Newspaper Design

Print and Web are different. Traditional layout techniques from print, particularly an advanced formatting, aren’t applicable to the Web as CSS doesn’t offer sophisticated instruments to design such layouts (e.g. text floating around an embedded image; some “floating” techniques provide such results. However they produce bloated source code just as well).

At the same time, the flexibility of the Web is hardly applicable to print as there is no way to customize a traditional periodical for reader’s convenience. Apart from that, online reading is very different from offline-reading: in the latter both leading and the line length are usually much shorter.

However, there are some fundamental principles which are often being used in both media. Over the last years newspapers and websites started to apply similar principles of data presentation, such as the heavy use of . The results can sometimes be very similar, but often they have almost nothing at common.

This issue of Monday inspiration series is supposed to provide you with some examples of outstanding newspaper designs which have been rewarded with prestigious awards (see references at the bottom of this post) and demonstrate unusual approaches of newspaper layout.

El Economista (Madrid, Spain)

El Economista uses a very traditional, subtle and unique newspaper layout. Notice how well the typography reflects the weight of single articles. Infographics support the content and headlines are surrounded by huge amount of whitespace.

Äripäev (Tallinn, Estonia)

Äripäev‘s signature is the heavy use of typography. The layout may sometimes seem overcrowded, however the packaging is always clean, simple to digest and easy to read. Note the difference in weights of colors: color, grey and red are applied carefully and sparingly.

De Morgen (Belgium)

De Morgen focuses on attractive packaging and a visually appealing layout. Vivid colors offer readers more eye-candy; however, they also have a function as they e.g. clearly separate quotations from the overall article. Headlines are centered, background-colors differ from page to page.