Design Nomenclature / Composition
Module
Also called field, grid field, cell
One unit of a grid divided on both axes — a rectangle bounded by gutters, occupied alone or combined with its neighbours. Müller-Brockmann's word for the same unit is 'field'. Module size sets the grid's granularity: too fine and it constrains nothing, too coarse and it constrains everything.
Not to be confused with
- ColumnA vertical division of the live area, separated from its neighbours by gutters. Column count governs how many measures a page can offer; column width is what a reader actually experiences. Columns exist to be spanned — the useful grid is the one whose columns combine into more than one usable width.
- GridA structure of repeated divisions — columns, rows, gutters, margins — fixing where elements may start and stop. Its value is decisional rather than aesthetic: it turns each placement from a judgment into a lookup, so a body of pages holds together across time and across hands.