alternatively, you could also use a 2:3:4:6-division.












The type area (and certainly also the paper format) usually remains the same within a publication and is fixed in advance for all pages.