The_Gray_Report_Design_and_Layout_Conventions[1].PDF

The Gray Report Design and Layout
Conventions
Version 4.01
David A. Gray, MBA
2015-09-07
This document sets forth a set of report design and layout conventions that has evolved over a
35 year career that began when most printed output from a computer came from a line printer.
While they have evolved to accommodate changing presentation and delivery media, they
continue to reflect core design principles that have changed little since 1980, and can be
expected to be useful indefinitely.

Revision History
Date Version Changes
2015/09/07 4.01 Revise to improve formatting and add two major features that got
omitted from version 4.00.
• Leveraging the modern two-pass report writer to move group
summary statistics from the group footer to the group header.
• Leveraging modern display software to enable readers to
selectively show and hide parts of the report.
2015/07/29 4.00 Document formalized as a set of design conventions and first
published under its present title.
1983 2.00 Design specification integrated into Pacer/CD design document.
1991 3.00 Essay, “The Complete Report”, published as part of Exploring
DataEase II.
1980 1.00 Draft design specification for InterFirst International Banking
application.

License
Copyright (C) 2015, David A. Gray. All rights reserved.
Redistribution and use, with or without modification, are permitted, provided that the following
conditions are met:
Redistributions of the entire document or substantial parts thereof must retain the above
copyright notice, this list of conditions, and the following disclaimer.
The name of David A. Gray may not be used to endorse or promote products derived from
this document without specific prior written permission.
THIS DOCUMENT IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDER "AS IS" AND ANY EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO
EVENT SHALL DAVID A. GRAY BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL,
EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO,
PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR
BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY,
WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR
OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS DOCUMENT, EVEN IF ADVISED
OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.
◊ ◊ ◊
With the aim of encouraging people to us it, this document is distributed under a modified
three-clause BSD license. The author asserts his claim of copyright to discourage plagiarism,
rather than to restrict readers’ ability to use the information contained herein. With respect to
intellectual property, whether or not it is protected by copyright, the author is committed to the
Fair Use doctrine.
You are encouraged to adopt this document, as is, as your own design conventions, or to use
this document as the starting point from which to create your own design conventions.
However, if you wish to claim credit for the work, you must make substantial changes that add
value to the content provided herein. This is how the author interprets the Fair Use doctrine.

Contents
THE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLE OF TABULAR REPORTING ....................................1
AUDIENCE ................................................................................................2
A BRIEF HISTORY ......................................................................................2
GLOSSARY................................................................................................3
THE PARTS OF A COMPLETE REPORT...............................................................6
THE ANATOMY OF A COMPLETE TABULAR REPORT............................................10
Groups ............................................................................................................ 10
Pages and Screens ......................................................................................... 13
NAVIGATION AIDS ...................................................................................16
Too Much Detail for One Line ........................................................................ 18
Column Order ................................................................................................. 21
Grouping Order .............................................................................................. 22
Printed Reports as Worksheets ..................................................................... 22
Insufficient Contrast...................................................................................... 22
Color Caveats ................................................................................................. 23
Include or Exclude ......................................................................................... 25
Mobile Considerations ................................................................................... 25
Overuse of Graphics....................................................................................... 26
GRAPHIC DESIGN ....................................................................................26
Choosing Colors ............................................................................................. 27
White Space ................................................................................................... 27
Page Balance.................................................................................................. 28
CONCLUSION ..........................................................................................28
BIBLIOGRAPHY........................................................................................28
COLOPHON .............................................................................................29

