Next time you open a book, magazine, or other printed literature, look closely at the wide gaps that surround the main text for no apparent reason. Then, remember what you read in this lengthy piece from Retinart where they discuss exactly why those spaces exist, and how it’s been the foundation of layout theory for centuries.
This method existed long before the computer, the printing press and even a defined measuring unit. No picas or points, no inches or millimeters. It can be used with nothing more than a straight edge, a piece of paper and a pencil.
And you can still use it. This is a system which is still as valid, beautiful and elegant with ultra-modern design as it ever was for the work of the scribes, Gutenberg and Tschichold.
