Since the birth of the Venice Gazzetta in the 16th century, modern western newspapers have had a history of four or five hundred years.
Initially, the style of the newspaper was very close to the book at the time. In the 18th century, the standard book format was gradually abandoned, and large-format papers were used to expand the layout. However, in addition to changes in the size of the paper, newspapers in this period had almost no changes in printing and visual factors. The situation remained until the middle of the 19th century. After Richard Hoo improved the press in 1845, the vertical layout achieved a dominant position. This layout is usually based on a vertical bar. Each column runs from the top to the bottom of the layout. The font is small, the picture is small and small, and the title is almost not hurdling. Its importance is only displayed by its thickness. At the end of the 19th century, the fiercely contested "The World" (Joseph Pulitzer Office) and "The New York News" (Hoechst Office) took the readers and broke through the conventions in the layout, completely breaking the restrictions of the columns and moving the text horizontally. , "The revolution of the horizontal layout has arrived."
The horizontal layout still has the division of the basic column, but its writing is no longer from the previous pass to the next, but through the transition to the horizontal direction, the selection of fonts is expanded, and large maps spanning several columns also have the opportunity to appear on the layout. The headline hurdle is not a rare phenomenon. Its importance has begun to be reflected in its length. Pictures have emerged and colors have appeared in newspapers. In the 20th century, especially in the 60s, layout design received unprecedented attention. Palazzo for the "New York Herald Tribune" implementation of the revision, the magazine's model was introduced into the newspaper layout: a lot of blank, large photographs, content division. The revision of the Minneapolis Tribune in the 1970s used a modular layout to make it the mainstream format of American newspapers. In the 1980s, the USA’s first successful nationwide newspaper, USA Today, founded by the Gannett Newspaper Group appeared on the basis of colors and pictures, interpreting news with a large number of information-rich charts, and becoming a Western newspaper layout development. A milestone in history has since unveiled the prelude to the "redesign movement."
After so many years of evolution and enrichment, we can see that in the form of Western newspapers has indeed undergone tremendous changes, and layout elements such as drawings, diagrams, lines, colors, and blanks have been fully used to create a variety of styles. . The development of science and technology, the competition among different types of media, the transformation of editorial ideas, and the research and promotion of design theories play a role that cannot be ignored in the changing process of newspaper pages. As Roger Fidler put it, "The morphological changes in the media are usually caused by perceived needs, competition, and political pressure, as well as the complex interaction of social and technological innovations."
Technological development: the material basis of the layout change. Marshall Mcluhan once put forward the idea of ​​“media is the messageâ€. He thinks that “mankind has some kind of media to be able to engage in appropriate communication and other social activities. From the long process of human society development, the truly meaningful and valuable 'message' is not the content of the dissemination of various eras, but the nature of the means of communication used in this era, the possibilities it created, and the Social change" 2. Although McLuhan exaggerated the role of technology, the role of print publishing technology in promoting the evolution of layout styles is obvious. Its immaturity has limited the choice of layout in the design, and its development at each step has become an opportunity for the development of layout design.
Before Richard Hoe improved the traditional printing press in 1845, Western modern newspapers were in an embryonic stage. There was not much difference in form between books and books, except for the size of the paper used. The first modern newspaper, "Public Events at Home and Abroad," founded in 1690 on the American continent, followed the standard format of books. It is 9.5 inches long and 6 inches wide. It has 4 pages. The first 3 pages are news, and the fourth page is blank. Readers can write their own information on them for the next reader. Its layout is divided into two columns, each column is 17 pica wide (that is, about 2.8 inches, pica is the unit of measure for imposition), the positive text number is 12 points (that is, about 0.17 inch, the point represents the specification of the typeface), it passes the header and each The capital letters at the beginning of the news segment divide the visual points on the layout. Although the original newspaper operators have exerted great efforts to distinguish newspapers from traditional books, the conditions of printing resources are limited, and newspapers that are in their infancy are unlikely to have the opportunity of choice in layout design.
In the middle and late 19th century, with the vigorous development of the industrial revolution, the technological revolution in the field of printing and publishing is also rapidly developing. In 1845, Richard Haugh improved the traditional printing press, produced a high-speed rotary press, realized the mechanization of newspaper printing, and brought about a revolution in newspaper layout. However, in order to prevent the movable type on the printing plate from falling off at a high speed, this high-speed rotary printing press uses a long metal bar penetrating the printing plate from top to bottom to fix them. The thin lines formed in the printing of these metal strips naturally become the division of the columns. Since the pressure of the wedge used for the production of the embedding is not sufficient on the roll surface, as long as the rotary printer of the dial is used as a standard equipment, various titles will rarely appear on the newspaper. Therefore, during this period, "as a result of the limitations of printing technology, newspapers had to adopt a monotonous and stereotyped pattern, but in terms of the overall image, the newspapers adopted as many kinds of printing methods as possible under the conditions allowed by technology, and Introduced illustrations.†3 The “multi-column pattern†mentioned here refers to the vertical layout that dominates the layout of newspapers in the traditional period.
In the 1960s, newspaper printing began to use cast plates. The cast version of the lead made pictures, titles, advertisements, etc. no longer subject to column restrictions. At this time, the horizontal layout gradually replaced the dominance of the vertical layout and became a popular trend.
Prior to the invention of photoengraving and lead printing, occasionally appearing pictures in newspapers were mainly completed by artists. Around 1860, the United Kingdom invented photoengraving, but how to use photocopies on a rotary machine at that time was still a problem. It was not until 1897 that Hogan had completed the invention of his photographic copperplate in the New York Tribune. News photographs began to become an element of the newspaper's layout.
Color printing is not a new concept. As early as 1457, some people printed religious books in red and blue. However, after the appearance of the color press in 1893, the “Le Monde†used the five colors available at the time to the extreme. Color has only begun to become a part of the layout elements.
In the 20th century, the printing and publishing technology has continuously made new breakthroughs and provided greater technological space for newspaper layout innovations: Between 1904 and 1905, the United States’s W. Rubel invented the offset printing and could use it in various pictures. , books and color packaging materials; in 1907 the British Simon (S. Simon) obtained a patent for screen printing, screen printing plate making cost is low, the ink can be firmly attached to the surface of the object to be printed in any shape; 50 years, A "cold word" revolution introduced photography into the printing process. Photographic typesetting machines, typesetting machines, and photons began to steadily invade the "hot metal" typesetting field; computer typesetting and new printing technologies introduced in the late 1960s attracted attention. The cost of manufacturing was reduced, and the use of color and images was also increased. In 1977, 94% of daily newspapers in the United States had already transitioned from hot-sweep to phototypesetting, 65% had adopted computers, and 57% had video-recording terminals; In the 1980s, the scanner made it possible to transmit satellites after the color was resolved, and its price has become accepted by most daily newspapers. This technological achievement has enabled editors to use layout elements almost to their likings. During this period, most newspapers have undergone substantive changes in content, layout, and technology, and this change is still in progress. . (To be continued)