The Gray Report Design and Layout
Conventions
Version 4.01
Copyright © 2015 by David A. Gray, MBA
The report design and layout conventions set forth in this document have evolved over the
author’s 35 years of service in the Information Technology industry. Over that time, they have
evolved to accommodate changes in the ways reports are generated and delivered. Unchanged,
however, are the sound principles upon which they rest, which have proven themselves in many
settings.
The Fundamental Principle of Tabular Reporting
The goal of any tabular report is to efficiently communicate information from its writer, either
human or machine, to its reader, presumably another human being. The goal of these
conventions is to establish written guidelines from which you can develop uniform standards
and practices that meet your needs for reports that are easy to read and use as a basis for
action.
Every report does the same three things, illustrated in this three-panel cartoon that my cousin,
Robert Hanley, created for me in 1996.
Everything about report design and layout revolves around these three activities, and every
report performs all three functions.
Select records for inclusion in the report.
Sort the selected records to support the desired grouping and order of details.
Show the selection criteria, sort order, details, and summaries.
The foregoing is the Fundamental Principle of Tabular Reporting, which underpins everything in
this document.

THE GRAY REPORT DESIGN AND LAYOUT CONVENTIONS
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Audience
The audience for this document is any person who has any role in designing and creating
reports, whether generated by computer or otherwise. The conventions set forth apply to all
reports, regardless of how they are generated. If you create reports, or direct others who do
so, please keep reading.
Although the primary audience is people for whom computers play a key role in generating
reports, knowledge of computer programming and computer science is not a prerequisite, nor is
a background in cognitive science, the study of how people gather information from the world
around them, although this document is based on established theories in that area of study.
The author has never formally studied cognitive science, but it doesn’t take a cognitive scientist
to discover how to design a good report, because most of the required knowledge can be
gained by observing the way people read printed matter. Finally, although this document refers
to basic principles of graphic arts, you should be able to understand everything contained
herein without specialized knowledge or training in graphic arts, for the same reason that
special knowledge of cognitive science is nice, but optional.
A Brief History
The first written version of these conventions was a long lost working document , written by
this author in 1980 for a team of programmers, when we were tasked with creating a complete
branch bank accounting system, from scratch, to run on the new IBM System/34 minicomputer.
A few years later, they became part of the design document for the Pacer/CD system, a
mainframe application to do the accounting and reporting for certificates of deposit issued by
banks.
The first published version arrived in 1991, as “The Complete Report,” which appeared in
Exploring DataEase II, ISBN 0962666025, an anthology of articles about DataEase that was
edited and published by Martin Fox, of New York City. Though out of print, as of this writing,
the Amazon catalog lists it for sale, at http://www.amazon.com/Exploring-DataEase-II-Martin-
Fox/dp/0962666025. About seven years later, the author updated it, and published the revised
version at http://www.wizardwrx.com/TechnicalArticles/The_Complete_Report.html, where it
remains.
The author continued to use these conventions and share them with others. From time to time,
they were the subject of presentations given at various software user groups in Texas and
elsewhere.
By 2015, it was abundantly clear that these conventions are valuable, and that they should be
published as a set of formal conventions. The result is this document, which is identified as
Version 4.01, to reflect its maturity, that this is the fourth time they have been set forth
formally by this author, and that it includes significant revisions, as did the previous two
updates.

VERSION 4.01
Glossary
This document uses a number of terms that either have specialized meanings in this context,
are interchangeable, or may appear to be so, although they are not. Please read this section
carefully before you go any further.
Descriptive Statistics Descriptive statistics is a technical term from the domain of
statistics, which refers to measures of central tendency. A
discussion of descriptive statistics is beyond the scope of this
document; this definition is provided solely for reference. 1
Detail Item Detail item, usually abbreviated to “detail,” refers to the information
about one item, such as one loan, order, order item, or customer.
ETL Extract, Transform, and Load refers to a process by which records
are extracted from a data base, transformed (reformatted), and
loaded into another data base. ETL operations may be required for
many reasons. A common reason is to protect a production data
base from the hazards of running on a computer that is visible to
the Internet.
Footer Unless otherwise indicated, the footer refers to the bottom of a
report page. Obviously, unless the report is formatted for printing
on sheets of paper, this term is meaningless. These conventions
address that issue, too.
Footing Unless otherwise indicated, a footing is the summary information
displayed below a column of values, such as account balances or
item counts. This usage conforms with its usual meaning in
accountancy.
Group A group is a set of details that share some attribute in common,
such as loan types in a list of loan balances prepared for use by a
loan officer.
Group Footer A group footer is the information displayed following the details
about the last item in the group, such as the number of items in the
group, or the total outstanding balance for a group of loans.
Group Header A group header is the information displayed preceding the details
about the first item in the group, such as a name that succinctly
describes its members.
Group Statistics Group statistics refers to descriptive statistics (count, mean,
median, mode, sum, standard deviation, standard error, variance,
etc.) covering the detail items that belong to a group.
Header Unless otherwise indicated, the header refers to the top of a report
page. Obviously, unless the report is formatted for printing on
sheets of paper, this term is meaningless. These conventions
address that issue, too.

