Instant InDesign: Designing Templates for Fast and Efficient Page Layout

Creating a Style Guide

A style guide identifies the components of a template and demonstrates the appropriate use of each typographic and graphical element that constitutes the design. You might think of it as a rule book for designers, ensuring a consistent design (Figure 14.18). Ultimately, the style guide you create should provide all the information a designer needs to accurately reproduce a document with your template.

Figure 14.18. These three spreads are from the Family Circle Magazine style guide. They are an excellent example of how a detailed style guide should look. Each design element is clearly identified with labels. Alternative layout variations are also demonstrated. The gray-filled frames indicate the preferred position, width, ...