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Far From Being a Utilitarian Afterthought, an Astonishing Number of Design Choices Go Into Pagination (theoutline.com)

An anonymous reader shares a report: In his landmark 1931 book An Essay on Typography, the British typographer Eric Gill discusses everything from the proper place for the tail of an 'R' to terminate to which type of word press might best serve the amateur typographer. He casts the printed word as sacred. But there's one thing -- a silent, steady workhorse found in nearly every book -- that Gill fails to address: the lowly page number. The functional role of the page number is simple: it provides order and sequence to a text. And while it is a supremely utilitarian design element, more thought is put into it than you might imagine. Should it go at the top or the bottom of the page? In the right or left margin? Or in the center? These are all conscious and deliberate choices made by designers.

6 of 149 comments (clear)

  1. Can we ban "TheOutline" by thegarbz · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Has anyone found an "The Outline" post on Slashdot that hasn't fallen under
    1) Uninformed Gibberish
    2) Trolling clickbait
    3) Completely boring filler of interest to no one even the topic's core audience
     

  2. Re:Any typography warriors out there? by Opportunist · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Tabs. Why? Because if you don't like the indentation the way it is, you can easily adjust your tab spacing without altering the code. No matter what the person writing the code thought is the "correct" amount of whitespace between edge and indented code, your setting will provide whatever amount you consider correct.

    Try that if you insist that 4 spaces are indentation and I think that 2 is plenty. And don't you DARE to add spaces to my code because then it will be ALL WRONG when I check it back out. And you can be certain that I will correct your horrible mistake!

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  3. Re:News for nerds? by hipp5 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    How is this news for nerds again and who cares?

    Typography is a pretty nerdy field.

  4. Re:Any typography warriors out there? by moehoward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Having authored a number of books (technical/educational) and been deeply involved in page layout and pedagogy, I can tell you that these things are taken VERY seriously. And, yes, our editorial and authoring teams have had holy wars over much less than this.

    These issues come to the forefront when books will be re-used by the same person. Something that is educational or used as a reference requires great thought with regards to layout.

    Typography and related layout issues are quite an art. I wish there was some simple reference guide. Chicago Manual of Style only goes so far.

    --
    "If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid." - Epictetus
  5. Re:Slow news day? by datavirtue · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Islam is not exclusive to culture. However, islam and all other "religions" are a cancer on the world as are the people who take them seriously.

    --
    I object to power without constructive purpose. --Spock
  6. Re:Slow news day? by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Pet peeve: PDF files with displayed page numbers that don't match up with the actual page index.