VERSION 4.01
Heading This term has two meanings, usually, though not always, indicated
by one of the following modifiers.
Column The heading appears at the top of a column of details.
Column headings usually appear at the top of each page.
Report The heading appears at the top of the report. If the
report is printed, it is not usually repeated on subsequent
pages, although parts of it may be incorporated into its
page header.
Item Group Item Group is a synonym for Group.
Landscape Orientation A layout that is wider than it is high is said to be in landscape
orientation.2
Line Item Line Item is a synonym for Detail Item.
Narrative Report A narrative report is a report composed primarily of prose.
Nested Groups Nested groups are subgroups of a group. For example, if you have
a group called Detergents, it might be organized into subgroups of
Laundry Detergent and Dish Detergent.
Overall Statistics Overall statistics refers to descriptive statistics (count, mean,
median, mode, sum, standard deviation, standard error, variance,
etc.) covering all items on a report.
Page In the context of this document, a page is the text intended to print
on one sheet of paper, which is assumed to have dimensions
suitable for use in a standard office printer or photocopier. Nothing
in these conventions is dependent upon the actual size of the
sheets of paper, however, since the conventions are written in such
a way that they are appropriate whether the paper you use is US
letter (8.5 inches wide by 11 inches long), US Legal (8.5 inches
wide by 14 inches long), A4 (210 mm wide by 297 mm long), or
some other size, and whether the printing orientation is Portrait or
Landscape.
Pixel In digital imaging, a pixel, pel,[1] or picture element[2] is a physical
point in a raster image, or the smallest addressable element in an
all points addressable display device; so it is the smallest
controllable element of a picture represented on the screen. The
address of a pixel corresponds to its physical coordinates.3
Point The point is the smallest whole unit of measure in typography. It is
used for measuring font size, leading, and other minute items on a
printed page. The de facto standard has become the DTP (Desktop
Publishing) point, which measures 1⁄72 of the international inch
(about 0.35 mm) and, as with earlier American points, is considered
1⁄12 of a pica.4

VERSION 4.01
Portrait Orientation An orientation that is tall and narrow like a letter page. Also known
as a "page orientation; A layout that is taller than wide."5
Record Record is a synonym for Detail Item.
Report Detail Report detail is a synonym for Detail Item.
Report A report is a complete collection of information, produced as a unit,
for delivery on paper, via email, or by other means, and containing
substantially all of the elements described in this document. While
the major focus is on tabular reports, much of the material is
applicable to other types of reports.
Selection The Selection is the phrase that describes the criteria used to select
detail items for inclusion in the report. All reports have a Selection,
though it may be All Records.
Sort Key A sort key is the name of one or more of the columns of data
appearing in a report by which the details are sorted. Usually, all
sort keys correspond to either columns or groups, though, in rare
cases, and usually for technical reasons, one or more sort keys is
entirely omitted.
Tabular Report A tabular report is any report that presents most of its information
in the form of tables organized into rows and columns.
Title The title is a word or short phrase that succinctly describes the
contents of a report.

