Setting up a Keynote document for grid layout design

00-intro.md

Setting up a Keynote document for grid layout design

I like (love ?) Keynote because it

• is a simple to use presentation software,
• is vector based (when zooming it just looks gorgeous)
• exports to powerpoint

If I could remove that last argument, I would, but the fact is that, as a consultant, the final document is almost always expected to be a powerpoint document. Don't ask me why, it is just so. I am fighting against it but I did not win the battle so far ...

Recently I read an awesome book about graphic design Mise en page(s), etc. where they present grid layout design in-depth. I like this well-know approach because it provides some guidelines to produce a well-balanced, consistent design.

In Adobe Indesign, you have everything to quickly set up a grid that you can use to design but in Keynote such a customization does not exists or at least it is not automatic.

I started to look around for a methodology, a hack to be able to setup a grid in Keynote. This article is about the steps that you can reproduce to set up a grid in Keynote.

01-prerequisites.md

Prerequisites

This method has been tested on Keynote 6.6.2 (latest version on macOS El Capitan) so you need :

• a mac
• Keynote installed

Open a blank document

When I open Keynote, I tend to avoid using templates. I like to start with a blank page. So what I've done is simply make myself a blank template.

To do so :

1. Open Keynote and select the white template
2. Open the master slide and remove all the slides except the blank one then hit finished
3. Save th presentation as a custom template

That's it, you've got yourself a nice blank template

Set-up the paper size

Before we consider using a grid, you need to set up the paper size through the document size. I use a4size.com.au to get the good size in pt for my document.

Set-up Keynote preferences

Go to Keynote > Preferences > Rulers. In the Alignment guides section, select ONLY Show guides at object edges.

Examples used in this gist

For simplicity, let's consider that I created an A4 paper size blank template. From a4size.com.au, the size of the document is 842pt x 595pt. The printed document is aimed to be 29.7cm x 21cm.

02-margins.md

Step 1 : Set up the margins

Define your working area

Let's say I want my margins to be equal to 1cm on each sides (top, bottom, left, right). My document is 842pt x 595pt for a real document of 29.7cm x 21cm. Therefore 1cm reprensents 595pt / 21cm = 28.3pt.

At the end, my working area

• length is 842pt - 2 * 28.3pt = 785pt
• height is 595pt - 2 * 28.3pt = 538pt

Display your margins

Make a square of size 785pt x 538pt. Set no fill, no shadow and a thin black line. Finally center (vertically and horizontally) the square using the arrange > align functions.

03-baseline.md

Step 2 : Define your baseline

Your baseline is directly link to your typography.

Define your base font size

Insert a text entry and choose your the font size that you want to be considered as "normal" (i.e. your plain text font size). With our example, a font size of 9pt or 12pt seems appropriate, let's say 9pt.

Set up the line spacing

Now we need to define the line spacing since Keynote is using a formula to compute it that I could not understand when selecting bigger font sizes. A good line spacing is between 1.2 and 1.5 times the base font size. Let's say I choose 1.33. So the line spacing is 9 * 1.33 = 12pt.

To set that in Keynote go to Line Spacing, select exactly and enter 12pt.

Remove any text inset

If you want your typography to match your grid, remove any text inset (i.e. set it to 0pt : Text > Layout > Text inset = 0pt)

That's it

Now you have your baseline which is 12pt and a text entry matching it.

04-gutter.md

Step 3 : Set up the gutters

Define your gutter width

Now that you have a baseline, you can easily define your gutter width by taking a multiple of it. Let's say we take a gutter width of 12pt.

Make a gutter

Now make a square figure with no fill, no shadow and a thin red line of width your gutter width, here 12pt.

05-grid.md

Step 4 : Make the grid

Make the vertical grid

If you want a 12 cell vertical grid,

1. Duplicate your gutter to have 13 gutters.
2. Place one gutter with its right edge matching the left edge of the margins square.
3. Place one gutter with its left edge matching the right edge of the margins square.
4. Place all the other gutters inside the square representing the margins.
5. Then, select all the 13 gutters and go to Format > Arrange > Distribute > Vertically
6. Remove the top left and top right gutters

Follow the same steps with N+1 gutters to create a N cell vertical grid

Make it a full size grid

1. Select all your remaining gutters (should be 11 if you followed my example) and make them the same height as the square representing the margins
2. Select all your remaining gutters and hit shift + down arrow key to make all of them lower then the top side of the square representing the margins
3. Select all your remaining gutters and the square representing the margins and go to Format > Arrange > Align > Top

That's it, you have a vertical grid.

Make it a master slide

Finally copy all the gutters and the margins and paste it to a blank master slide. Make sure you keep a master slide blank too. If you hit finished you should be left with two master slides, one with the grid and one without.

Now, with your Keynote preferences correctly set-up, every object that you create can be snapped to the grid when the grid master slide is selected. Switching to the blank master slide gives you the final result !

06-final.md

Final words

Job done

That's it, you have now a nice grid set up with a consistent typography. Each objects are going to snap to that grid and when you want to get rid it, simply change the master slide :)

Limitations

So far, I did not find a way to make each typographical element to sit on the baseline. I manage to make each block a multiple of the baseline but for big font size the text entry seems to be shifted to the bottom.

grid-layout-design-keynote.key

Anytime!