Baseline grids by Nerijus Pudziuvelis

Creating a baseline grid

Baseline grids exist to allow the easy alignment of type horizontally across a page or spread. The measurement of a baseline grid is dictated by the point size of your chosen font, usually the main text font, plus the space between each line of type. Every designer has their own preference regarding the divisions for a baseline grid, and the nature of the material you are working with can influence your decisions.

1 For this tutorial, start by creating a new file in either InDesign or QuarkXPress, with a portrait page dimension of 228 × 257mm (9 × 101⁄8in). Check that you have Facing Pages checked, and add a second page to make a spread. In Preferences >

Units and Increments [InDesign] or Measurements [QuarkXPress], set the horizontal to millimeters (or inches) and the vertical to points. Set the top margin to 65pt, the inner margin to 12.5mm (1⁄2in), and the outer margin to 23mm (29⁄32in). Leave the bottom margin set to zero for the time being. Finally, set the number of columns to five, with a gutter of 3.75mm (5⁄32in).

At this point, you’ll probably be wondering why we’ve not yet entered a value for the bottom margin. The reason is simply that, until we’ve created the baseline grid, the value of this margin can’t be established. For the next stage, you’ll first need to decide what font you’ll be using for your principal text font.

It makes sense to build your baseline grid around the principal text font, as this will be used more than any other. Headlines, subheads, and captions can be aligned to the running text once you’ve set up your baseline grid.

2 We’ll work with Palatino in this tutorial, but you can use an alternative from your own font collection if you prefer. Create a text frame at the top of the page’s text area, and flow in dummy text. Change the point size to 9pt and set the leading to 13pt, then apply your choice of font. The screen shot to the left shows that, without applying specific settings for the baseline grid, the baseline of the first line of text is unlikely to correspond correctly to the margin. 3 To establish the first baseline of your grid, measure the cap height of your text font as closely as possible. You can do this by drawing a box, on screen, that matches the text’s cap height, or with the dedicated Measure Tool. Your first baseline will be that value plus the top margin of, in this example, 65pt. You may have to play around with the values a little before you’re happy that the text aligns exactly with the margin. The resulting grid is shown below.

I suggested setting the vertical measurement preference to points earlier in the tutorial. The reason for this is that other components of the layout will need to be aligned with the text (and therefore the baseline grid), and text is traditionally measured in points rather than millimeters or inches. It’s not essential to stick rigidly to this method, but try it and see how you get on. We have now almost completed the basic grid construction, but there’s one more thing to do. We must establish the correct value for the bottom margin.

In order to ensure that the final line of your baseline grid aligns exactly with the bottom margin limit, you’ll need to find out the exact distance between that line and the edge of the page. This is why the value can’t be established prior 4 First decide roughly how high you want your

to setting up the baseline grid.

bottom margin to be. As our top margin is 65pt, and because I like to follow the rule that the bottom margin should be larger than the top, I’m going to add two baselines to that value and start with a height of 91pt. Draw a box exactly 91pt high and position it so the bottom edge snaps to the edge of the document (a). As you can see from the screen (a)

(b)

grab, this value doesn’t align perfectly with an established baseline, so I’ve chosen to decrease the height slightly by snapping the box to the baseline below (b). The height of the box, taken from the Control panel [InDesign] or Measurements palette [QuarkXPress], provides the precise value to enter for the bottom margin.

This gives us a bottom margin of 85.004pt, which looks like a pretty odd number to work with. However, once you’ve established this value, you’ll never need to refer to it again, so it doesn’t really matter if the value is a little unwieldy. The basic grid is now established and ready to be developed further. Try dividing the baseline value into smaller increments in order to provide even greater flexibility in the baseline grid. This can be particularly useful for positioning captions, for example, where the leading is set to a smaller value than that of the running text. Be careful not to overcomplicate your baseline grid, however, or it will become less straightforward to use.