VERSION 4.01
The Parts of a Complete Report
A complete report contains many moving parts, all of which have names, some of which are
mentioned in the glossary.
Table 1 lists the parts of a complete report, more or less in the order in which they appear.
Name Description Status Notes
Report Header The collection of information that introduces
the report, composed of its Title, Selection,
Date, Time, Grouping, and Order
Required 1
Page Header The collection of information printed at the top
of subsequent pages of a printed report,
usually including everything that was included
in the Report Header, plus the Page Number
and Column Headings
Required 1
Page Footer The collection of information printed at the
bottom of most or all pages of the report
Optional 2
Title A word or phrase that succinctly and uniquely
identifies the report
Required 3
Selection A word or phrase that succinctly describes what
is included in the report
Required 3
Date Date report was generated or extracted Required 4
Time Time report was generated or extracted Required 4
Page Number Sequential number, starting from 1, appearing
on every page
Required 5
Column Headings Labels for the columns of detail shown in any
report that contains Details sections
Required 6
Grouping A word or phrase that succinctly describes how
details are grouped on the report
Conditional 7
Order A word or phrase that succinctly describes the
order in which details appear
Conditional 7
Group Header A line of text and optional decoration to call
attention to it that appears at the top of each
group of details on a grouped report
Conditional 8
Details One or more lines, divided into columns
representing fields of information about each
item
Conditional 9

VERSION 4.01
Group Footer A line of text and optional decoration that links
the group footer with its corresponding header,
and serves as a label for the group summary
information
Conditional 10
Report Footer Overall summary of the report’s contents Required 11
Notes
The following numbered notes correspond to entries in the Notes column of Table 1, and
provide additional information that would have made the table less readable.
1. Although the term “report header” implies that the information included therein appears
only at the beginning of the report, this is not usually the case. A complete printed
report includes most or all of this information at the top of each of its pages.
2. The Page Footer is the only truly optional part of a tabular report. Since the page
number of most narrative reports is relegated to the bottom of the page, the Page
Footer is more significant. The Page Footer may be omitted from the last page of a
tabular report, although many report writers make doing so harder than it should be.
3. Every report must have a title, which may also adequately describe its Selection.
a. Unless the title adequately communicates the kinds of items included in the
report this information must immediately follow every occurrence of the title.
b. The title must appear at the top of every page of the report.
c. The horizontal alignment of the title, be it left aligned, centered, or right aligned,
must be consistent on every report.
d. The best locations for the title and Selection is either left aligned or centered, on
the first and second printed lines of each page.
4. Every report must display the date and time when it was run or, if based on the output
of an ETL (Extract, Transform, and Load) operation, the date and time when the last
extract operation began.
a. For quick reference, the date and time must appear in the same relative position
on every page.
b. The preferred locations to display the date and time are the upper left corner
of the page or the upper right corner, immediately above the page number.
5. Column Headings must align with the detail columns, themselves.
a. Left aligned columns must have left aligned labels.
b. Right aligned columns must have right aligned labels.
c. Column labeling is an area in which visual cues play a pivotal role, and led to
one of the most significant improvements in report design. Please see Navigation
Aids for a full discussion.

VERSION 4.01
6. The page number must appear on every page.
a. For quick reference, the page number must appear in the same relative position
on every page.
b. The preferred location to display the page number is in the upper right corner
of the page. If the date and time are also displayed here, the page number
should appear on a separate line, immediately below the report time.
c. If you have the luxury of a two-pass report writer, you should take advantage of
it by displaying the total number of pages in the report, using a format similar to
the following: Page x of y, where x is the current page number, and y is the
number of pages in the report.
d. If you have only a single-pass report writer, you should find some way to clearly
identify the last page of the report on that page.
7. Some reports are not grouped, and a few are unsorted.
a. If the details on a report are divided into groups, the grouping must be briefly
described immediately below the Title and Selection, unless it is self-evident.
b. If the details of a report are sorted, the sort order must be briefly described
immediately below the Title, Selection, and Grouping (if applicable), unless it is
self-evident.
c. A report is said to be grouped if the details are subdivided based on common
criteria, such as salesmen grouped by region or products by type.
d. A report is said to be sorted if the details appear in a specific order, usually
referred to as its sort key.
8. If a report lists details for a group, the group must be preceded by a group header that
concisely and uniquely identifies it.
a. Even if the grouping is self-evident, it is essential to clearly identify the start of
every new group.
b. Within reason, groups may be nested. Headers of nested groups should be
indented slightly, so that the nested groups look like an outline. Avoid deep
nesting, which quickly becomes confusing; the sweet spot is usually about 3
levels.
c. If your report writer makes two passes (e. g., Microsoft Access, Crystal Reports),
consider putting the group statistics in the header, where they appear first,
rather than last. Though still common practice, putting summaries last is the
consequence of limitations imposed by the one-pass report writers that were the
norm until about 1992. That was almost a quarter century ago; the time has long
since come for you to reap the benefits of that first pass.
d. Detail lines must follow the innermost nested group header, so that every detail
item belongs to exactly one subgroup.

