The Typographic Grid in the Editorial Project: An Essential Resource to the Graphic Consistency and Perception

Abstract

A fundamental aspect of ergonomics in communication design is related to the typography behaviour – namely legibility and readability.

In editorial design, one aspect that contributes significantly to the readability is the consistency throughout the publication, which confers coherence and uniformity to the content and generates security and familiarity from the reader to the graphic object. In this context, the use of typographic grids becomes a fundamental resource to the graphic project development.

Historically, there have been several manifestations in which Man, using mathematical thinking, conceived geometric systems to organize and/or define his spatial reality, for example the golden section, the Fibonnacci sequence, the Vitruvian canon or the Modulor. In editorial design, several studies, such as those of J. A. van de Graaf, Raul Rosarivo or Jan Tschichold, make it evident that the use of grids and systems of proportions dates back to medieval manuscripts.

In Modernism, this kind of systems was redesigned to suit the new vanguard reality, with grid systems reaching their peak during the Swiss Style. Nowadays, these are still an extremely useful resource, which continues to make perfect sense, despite the facilities provided by the computer media. However, their use must be decided in order to serve the content they are intended to disseminate.

The approach of the importance of the grid in editorial design presented in this article is made in a didactic and useful perspective to the teaching of the discipline.