Eric Q. Liu The Grid System is a classic tool in graphic design, but some young designers have not fully understood that the original concept of Josef Müller-Brockmann’s grid system theory is based on typography. On the other hand, they also lack the study of East Asian grids, and awkwardly copy Western grid system theory into Chinese typography. This results in some seemingly beautiful designs, but actually does not conform at all to the traditional East Asian typesetting rules.
This presentation takes aim at these phenomena and makes a simple analysis of common misunderstandings in the application of grid systems in CJK typesetting. It points out that the grid system is a convenient tool whose essence is consistent with the characteristics of squareness of Hanzi, so it is directly rooted in the foundation of East Asian typography. However, the grid is just a tool after all, and it needs to be used flexibly. We can neither force all characters to be aligned vertically and horizontally, nor can we just use a Western-style grid to randomly pull a text frame and lay out the characters without doing any adjustments. Specific decisions need to be made based on the grid system and CJK readability as an indicator.