Tablets and smartphones. The editorial design is forced to adapt itself to the new digital information carriers

Abstract

The basic structure of the editorial design for printed media has been obliged to adjust itself to the new digital information media. Width and height, the two basic dimensions, have opened the path to new formulas, where text and images don’t only coexist together, but where they need to combine themselves with new elements such as hypertext or audiovisuals resources. The editorial design has gain in-depth insight, and at the same time it has sought new ways of adapting to the new carriers, essentially tablets and smartphones. This is how the absolute measures of the printed media have been replaced by the relative references that designers must use to make a functional and effective contribution in the design, that in many cases have not been correctly applied to achieve the ‘responsive design’; the flexible design that new carriers require, and the new chances offered by the web apps and the applications for tablets. Experimentation with procedures based on trial and error was needed to adapt the publishing design to new carriers and formats.