magazine_layout_production v1.0.0

name: "magazine_layout_production" description: "Produce a magazine or zine issue end to end: flatplan the issue before any layout, hold one grid and type system across sections, write the cover and masthead, place pull quotes and captions, clear image rights with a ledger, and export a print-ready PDF with bleed and preflight checks. Press-neutral, works for InDesign, Affinity Publisher, Scribus, or Canva print workflows. Triggers when the user asks to plan, lay out, paginate, or ship a magazine, zine, journal, or newsletter issue, fix a flatplan, or prepare an issue for print." metadata: { "includeInPrompt": true }

Magazine Layout Production

Purpose

Take an issue from a story list to a print-ready file without the usual press day failures: pages in the wrong order, a feature split by an ad, images with no right to print, and a PDF with no bleed. The method is flatplan first, one grid and type system for the whole issue, rights cleared in a ledger, and a two pass preflight, once in the layout file and once on the exported PDF.

This skill is press-neutral. It does not depend on one layout app or one printer. Where a value varies by printer, the skill says so and the printer spec wins.

Workflow

1. Get the issue facts before planning. Trim size, page count target, binding (saddle stitch, perfect bound, or digital only), paper, printer name, printer spec and its date, ad list with sizes and any paid positions, and the story list with word counts and image needs. If there is no printer spec yet, ask for one or work to the defaults in the preflight checklist and flag every default as unconfirmed.

1. Flatplan the whole issue before any layout starts. A flatplan is the page by page plan: cover, contents, editorial, features, regular sections, ads, and back page, in order, with a status per page. Place fixed pages first, lock sold ad positions, then allocate sections, then place stories so long and short pieces alternate and no feature is split by an ad. The worked 32 page example is in references/worked-flatplan.md, with a machine readable version in assets/sample-flatplan.csv.

1. Check the page count against the binding. For print, agree the count with the printer. A folded press sheet makes 4 pages, so a saddle stitched or folded issue count must be a multiple of 4, and counts that are multiples of 8 or 16 fold into cleaner signatures. If the count is wrong, add or cut pages on the flatplan, with real content or a planned house page, never with a silent blank. Digital only issues have no such limit. Run the checker early: python3 scripts/issue_check.py <flatplan.csv> --rights <rights.csv>.

1. Lock the flatplan, then brief from it. At ad close the flatplan locks. After lock, moving a page needs editor and production agreement, plus a fresh check of contents and cover lines against the new order. Each story brief comes off the flatplan: pages allowed, word count, image needs, section, deadline, and who proofs it.

1. Set the grid and type system once for the issue. Margins, columns, and gutter first, then a baseline grid whose increment equals the body text leading, with body text aligned to it in every frame. Named styles only: headline, standfirst, body, pull quote, caption, credit, folio, section label. Sections may vary color and display treatment, never body face, body size, or the column grid. Full method in references/grid-and-type-system.md.

1. Build pages in flatplan order, openers first. Lay out each feature opener, then its continuation pages on the same grid with no new devices. Keep live text and logos inside the safe area, run anything that touches an edge out to the bleed guide, and keep faces and key words out of the centre spread gutter.

1. Write the cover last among the front pages, from the finished issue. The cover carries the title treatment (the cover masthead), one main image, one main cover line tied to that image, a small set of supporting cover lines for real stories inside, and the dateline. Every cover line must name a story that is actually in the issue, on the page the contents page says. Keep the start of the title and the main cover line readable in the left third, the part that shows in a stacked rack display. Separately, set the interior staff and publisher page, called the masthead in United States magazine usage, and keep it current: title, publisher, staff, address for correspondence, and subscription facts as local rules require.

1. Place pull quotes and captions as editorial, not decoration. A pull quote is copied word for word from the text on that spread, never paraphrased, and never repeats the headline. One per feature is the working norm. Captions name people in order, give place and date where it matters, and carry or point to the image credit. A caption never claims something the picture does not show.

1. Clear every image in the rights ledger before its page goes final. One ledger row per image: file, page, source, license, credit, cleared. Check license type, commercial use, cover use, derivative changes such as crops, releases for identifiable people, and embargo or kill notices on agency material. A credit line is not permission. Full rules in references/rights-and-credits.md. The checker fails the issue on any uncleared row.

1. Proof in passes, not in one tired read. Pass one, text: spelling, names, numbers, cover lines against contents, folio sequence. Pass two, pictures: captions against images, credits present, no placeholder or low resolution images left in. Pass three, flatplan match: read the PDF page by page against the locked flatplan and tick each page off.

1. Preflight twice and export print-ready. Run the layout preflight with a print profile until it shows zero errors for missing fonts, missing links, and overset text. Export a print PDF with the PDF standard, bleed, and marks the printer named. Then check the exported PDF itself: page count, bleed box larger than trim box, fonts embedded, single pages in reading order. The full list is in references/print-preflight-checklist.md. Common defaults, all overridden by the printer spec: bleed 0.125 in or 3 mm, photos at 300 ppi at final size, CMYK color, PDF/X-1a or PDF/X-4.

1. Ship with a record. Send the print PDF, the locked flatplan, the rights ledger, and the preflight result together. Note binding, paper, page count, and any accepted warnings in the job note. Keep the package and the ledger after publication for rights queries.

Output Contract

• A flatplan in the CSV format the checker reads (page, type, section, title, status), covering every page including cover, ads, and back page, with a page count that fits the binding.
• A one page grid and type sheet: trim, margins, columns, gutter, baseline increment, type families, and the named style list.
• Page layouts built on that system, with cover lines that match the contents page and the stories inside.
• A rights ledger CSV with every placed image cleared, or a list of the images still blocked and the pages they hold up.
• A print-ready PDF plus a preflight report with zero FAIL lines from the checker and zero errors in the layout preflight. Accepted warnings are named, with the reason for each.
• A separate digital edition file if the issue publishes digitally, checked in its own right.

Operating Rules

1. Printer spec beats every default in this skill. Record which spec version the job was built to.
2. No layout before the flatplan, and no page is final while any image on it is uncleared in the ledger.
3. Never invent a cover line, a quote, a caption fact, or a credit. Pull quotes are verbatim, captions only say what the picture and the reporting support.
4. Do not impose pages or export reader spreads for the printer unless the printer asks for it. Single pages in reading order is the default handoff.
5. A page count fix adds or cuts planned content. Never pad with a blank page nobody chose.
6. Keep the style plain in all issue furniture text. No em dashes in headlines, cover lines, captions, or this skill's outputs.
7. Facts about print standards and tool behavior come from the sources file at ~/workspace/skill-production/scratch/magazine-layout-production-sources.md or a fresh check, never from memory alone when the printer or reader will rely on the number.