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(TL;DR: How big should the black boxes be in the grid below?)

I have a grid of cells containing a rectangular shaped image (it's actually the same image repeated). The ratio of the image width/height is not the same as the grid cells, so the spacing is wider horizontally than vertically (see image below). The grid fills the page horizontally then there's some header+footer content above/below.

My question is, are there aesthetic rules governing positioning these images? For example:

  • How much spacing should be around the images? Should I try to use the Rule of Thirds and make the images 2/3 the size of the cell?
  • should I create a wider margin around the edge of the grid, because the padding between two cells is double that around the outer edge?

Thanks in advance!

enter image description here

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  • yay tumbleweed badge
    – MachineElf
    Sep 27, 2014 at 19:23
  • Interesting question, sorry it went unnoticed until now. First I've seen it and appears first others have seen it too.
    – Ryan
    Jan 21, 2015 at 3:13
  • @Ryan thx, I hope the GD stackexchange gets big like the coding ones because I have so many questions! :-D
    – MachineElf
    Jan 21, 2015 at 11:37

3 Answers 3

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To my eye, the columns between image are so wide that I perceive the images as three columns. If this is your intention, then the spacing is appropriate.

If grouping by column is not your intention, then I would tighten the images a little bit. I also perceive the difference in the top and side margins of the enclosing green square to be too big.

Below I show how I would do it, in absence of any other requirements.

enter image description here

The role of the green background is also important. Is it a mask for a frame? is it a background on a web page which is smaller than the screen? Is it the screen itself?

For example, if there was content around the green background and space was an issue, I would make the margins as small as possible while still retaining visual separation between the black rectangles and the surrounding copy.

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I would make the spacing around each image, 33% larger than the image. However, context is important. Scaling up/down, etc etc.

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  • Thx, I guess it depends a lot on the grid content + surrounding content, I should have used a better demo image.
    – MachineElf
    Jan 21, 2015 at 11:38
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Images sink.

It is customary to alter vertical spacing to allow slightly more space at the bottom of images. Visually images tend to sink a bit when "matted" or surrounded by a field of color.

I'd use

1 x left and right
1 x top
1.5 x bottom

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  • Thx Scott, if I set the bottom/top spacing to 1/1.5, the left+right will be >1 due to the shape of the content? I'm assuming that's OK here?
    – MachineElf
    Jan 21, 2015 at 11:46

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