Identifying key conventions in contents pages

In magazines the contents page is used as almost like a map of the magazine. It gives a further insight to what articles and features are in the magazine than the front cover does, and it tells the reader what page to find each article on. It also can give a brief overview of what is in each article and feature in order for the reader to gather an understanding of what sort of content they will be reading. Some features shown on the contents page may also be a regular addition for each issue that is produced. For example, a monthly quiz or a particular person's column that they always write.

When creating the contents page there is guidelines that must be followed to keep the contents page layout and design looking professional and not messy. In order to achieve this rulers and grid lines must be used to construct the design layout that is desired. An example of how the rulers and gridlines work is, when creating the contents page the rulers will tell you the measurements of how big an image or column is etc. and how far away everything is from each other. The grid lines help you see where the centre of the page is and can make a perimeter within the page of where all the features can go, for example keeps everything a specific distance away from the edge of the page.

Typically, on a contents page there will be the title (usually saying 'contents') at the top on the page. this is sometimes accompanied by the magazines masthead and other features like the issue date, and other ways to access the brand like their web address and their social media usernames if they have any form of social media. For example, if the magazine brand can be found on Twitter then they will have it on the contents page.

Generally on a contents page there will be either 1 or 2 columns which contain the information of where the different sub-headings (each article and feature) is in the magazine and a bit about each one; this is the blurb for each article. With each of these sub-headings there are numbers that go with it to direct people to the page that they can find the article on. Every contents page will have this. Sub-headings (each article and feature) will be written in a bigger font size that the blurb underneath the headings. This is done to put more emphasis on the headings as it is the key part the audience would be looking for and is the purpose of the contents page overall; that the audience can find which page each article/feature is on. A typical guideline to follow when deciding a font side is no bigger than 24pt and no smaller than 10pt.

Another convention that is used in a contents page is photos that relate to an article. the images will have a written caption and number with it (the number is the page number that the article is on), this is to give anchorage. The way that importance of articles is shown through the images is that the larger the image the more important the article it relates to is.

Finally, on a contents page there is also usually an editors letter which can be a message to the audience reading the magazine. Sometimes there is also a callout box, this is where the magazine subscription information usually would be found.

Here is an example of a contents page.