Applied Design for Printers / A Handbook of the Principles of Arrangement, with Brief Comment on the Periods of Design Which Have Most Strongly Influenced Printing

by Harry Lawrence Gage

Fig. 11. A true square above and an optically corrected square below.
Psychologists explain that the eyes find it more difficult to judge the
length of vertical lines, hence are inclined to exaggerate them.

Balance

The physical equilibrium which exists in the balanced “seesaw” of our childhood and the optical balance which is the result of the proper adjustment of masses within the confining edges of a design are similar, in that each is an equalizing of forces of attraction. In the former the force is gravity; in the latter, the attraction to the eye, which varies with the size and tone of the mass. While the force of gravity usually brings balancing masses to a horizontal alignment, optical balance may bring the masses in a design into equilibrium on any desired line, horizontal, vertical, or diagonal.

The attraction which a mass possesses varies directly with its size and tone. Thus a mass of four square inches, solid black, will be twice as strong in attraction value as a mass of two square inches, solid black. It will also be twice as strong in attraction value as a mass of four square inches, neutral gray (the gray being half the value of black). The attraction value of gray tones particularly affects the consideration of blocks of type which vary in depth of tone according to the blackness of the type face, closeness of spacing, etc.

Since the “seesaw” must have its sawhorse and the weighing scale its point of support, it follows that any condition of equilibrium, physical or optical, demands a point of balance. In design, this point will determine the location of the related masses. It will be apparent upon further thought that the point of balance should have some relationship to the edge or confines of the design.

The confining edge of the design is usually a rectangle, on the printed page. The location of a point of balance within this rectangle tends to divide it. How shall it be divided in the most interesting way? By applying the ratio of good proportion. So the point of balance may be located usually on a line which divides the page into parts of 2 and 3.

When equal masses are to be balanced it is obvious that they will be equidistant from the point of balance. ([Fig. 12.])