🚀 go-pugleaf

Graphic designers sometimes talk about dividing a page layout into
"ninths" -- that is, three horizontal bands and three vertical
columns.  Is there any LaTeX style file to support this idea?

George Greenwade's threecolumn.sty is a start, but it doesn't allow
text to span *two of* the three columns, which is something that is
common especially in advertising.  In general, text, images or other
floats should be able to occupy one, two or three columns, and should
be restricted to one, two or three of the horizontal bands as well; an
ideal style file (or TeX macros?) would provide badness warnings for
layouts that violated these rules.

Has anything been done in this area?  If not, and if I have the time
to rig up something myself, would anyone else be interested?

Graphic designers generally prefer the Mac to TeX/LaTeX, but TeX's
output (if done well) looks much more professional.  All we need are
some decent tools and the willingness to hassle with a non-WYSIWYG
interface.  (And -- hope, hope, one day? -- color.)

--
=== T. Mark James           ==== opinions, errors etc are my own ===
=== mark@bdblues.altair.fr  ==== "I'm stupid enough to try anything
=== +33 (1) 39 63 53 93     ====  once."  -- The `Bag Man'
================================      Univ. of Washington, 1968