News design

News design is the process of arranging material on a newspaper page, according to editorial and graphical guidelines and goals. Main editorial goals include the ordering of news stories by order of importance, while graphical considerations include readability and balanced, unobtrusive incorporation of advertising.

Related Topics:
Newspaper - News stories - Readability - Advertising

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News design incorporates principles of graphic design and is taught as part of journalism training in schools and colleges. Overlapping and related terms include layout, makeup (formerly paste up) and pagination.

Related Topics:
Graphic design - Journalism - Layout - Paste up - Pagination

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The era of modern newspapers begins in the mid 19th century, with the Industrial Revolution, and increased capacities for printing and distribution. Over time, improvements in printing technology, graphical design, and editorial standards have led to changes and improvements in the look and readability of newspapers. 19th century papers newspapers were often densely packed with type, often arranged vertically, with multiple headlines for each article. A number of the same technological limitations persisted until the advent of digital typesetting and pagination in late 20th century.

Related Topics:
Industrial Revolution - Printing - Distribution - Editorial standards - Digital typesetting - Pagination

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Some of these changes included:

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• Fewer articles per page.
• Fewer but larger headlines.
• Modules, or squaring off of articles and packages of related materials. Modules avoid what is known as "doglegs" or inverted-"L" shapes.
• More standardized column widths.
• More standardized fonts.
• More "art" —nontext elements, usually photos, but often including advertising or outline (or shaded) boxes for featured stories.
• More white space, known as "air". An area with too little white space is called "tight", and too much white space is called "loose".
• Color.
 
News design: Process ►