VERSION 4.01
e. Detail lines should be indented slightly from the innermost group, unless the
report is deeply nested and there is a lot of detail for each item.
f. When detail indentation is sacrificed, nesting of group headers and footers
should be retained, unless nesting is denoted by some other visual cue.
9. When the details of a group are sorted, the columns must be arranged in one of the
following two ways.
a. When the group is sorted alphabetically or by a numerical value, such as an
account number, that column must appear first.
b. When the group is sorted by a numerical value, such as account balance, that
column must appear last.
10. When totals are shown for a group, they must be clearly labeled with the name of the
group to which they belong.
a. When group details and totals appear on a report, the totals should be visually
separated from the details in some way, such as a line drawn above the group
totals.
b. Group statistics must be vertically aligned with the corresponding column of
values.
c. When only group summaries are shown, the group header of the innermost
groups is redundant, but higher group headers are required, so that readers
can easily identify which groups belong to each larger group.
11. The Report Footer has two main functions.
a. For all reports, it summarizes the information contained in a report. Descriptive
statistics shown in Group Footer sections are usually repeated, covering the
whole report, in the Report Footer.
b. For reports generated by a one-pass report writer, for which the page count is
unknown until the last page is generated, the Report Footer must clearly
indicate that the page on which it appears is the last page of the report.
The next section uses color coded pictures and tables to show how the pieces fit together.
Following that section are discussions of Navigation, report layout considerations, and graphic
arts.

VERSION 4.01
The Anatomy of a Complete Tabular Report
Just as Gaul is divided into three parts, so is a complete report. Every complete report has a
Report Header, a Report Body, and a Report Footer, organized as shown in Figure 1. In a
narrative, these parts have different names, of course, such as Executive Overview, Discussion,
and Action Items, but all three are required.
Although this document is primarily concerned with tabular reports, such as are generated by
accounting and business management software, many of the overall design elements are
applicable to narrative reports.
The rest of this section is devoted exclusively to tabular reports.
Figure 1 illustrates the parts of a
typical report. While much of the
discussion herein focuses on tabular
reports, all reports are composed of
these three parts, although they often
have other names when applied to
narrative reports.
Report Header The heading appears at the top
of the report. If the report is
printed, it is not usually repeated
on subsequent pages, although
parts of it may be incorporated
into its page header.
Report Body The report body comprises
everything between the Report
Header and the Report Footer.
The body may span two or more
pages, and it may contain one or
more groups of related items,
separated by group headers,
which are discussed in detail
later.
Report Footer This specialized application of the
term Footer applies to the
material displayed after the last
detail item and group footer, if
any. The term “footer” is applied
to this section to reinforce its
similarity to the Group Footer,
discussed later.
Groups
Just as the report is divided into three parts, so is each of its Groups. Depending on their nature
and objective, a report may contain zero or more groups, each of which may contain one, two,
or all three of the parts described next.
Figure 2 illustrates the organization of a group. The naming of its parts is intentionally similar
to the naming of the parts of the overall report, and the colors match, to call attention to their
similarity.

