New Media Operation丨How to design the layout for your article?

Many new media operators are concerned about how to increase fans. However, they also overlook the importance of typesetting, which is the basis for new media operations.

The role of typesetting is to reduce reading barriers for readers in this era of fragmented reading.

The famous host Yang Lan once said: No one is obligated to discover your inner beauty through your poor appearance.

The same goes for your articles. Readers don’t need to look through your poor typesetting to discover the intrinsic value of your article.

No matter what era, people are always focused on beautiful things.

For an article, typesetting is the appearance of the article and also the reading environment for readers. Good typesetting will naturally make readers more willing to read your article, get a better reading experience, and increase the completion rate of your article.

1. Three principles of typography

1. Simple and beautiful

The quality of typography is based on aesthetics. Don't use typesetting just for the sake of typesetting. Don't be fancy or complicated, just keep it simple.

Typesetting is originally intended to enhance the reading experience, but many complex and fancy typesettings actually reduce the reading experience. It is better not to engage in such self-destructive behavior.

2. Clear structure

If your article only has a few words, there is no need for typeset.

Typesetting is the process of simplifying a complex article of several thousand words and dividing it into many modules, making the article more logical and clearer, making it easier for users to accept and more efficient in the reading process.

3. Focus

When presenting content, you must have a priority mindset, because you can’t expect users to read every sentence from beginning to end. You need to highlight and present content that is more important and that you want users to pay more attention to.

Subheadings, introductions, endings, key words and sentences, key pictures, videos, etc., all need to be done to make this part of the content more prominent.

2. 6 Tips for Typesetting

1. Article color matching standards

When it comes to clothing matching, there is a "three-color principle", which means that all clothes on the body should be kept within three colors, otherwise it will easily become confusing.

The overall color matching of the article should also follow the "three-color principle". It is best not to use more than three colors in an article.

A common color matching method is: black for the main text, gray for the explanatory text, and then add a fixed bright color. This not only looks comfortable, but also helps to unify the overall style.

2. Content modularization

The subway will announce each station to you, otherwise you will feel anxious because you don’t know which station you have arrived at. We also need to set up such "stations" for readers in our articles, that is, present the content in modular form.

Modularization means dividing an article into several parts, and extracting a small heading for each part. Its function is like a subway station announcement, letting readers know where they are and what content they are going to read next.

Modular processing can not only help readers better obtain information and understand articles, but also reduce readers' reading pressure and prevent their attention and patience from being consumed too quickly.

3. Paragraph Standardization

Many people in the growth group don’t pay attention to paragraphing when writing articles. They want each paragraph to have 1,000 words. Do you want to suffocate the readers?

Not dividing the paragraphs or dividing them irrationally is the most common typesetting mistake made by novices. Nowadays, we write articles on various mobile apps.

So we basically summarize a rough standard based on the size of the mobile phone screen:

A paragraph of no more than five lines will provide a better reading experience. A paragraph of three or four lines is more comfortable. A paragraph should not exceed eight lines.

Generally, a mobile phone screen displays about 20 lines. Adding the blank space, it is more appropriate to display 3-4 paragraphs on one screen.

4. Focus

Think about the past, when I was in school. The teacher was teaching and knocking on the blackboard, saying: Now let's start highlighting the key points.

At this time, everyone will pick up their pens and prepare to take notes.

When readers read our articles, they are actually listening to what we express. Highlighting the key points can, on the one hand, attract readers' attention, and on the other hand, improve the efficiency of readers in obtaining the value of content.

There are several common ways to highlight the key points:

1. The ones that need to be highlighted can be listed separately using special typesetting formats, such as adding background color and borders;

2. Mark in black and bold, with larger font size;

3. Mark with special colors, usually brand colors;

4. Use introductory words to introduce the content that needs to be highlighted and tell readers that "here comes the point."

5. Appropriate pictures

As the saying goes, "No picture, no evidence". Pictures can assist in expressing text and convey more information. If it is an article about news events, pictures are indispensable. No pictures means "no truth" and the persuasiveness will be greatly reduced.

In this fragmented era, many people do not have the patience to read long articles, so appropriate illustrations can ease the reading pressure, allowing readers to take a break and making it easier to continue reading.

6. The Art of White Space

Reasonable white space can make the content more breathable, reduce the user's reading pressure, and make the user feel comfortable and smooth when reading. At the same time, reasonable blank space can make the content appear relaxed and more beautiful.

Which areas need special attention to leave blank space?

There must be a blank line between paragraphs.

Do not leave blank space at the beginning of a paragraph.

There should be blank space above and below the subheading, and note that the blank space between the subheading and the content below should be smaller than the blank space between the subheading and the content above. This is the principle of integrity, because the subheading and the content below are a whole.

There should be no blank space between the text annotation and the annotated object, which is also the principle of integrity. For example, do not leave blank space between pictures, videos, tables and text annotations.

Leave spaces before and after numbers, English words, and letters.

3. Typesetting parameter design

Typesetting parameters, take me as an example.

Parameter design also has the greatest impact on the overall aesthetics of the article, which are:

Font size: Use 15-16 font for the main text. I use 15 font, which is neither too small nor too large, and the effect is just right.

Font color: The font color of my text is not black, but #545454, medium gray. Looks more comfortable than black.

Of course, the font size you choose will be different depending on the user group.

As above, if the main text uses size 15 font , then the main title should be size 18 font, and the sub-title should be size 16 font.

Character spacing: refers to the distance between characters, and the parameter setting is 1-1.5.

According to tests, this distance is the most comfortable for readers.

Line spacing: It is recommended to set the line spacing to around 1.5-2.0 times , so that the text does not appear too dense. I use 1.5 times, the effect is still very good, and the eyes will not be too tired when reading.

Margins on both sides: This is the blank space on the edge of the page, which looks very nice; so this point should also be used. As for the parameters, I recommend between 12 and 15 pixels . If it is too wide, it is not good, and if it is too narrow, it cannot be seen. I use 15 pixels.

Alignment: There is no special typesetting style. It is recommended to use the method of justifying the main text so that the display effect on the mobile phone will be more neat and will not appear to be of different lengths.

Picture layout: one is to leave blank space, the other is to center it.

Image source: 500px (https://500px.com/)

Image source: Flickr (https://www.flickr.com/)

Head and tail guides

Tail guide: https://www.chuangkit.com/tupian/erweima-or1-pt0-pn1.html (Band-Aid)

Header guide attention: https://www.135editor.com/?https=1 (135 Editor)

Head guidance: If conditions permit, it is highly recommended that you design a brand language of your own. You can refer to mine, or the head guidance of Shidian Reading and Dingxiang Doctor.

Summarize

It is better to teach a man to fish than to give him a fish. The above are 3 principles of typesetting, 6 techniques, and a typesetting parameter.

If you read this article carefully and implement it, your typesetting skills will surpass most new media operators.

Remember, no matter how good an article is, it still needs careful typeset design. Typesetting is the presentation design of the content and a reading service. Better service means a better reading experience and ultimately a higher completion rate.

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Author: Yinzhi

Source: Yinzhi