Thursday, 11 July 2013

Spell Layout -- Thoughts?

As part of a new super secret (not any more ;) project I'm working on, I've been fiddling around with possible page layouts for spell listings. (See... though my posting here has dropped off a bit lately, I am far from idle.)

I've come down to two fundamental possibilities, and I'm not sure which is best. So I thought I'd post examples up here to see if anyone has any thoughts.

Note that both these example layouts are rough. You need to ignore things like paragraphs wrapping over columns -- that stuff will be sorted out when I get to the layout stage of the document for real. For now it's just playing.

The first possible layout for a spell list is the traditional 2-column layout on an A4 / letter size page.


The alternative layout which I've had in mind is a single column, A5 / digest size page. I like digest size books a lot, so wanted to experiment with this format.

As you can see, the 2-column layout actually fits more text in the same amount of space, due to more efficient paragraph wrapping and less margins overall, I presume. You may also notice that I've gone for the traditional spell listing by level here. One advantage of this, in terms of layout and page usage, is that I don't need to specify what level every single spell is -- a nice side-effect.

Another small point of interest is the way I've put the Duration and Range on a single line. I'm not totally sold on this, but thought I'd give it a go.

So, what do you think? Any feedback / advice would be most welcome!
Posted by Gavin Norman at 23:43

12 comments:

  1. Unknown11 July 2013 at 23:48

    Two column is more readable and familiar.

    ReplyDelete
  2. ArtBraune11 July 2013 at 23:52

    Two column is a winner for me...

    ReplyDelete
  3. Dennis Laffey12 July 2013 at 00:14

    Digest is nice for reading on computers/tablets, but for print I also agree with A4/Letter with two columns.

    Will this be ebook only, or for print?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Gavin Norman12 July 2013 at 00:18

      I'm intending it to be both, digital and print.

      Another option would of course be to have a single column layout ebook version and a 2-column print version. Only trouble is that's twice the layout work...

      Delete
  4. Shane Mangus12 July 2013 at 00:20

    Looks nice, and easy to read. The size of the book will probably dictate the size of the page, so column layout can be decided then. I am partial to digest size, but only if the page count is kept low.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Talysman12 July 2013 at 00:59

    Both layouts look appropriate for their page sizes, so the real question is: which size do you prefer? Is there any pressing reason to go with A4 over A5, or the other way around?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Gavin Norman12 July 2013 at 07:50

      Well, purely going on my personal taste: I much prefer the A4 / 2-column layout. However I have a thing for A5 booklets, and know lots of other people do. Hence the experiment.

      I was also just interested to see what people generally prefer... so far the feedback is pretty much 50/50 for A4 vs A5.

      Delete
  6. paulgo12 July 2013 at 01:25

    I prefer the second (one column) view. More flexibility is helpful.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Gavin Norman12 July 2013 at 08:14

      In what way do you feel single column is more flexible? (I'm trying to gauge people's use-scenarios / preferences...)

      Delete
  7. Gothridge Manor12 July 2013 at 03:22

    Looks great. I'm also partial to the two column look.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Dithering Fool12 July 2013 at 03:41

    two column :)

    ReplyDelete
  9. Gavin Norman12 July 2013 at 08:15

    Thanks for your feedback everyone!

    ReplyDelete

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