VERSION 4.01
typical group. The discussion of
groups focuses exclusively on their
role in tabular reports.
Group Header The group header must begin
with a word or short phrase that
succinctly describes the details
included within it. It may contain
additional information, as
explained in the section on
Navigation Aids.
If a report contains groups, each
group must contain either a
group header or a group footer,
and it may contain one of each.
Group Body The group body is reserved for
details about the items that
belong to it. However, a summary
report omits the details; hence,
its groups have no body. Most
summary reports contain only a
group footer to represent each
group, unless groups are nested.
If items within the group are
sorted, the column on which they
are sorted must appear first if
sorting is alphanumeric, or last, if
sorting is by a numerical value.
Group Footer The group footer must repeat
the descriptive word or phrase
that started the group header,
which may be preceded by other
words that describe the following
statistics.
If a report contains groups, each
group must contain either a
group header or a group footer,
and it may contain one of each.

VERSION 4.01
Figure 3 demonstrates one of several ways to display nested groups with group totals in a
report. Of particular importance are the stepwise indentation of each group, with further
indention of its details and group footer.

VERSION 4.01
Within reason, groups may be nested to any depth.
• Nested groups should be indented to form an outline, where the outermost groups are the
top level of the outline, with each level of indentation representing a nesting level.
Likewise, detail should be indented slightly from the left edge of the innermost group to
which they belong, as illustrated in Figure 3, on page 12. In order to fit everything onto
one page, strictly to illustrate a point, this example is missing many required elements,
including page headers and footers, and the report header. Its sole purpose is to illustrate
the recommended outlining style for displaying nested groups.
As an alternative to indenting groups, reports that are displayed in color may use color
coding to identify nesting levels, using one of the following methods.
o Include a legend at the top or bottom of each page.
o Use a standard color scheme for all reports, and make a clear explanation of the color
scheme readily accessible to everyone who receives color coded reports.
Deep nesting gets confusing very quickly, since the number of sub-groups to which an item
belongs increases with each new nesting level. Avoid getting carried away with nesting. The
sweet spot is usually three levels.
If the display technology permits it, consider hiding the detail and providing a mechanism to
display it only as needed, and applying the same approach to groups, too. Figure 4
demonstrates this technique, among others, in a Microsoft Excel report.
Figure 4 is a tabular report, generated by Microsoft Excel, that allows detail to be selectively
shown and hidden. This report uses a combination of Filters and Subtotals, both accessible
through the View tab of Excel 2010. The colors are the result of conditional formatting.
Pages and Screens
Except for very brief summaries, few reports fit onto a single page like the mock-up shown in
Figure 3, and even fewer fit on one screen, unless it is a big one, turned on its side and run in
portrait mode.

VERSION 4.01
Every page of a printed report should contain all of the elements listed in Table 2 and shown
in Figure 5. To save space, a screen may dispense with all but the text area and the page
header. One common way to handle the header is to move its most important element, the
title, into the window caption.
Table 2 lists and describes the parts of a report page.
Page Header This part appears at the top of each page, and
usually includes all or most of the Report Header,
along with the page number and column headings.
Required 1
Text Area The Text Area may include one or more Group
Headers, Group Footers, and Details. A narrow
margin of white space should separate it from the
header and footer (if any).
Required 2
Page Footer This part appears at the bottom of each page, and
is usually omitted from tabular reports, since these
conventions put everything that traditionally went
into the page footer into the page header.
Optional 3
Notes
1. Reports displayed exclusively on a video terminal may omit the header from subsequent
pages, but they should incorporate the Title into the window caption (Title) area.
2. Since horizontal space is often a limiting factor when reports are displayed on a video
terminal, while most such displays are in full color, you may consider color coding nested
group headers and footers in lieu of indenting them. However, if the same software also
renders printed versions of the same report, you should think twice about that, or change
the software to behave differently when the output device is a printer, unless the report is
always printed in color.
3. There are two common cases when page footers are useful or necessary.
a. A long edit list may benefit from having page totals displayed in the page footer.
b. Classification, routing, and filing information, especially if it is intended mainly or
exclusively for machine processing, is usually best put in the footer.
While all printed documents have four margins, the pages of a report have six, shown in the list
below the caption of Figure 5. Although they are usually much narrower than the top and
bottom page margins, the Page Header Margin and Page Footer Margin are every bit as
important for visually separating the header and footer from the text area.

