Jean Basile wrote: > I was looking online for some hints on good pagination and discovered this: > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canons_of_page_construction#Van_de_Graaf_canon > > The Van der Graaf canon looks quite interesting. But isn't that a little too > much free space at the bottom of the page? Than I bumped into this page: > http://rodgraves.com/moleskine/ which shows that the lower space is actually > used for some kind of footer and page numbering. > > Also, is there a place with the proportions calculated for the A4-A6 sizes? > > And to make this message even longer do you know more pages about page design? > 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. It's a bit like understanding what makes a good or great wine. You may read books about it, but until you begin to sample yourself, and try to get the gist of what the "experts" say, and make your own judgments, you really won't get anywhere. People who simply follow the experts' advice about wine are not necessarily making mistakes, but they're not acquiring any skill at it. Greg
