Get Inspiration

Before you start your magazine, go to a newsstand and purchase a few magazines that catch your eye. Take them home and try to decide WHY they caught your eye. What is it?… the photos? the layout? the subject of the magazine? Use elements you like in other magazines to inspire your magazine’s layout. And do your best to not let the computer dictate your layout. The software works for you not the other way around.

Use a Great Masthead

Remember, your cover design will be fighting the other covers for attention. A well-designed masthead visually entices the buyer to choose one magazine over others in its category.

Use a Great Cover Photo

DON’T try to save a few bucks on the cover. A well-designed cover can get your magazine noticed and even more importantly, picked up! Therefore, all cover photos must be of a good, high quality photo (in the proper resolution).

Choose a photo that is interesting to your potential readers or which tells a story. Showing the unexcited face of an unknown person will not do much to get the potential customer to reach for your magazine. 

Careful Font Usage

The choice of fonts can have a major impact on the overall professionalism a magazine conveys. Using too many font faces is visually confusing to the reader. He/she may have trouble distinguishing the stories from the ads. Not to mention that too much “stuff” can be tiring on the eyes.

ALL CAPS are difficult to read. If you want to emphasize a word consider using bold versions of that font as an alternative.

Stretching/compressing fonts look awkward. Consider the extended or condensed version of that font or even another font family.

Multi-column Layouts

One trick for having your stories look professionally built is to use a multi-column grid to the page. For regular sized magazines try using three columns, digest sized mags use two. Not only does it look more professional but text will flow better on the page and you will have more options for placing photos.

Don’t Be Afraid of “White Space”

Although it can be difficult, consider leaving some areas of the page blank. Stuffing as much as you can onto a page is visually overwhelming to the reader. Experiment with leaving some column white space in your new multi-column layout. Try running text in one of the columns only with a photo or graph covering the other two columns. Try starting your article halfway down the page with the top half being reserved for a photo. Experiment - computers make that easy.

Stay Away from the Edge

Many magazines that come through our facilities have layouts with text too close to the edge of the page. Again, don’t try to fill up the entire space. 1/4″ margin is the minimum suggestion but better 1/2″ or even more, page margin is suggested. Again, it looks more professional adding more white space and you will not worry about the possibility that text might be cut off when the magazine is cut down to size after printing.

Avoid Clip Art

Remember…It’s Only a Magazine

You have invested a great deal of time, creative energy and perhaps money in your magazine. Because of this, you will be dismayed to have your work judged harshly BUT it still won’t be perfect when your time deadline comes around. Keep in mind - you may be the only one that ever notices minor imperfections. You don’t hyper-analyze other peoples’ magazines - your readers won’t hyper-analyze yours! It is only a magazine…not a work of art.