VERSION 4.01
report page from the viewpoint of a
tabular report designer. As with the
overall diagram shown in Figure 1,
narrative reports benefit from most of
these.
A tabular report page has six margins. The numbers
correspond to the diagram shown in Figure 5.
1 Left Margin separates all text from the left edge
of the page.
2 Right Margin separates all text from the right
edge of the page.
3 Top Margin separates the page header from the
top edge of the page.
4 Page Header Margin separates the page
header from the main text area.
5 Page Margin separates the page footer from
the bottom edge of the page.
6 Page Footer Margin separates the page footer
from the main text area.
The outside margins (the traditional four, left, right, top, bottom) of a tabular report are usually
narrower than those on most printed documents, such as business letters and manuscripts.
One-half inch (1.27 cm) on all four sides is common.
The interior margins (Page Header Margin and Page Footer Margin are often expressed in
units of line height, or in the units in which font face sizes are measured (points or pixels).
Either way, one or two times the height of a line of body text is usually sufficient.

VERSION 4.01
Navigation Aids
A report is a map of a set of data, and it needs a legend and other visual devices to keep its
readers oriented. The variety of media used to present modern reports has brought about three
significant changes in the selection of navigation aids.
1. Most presentation media offer a greater variety of visual aids than they did 35 years ago.
2. Since the same report may be delivered via multiple media, each with its own strengths and
limitations, choosing appropriate visual devices is more complicated than it once was.
3. Further complicating things, visual devices that work with one delivery medium may not be
the best choices, if they are even available, for use with other media.
Table 3 summarizes devices commonly employed as navigation aids in reports.
Name Description Usage Notes
White Space Any part of the page that is
intentionally left blank
Wherever attention must be
drawn to an item
1
Lines Horizontal lines of various
widths and colors
Group breaks 2
Borders Any combination of horizontal
and vertical lines around text
Group breaks, important
details
3
Shading Background colors behind text Group breaks, important
details
4
Symbols Symbols include, but are not
limited to, non-alphanumeric
characters, such as asterisks
Calling attention to special
items
5
Colored Text Colors applied to the text, itself Group breaks, important
details
6
Hyperlinks Text that, when clicked with a
mouse or tapped with a finger,
causes additional information
to be presented, frequently in a
child window
Additional information,
including details not shown
in the man report, for an
unusual item that warrants
greater attention
7
Widgets Icons and similar graphical
devices that, when clicked with
a mouse or tapped with a
finger, causes parts of the
report to be shown or hidden
Group breaks, important
details
8

VERSION 4.01
Notes
1. Though it has been available in some form since before the invention of the printing press,
modern day report writers have a great deal more flexibility in its use, thanks to modern
page printers that treat whole pages as a unit, and treat the printable area as a rectangular
surface divided into thousands of tiny rectangles.
2. Horizontal lines are among the oldest visual cues in the report designer’s took box, because
any printing device can produce them in some form. The advent of page printers, printing in
both black and white and color, and big high resolution color graphics displays has brought
the same improvements to horizontal lines that it has to white space; fine grained
adjustments can be applied to both.
3. Lines and borders have come a very long way since the first computers were installed in
large businesses and government agencies.
a. The printers that were attached to the earliest computers offered rudimentary support
for borders, which consisted of standard ASCII characters, carefully arranged to form
something that our eyes could be deceived into seeing as boxes around the text they
enclosed.
b. The first generation of laser printers added the ASCII line and box drawing characters to
the report writer’s tool kit.
c. Modern page printers and high resolution graphics displays can
draw a virtually endless array of borders, but carefully test lines
thinner than 1 point.
Since shading requires the ability to set individual pixels, it had to
wait for the first graphics displays and laser printers, but modern
displays and printers offer as much variety for shading as they do
for borders. Before you get carried away, please read Color
Caveats (page 23).
d. The theoretical limits of modern video monitors and color printers
afford to us a range of 16,777,216 colors, represented by 24 bits,
with 8 each for red, green, and blue.
e. Windows Vista brought a fourth color attribute, opacity, to the
attention of the general public. Opacity, represented by the Alpha
Channel, is the inverse of transparency, which has been in use, on
an all or nothing basis, since the advent of the Graphics
Interchange Format (GIF), widely used on the World Wide Web.
While GIF allows you to designate one color as transparent, the
selection is all or nothing; a color is either 100% transparent or 100% opaque. In
contrast, the Alpha Channel allows you to specify a degree of transparency. Consistent
with the three color channels, alpha channel values have a range of 0 (transparent) to
255 (opaque).
f. For everyday use, the main four Microsoft Office 2010 applications make available a
significantly smaller, more manageable subset of the theoretically possible colors. The
Figure 6 is the
palette of standard
colors available in the
four main Microsoft
Office 2010
applications.

