Houses have wood framing; pages have a column grid. Both allow for consistency, creativity and beauty.

A neat trick to help you place photos and textual elements inserted into stories is to use smaller columns in your grid — the same size as your smallest element. Because this is frequently a half-column mug shot, I refer to it as the “half-column grid.”

With this system, your body text is set across two of the half-columns, and if you need to insert a thumbnail mug shot, you know exactly how wide to make it and where to place it. No more re-inventing the wheel each issue.

The half-column approach is also good if you want to have text wrap around both sides of an inserted element. In a two-column story for instance, you could place a pullquote in the center two (of four) half-columns and allow the text to wrap around both sides. Easy and consistent.

Another way to use smaller columns is to use an odd-number of small columns for that special page or package. I am a big proponent of varying your grid for special presentations.

With an odd number of columns, you still run your text across two of the “half” columns, but what about that leftover one? Use it for factoids, a brief pullquote, a series of mug shots or simply leave it white — even inside a spread — to help set the presentation apart from your straight news grid.

Used well, a half-column grid can add visual interest in an attractive and consistent way.

Examples:

Here is a story set on a standard grid. If you wanted to put in a thumbnail, would you know what size to make the art? Would you be able to make it consistently sized each tie you do this? (You should!)

If you are going to insert a thumbnail mug shot, a lot of times you are flying by the seat of your pants in terms of size. You may have different heights and widths for each story in your paper, and inconsistency is unattractive.

But, if you are using a half-column grid, AND, if you have created a mug shot and name combination in your library, all you have to do is drag the blank (complete with name placeholder and text wrap) on your page, and then add in the new content. Easy!

In the example below, you can see the mug shot and nameline in the library. It was dragged onto the page and now it’s ready to go.

Below is one example of how you can use an odd number of half-columns for everything from side cutlines to factoids.

You may also be interested in the baseline grid post.

Related posts:

1. Newspaper design tip: baseline grids
2. No. 4: Content and design
3. Newspaper design: practical tip No. 1