My coworker was right about using a ruler for spreads and I was wrong for 6 months

I used to freehand all my weekly spreads because I thought rulers made them look too stiff or whatever. My friend Derek kept telling me it would save time in the long run if I just measured things out first. Finally tried it for my November layout and wow, I spent way less time fixing crooked lines and erasing mistakes. The columns actually line up now and I don't have to redo the whole page when a margin is off. Has anyone else fought against using tools that seem too basic? What other simple stuff took you forever to try?

3 comments

3 Comments

eva_adams6811d agoMost Upvoted

Ugh, I feel you on fighting the ruler for so long. It's such a game changer once you give in.

paul28611d agoOG Member

Honestly, it's like some weird power struggle we all gotta go through. I spent way too long thinking I could eyeball a straight line like some kind of wizard. Ngl, the ruler won that fight pretty much every single time. It's humbling, but once you just admit defeat and whip that thing out, life gets a whole lot easier. Plus now my stuff actually looks like I meant for it to look.

charliestone11d ago

Oh man, same here. I spent forever trying to measure with my eyeballs and it always came out wonky. Finally I just started using the ruler for the first few rows to get the hang of it, then I'd try to rely on it less and just trust the process. Worked way better than fighting it the whole time.