Grid-ness

Grid.
We all love grid.
Can't live without them.
Period.
But what is grid?

I know what it is, but the more I say the word GRID, the more I don't know what it is!
#grid.grid.grid.grid.grid.grid.grid.grid.grid.grid.grid.grid.grid.grid.#

As usual, when stupidity knocks on your my front door, the first thing you I do is go to: www.dictionary.com.

SO! According to the Dr. Dictionary,

Grid is :

1.	a grating of crossed bars; gridiron.

2.	Electricity. a. a metallic framework employed in a storage cell or battery for conducting the electric current and supporting the active material. b. a system of electrical distribution serving a large area, esp. by means of high-tension lines.

3.	Electronics. an electrode in a vacuum tube, usually consisting of parallel wires, a coil of wire, or a screen, for controlling the flow of electrons between the other electrodes.

4.	Surveying. a basic system of reference lines for a region, consisting of straight lines intersecting at right angles.

5.	a network of horizontal and perpendicular lines, uniformly spaced, for locating points on a map, chart, or aerial photograph by means of a system of coordinates.

6.	Architecture. a rectangular system of coordinates used in locating the principal elements of a plan.

7.

grillage.

8.	Football. gridiron (def. 1).

Yes. I literately copy and paste that. As far as I know, the grid I was talking about is grid #4.

But after reading my awesome 'text book' a.k.a. The fundamentals of Typography, I learned that a grid is actually a modernist structure that uses numbers to identify the different cuts. It also breaks space or time into regular units. [Uuuuu]

The reason why WE designers use a grid is because, it makes our lives easier. Specifically, as it was mention on the text, it is intended to make type selection simpler and ultimately more useful. It is a system where you could establish arranging content with in the space of page, screen, or built environment.

For example: Varying a character width is easily achieved by moving one row down the grid from 55 to 65.

And as life continues, we found out that grid has many kids kinds. One of them are called modular grid. Modular grid is a grid that has consistent horizontal divisions from top to bottom in addition to vertical divisions from left to right.

Enough with the grids. There are other things I need to know more about, such as:

Margins a.k.a border, is the space around the printed or written matter on a page.

Columns, a vertical row or list.

Gutter, which I think, is the white space formed by the inner margins of two facing pages in a bound book, magazine, or newspaper.

And flowlins, is... to be honest with you I have no clue what it is. It could be a line that flows.. like a horizontal line? Maybe? maybe not because it's not even a LINE. Which is really confusing. I know, I fail.
Note to self: ask THE teacher!

But what's not confusing is hierarchy. Because hierarchy is a logical and visual way to express the relative importance of different text elements by providing a visual guide to their organization. Ways to achieve a clear hierarchy is by gaining up a weight to a sentence to reinforce its importance.

Then there's 'type family' which is a complete set of type suitable for printing text.
And 'type styles' which is a specific style of type, like Arial.

The End