Design skills

Grids

• help the designer determine the placement and use of text, images, and other design elements such as white space, margins, folios, helping to maintain continuity while still allowing for variety in the layout
• in a magazine feature, for reasons of legibility, the grid traditionally has three columns, but literary magazines often use 2 wide columns instead to form a classical symmetry and deliver long lengths or squares of text

Templates 

• templates should be made up for the different sections: news page, features pages, back sections
• flexible enough to allow versatility and individuality in pages and spreads

Pagination

• the order in which editorial appear
• special attention should be paid to the details: a feature ending on a left-hand page with a new feature facing it is rarely desirable, and neither is a feature that is interrupted by four pages of advertising, or by an unexpected advertising insert

Paper considerations

• Coated or uncoated - reflect light better and absorb less ink, giving images more detail: the higher the number of coats, the sharper the images. Uncoated papers offer a softness in print - good for fine art or illustration, makes text easier to read.
• Gloss or matte - a high-gloss stock is usually used on a high-quality publication with a large number of images, but many matte stocks offer excellent reproduction and can make a publication stand out from its competitors
• Thick or Thin - thick papers associated with art and "highbrow" books, but thin papers can give the same sense of opulence and richness, depending on another qualities such as density, brightness and coating
• Dense or opaque - the opacity of stock will affect its show-through; if using an opaque stock, you will need to consider the page carefully to minimize print show-through.
• Heavy or light  - we associate weight in paper with luxury, but luxury costs, but luxury costs in paper, portability and in postage
• High or low brightness - the brighter the paper, the more blue light it reflects, which works well for reproducing images; bush such brightness can create glare that might interfere with readability, and because of the amount of bleaching needed to achieve high brightness, qualities such as durability and printability may be affected
• Recycled or virgin stock