Design Nomenclature / Composition
Proportion
Also called ratio
This entry has not been translated yet and is shown in English.
The relation of one dimension to another — within an element, between elements, or between an element and the whole. Proportion is a ratio and survives resizing; scale does not. A proportional system fixes a small set of allowed ratios so that sizes relate rather than merely differ.
In practice
Scale is how big; proportion is how the bigs relate. Double everything and you have changed the scale and left the proportion untouched.
Not to be confused with
- ScaleThe size of a thing relative to a reference — the frame, the body, another element, or the real-world object depicted. Scale is a relation and requires the reference to be stated; 'large' is not a property of anything. Changing scale changes meaning, not merely size.
- Golden ratioThe ratio 1:1.618…, in which the whole stands to the larger part as the larger part stands to the smaller. A rectangle carrying it subdivides indefinitely into a square and another such rectangle — a genuinely useful self-similar property, and the honest reason to reach for it.