A Starters Guide on How to Build Your First Magazine Layout

Let’s look at some quick layout golden rules that can set your digital magazine apart from other publications

It might seem daunting to consistently create a digital magazine with excellent design, especially when you’re just starting out. Indeed, a lot of the work goes into creating a digital magazine that looks fantastic. But don’t let it stop you!

One aspect that can quickly elevate your digital magazine design is to nail your magazine layout.

So, let’s look at some basic layout rules that can set your digital magazine apart from other publications.

1) Plan Your Content

First things first, plan out the content of your magazine before you even touch a computer. You can’t adequately plan your layout if you don’t know what you will put inside your magazine.

What content do you want to include in the issue? How many pages or articles will you have? Will you have a spread for photography? Will it be text-heavy content or a balanced mix of media and text?

Remember, with digital magazines, you can include?different media types, from audio, video, interactive components?and many more. So, there is no excuse to stick with boring static elements like text and still images.

It would be best to answer these questions before designing your magazine. Then, if you have multiple contributors to your publication, work with them to decide on the final version that will go into the latest issue.

It will also help if you make sure that the big idea for your magazine’s content is there. Then, once you know what your magazine will include, you can build your layout to support this.

2) Create Layout & Design Themes

When it comes to a magazine, we’re talking about multiple pages that go together.

Designing each of the pages one by one would be draining on even the most experienced publishers’ time and energy. So instead, create a theme that will help guide your magazine’s overall layout and feel.

Now, it doesn’t mean that you can get away with using the same design on every page. Aim to bring unity and cohesiveness, but it shouldn’t be too uniform or boring to look at. Think about what you want your readers to think, feel, and do as they flip through the next page.

You can create multiple themes that are consistent with your brand vibe.

For example, define a theme for the first featured page and a page for the text pages in between. By doing this, you can also speed up your content creation process. In addition, you can have several different template pages for each type of page, such as Cover, Editorial, TOC, Articles, Videos, Advertisement, and others.

Having a universal theme for your content and pages means that you don’t need to recreate your content layout from scratch for the next issue. This also helps to emphasize your brand identity and makes it easier for readers to recognize your magazine.

3) Content Formatting is Important

One of the essential parts of a digital magazine layout is being mindful of your content formatting. It’s so easy to fall into the trap of cramming too much information onto one page. So now you know, please don’t make it one of your mistakes.

Instead, make sure that your content is aligned correctly.

Use the proper margin and spacing on your layout. This?whitespace will make your readers feel good, and you do want them to feel good reading your content.

No one likes to read content that seems too cluttered to be read. When the spacing between your letters is too tight together, it will be hard for your readers to read it.

The perks of creating layouts for digital magazines is that you don’t have to worry about space, as it’s unlimited.

Yes, you read that right.

Unlike print, where you have to be concerned about a fixed dimension and number of pages, embrace the power of the vertical scrolling reader experience that digital publishing solutions can provide.

Pro Tip:

Be mindful of using columns the way you do in print magazines in your digital magazine. Remember, most of your readers will read your content on their mobile devices. Therefore, too many columns on mobile are simply unpleasant and should be avoided at all costs.

If you plan to use multiple columns for devices with a bigger screen like desktops and tablets, ensure that you’re using a responsive layout that will automatically collapse into one column when your content is displayed on mobile phones.

4) Text Hierarchy

We’ve talked about content formatting above and how we don’t want to cram all your information into one page.

Bottom line — don’t clutter your layout.

Here is another way to give more structure to even the most straightforward design: leverage text hierarchy to tell your story.

You can play around with contrast, try different variations of font weights and sizes, how you position your text and use a?balanced font-size ratio?between headings and subtext.

Leverage text hierarchy to tell your story

5) Embrace the Responsive Design Opportunities Digital Layouts can offer

The best thing about digital magazines is what differentiates them from print; they allow for responsive design.

Responsive design means that your content will adjust according to the device your readers are using. As a result, your content can look and read nicely on any device, size, and orientation.?Isn’t that great?

Reading experiences on mobile devices with responsive HTML layouts always win compared to PDF-only magazines, which behave like static images.

It’d be troublesome to squint, pinch and zoom just to read a simple sentence. Unfortunately, even these days, many digital magazines out there still overlook the importance of responsive design and stick to PDF-only publications.

It’s such a missed opportunity not to do responsive design.

The silver lining, though, is that it’s not too late to seize this opportunity other publications (aka your competitors) are missing. So let’s correct that by future-proofing your digital publication layout by embracing responsive design and staying ahead of the game.

PDF Print Issue Converted to Responsive HTML Edition

Check out the video above, for example. You can see how different it would be when readers view the PDF content versus responsive.

Imagine your digital publication being that responsive!

But, what if I told you that your readers?can?enjoy best of both worlds, switching easily between PDF and responsive HTML view?

Take this Universal App for a test drive over the next?14 days at a $0?cost to you — you can thank me later.

Offer awesome reading experiences on both PDF and HTML Reading Mode to your readers

Create Your Digital Magazine With the Universal App

Now, you’re ready to create a truly responsive digital magazine fit for the awesome content in your publication. I’m so looking forward to seeing your results!

Feel free to drop the URL to your digital publication in the comment below.