Comments on: The Complex Grid

By: Łukasz Świstuń

Łukasz Świstuń — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 11:27:41 +0000

Hi, thanks for the tutorial. I found calculating the number of lines that fit inside a text block easier using the following method: 1. Choose type size and leading (make sure the leading is the same size as your gutter) 2. Divide the number of lines by number of divisions (divisions are the squares/blocks created by horizontal and vertical grid lines. So if you have 4 by 4 grid, then you have 16 grid divisions) 3. If you get decimal value like 18.25, then round the result to the smallest number. In this example it’s 18 and do the following 4. 18 (lines per one division) times 4 (number of vertical divisions in a column) + 3 ( number of empty lines (gutters) remember the gutter has to be the same size as the leading. 5. At this point you should get full number in our example it’s 75 lines

Hope that helps

By: Marian Arlt

Marian Arlt — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 14:09:14 +0000

Kind of annoying at first, just like grids use to be, but really awesome in the end. Thanks for sharing!

By: Pedro Monteiro

Pedro Monteiro — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 14:49:54 +0000

Mike, thank you so much for the formula! Nice one.

By: Mike

Mike — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 13:29:59 +0000

Thanks for your article! To the number of lines: the formula to calculate possible numbers of lines X is X=n*12+11, whereas n may be any integer.
Explaination: you want 12 grid rows, separated by 11 gutters, and you want each grid row to be n lines high.

By: Grids, Guides, Proportions and InDesign Math | Nick Cassway's designBLOG

Grids, Guides, Proportions and InDesign Math | Nick Cassway's designBLOG — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 04:10:18 +0000

[...] motivation. There are endless ways to split up a page via grids; Golden section, rules of thirds, complex grids etc.. Every designer should investigate and use them; they are cool, they work and they create [...]

By: Complex Grid | Design 3

Complex Grid | Design 3 — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 02:59:23 +0000

[...] show you the entire math that you must do to build a Complex Grid on a page that is given to you. more Advertisement Eco World Content From Across The Internet. Featured on EcoPressed Did [...]

By: Connie

Connie — Tue, 24 May 2011 13:48:49 +0000

Hi!

Thank you for posting this article. I am really eager to figure it out and start experimenting! I’m confused though… I can’t seem to figure out how to place my horizontal guides. Also, my baseline grid doesn’t fit perfectly. I’m probably missing something really simple… ?

By: This American Scholar -

This American Scholar - — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 18:16:41 +0000

[...] The Grid [...]

By: Pamphlet #30 / Coupling: Strategies for Infrastructural Opportunism.

Pamphlet #30 / Coupling: Strategies for Infrastructural Opportunism. — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 05:39:30 +0000

[...] grid, which is based on The Complex Grid from the blog whatype.com, can accommodate a number of column and row combinations and is immensely [...]

By: whatype

whatype — Sun, 14 Nov 2010 12:38:54 +0000

Looking at your document the problem that I see is that you need to have a number of lines inside your type area that (minus the gutters, or the blank division lines) can be divided by 12.

Right now you have 60 lines, minus 11 blank lines you get 49 lines and that doesn’t divide by 12.

Please make your top and bottom margins larger in order to have 59 lines inside the type area. On your document it is easy since you just have to add half pica to each margin (top and bottom) or 1 pica to one of the margins.

When you get 59 lines inside the type area you can do this simple math: 59 – 11 (number of blank lines)= 48; 48 / 12 = 4

So you’ll have 12 division with 4 lines inside each. That’s it