VERSION 4.01
font, shading, and border color pickers present the same palette. Its 60 colors, shown in
Figure 6, are more than adequate for daily use.
g. REALLY IMPORTANT: If the report is likely to be printed in black and white,
photocopied, or sent via fax, you must test your chosen combination of text and
background colors to see how they behave. The acid test is whether a copy of the
report taken from a Group III (the most common kind) fax machine is legible.
h. ALMOST AS IMPORTANT: Just because the shading works well on one printer doesn’t
mean that it works well on every printer. Variations among printers, printer driver
software, and even individual toner or ink cartridges can affect the outcome
significantly. If an important part of the report is shaded, run test prints on several
printers, then cross your fingers and follow up with users when the report goes into
production.
4. Early reports had access to an extremely limited selection of symbols for calling attention to
important items or footnotes. Since superscript was unavailable, it was common to use one
or more asterisks to perform the same function. Modern page printers and graphics displays
put the whole printer’s arsenal at your disposal.
5. Everything that applies to shading applies to colored text, including the really important
point covered by the 4th
bullet.
6. Embedded hyperlinks in a printed report are a great way to give readers quick access to
additional detail about an item. A working hyperlink in a report delivered electronically is
even more powerful, because it helps transform an ordinary report into a tool for taking
action.
7. A widget is a graphical device that, when clicked or touched, causes a computer to do
something, such as show or hide report detail, display more information about a detail
item, open a blank email message about the item, initiate a phone call, or other action.
a. Widgets are useful in any report that is delivered electronically.
b. Widgets are similar to hyperlinks, and both can do the same things, but a widget need
not look like a hyperlink, and it can use a lot less screen real estate
c. To be useful, widgets must be accompanied by training in their use.
The foregoing discussion covered general purpose navigation aids, applicable to all kinds of
documents. In the next few sections, we turn our attention to issues that are unique to tabular
reports.
Too Much Detail for One Line
The issue that began this odyssey in the Land of Reports was a report that resembled the
report shown in Figure 7, which is the result of some hasty tinkering with the wide report
generated by the Microsoft Access report generator for every field in the Sales Analysis query,
which pulls data from six tables in the NorthWind Traders demonstration application that
ships with it. This is an extreme example, created to illustrate a point, but the report shown to

VERSION 4.01
the author in 1980 was a real report, printed by the production system that we were about to
replace.
Figure 7 is a modern version of a report similar to the jumble of details that inspired this
continuing odyssey in the Land of Reports. This report displays the data returned by the Sales
Analysis query of the NorthWind Traders demonstration application that ships with Microsoft
Access 2010. This report is incomplete in several respects. Contrast this report with the
improved version shown in Figure 8.
Realigning the columns, moving some text boxes around, and overriding the default text
alignment in most of the text boxes and their associated labels produced the result shown in
Figure 8, which is still busy, but much easier to read.

VERSION 4.01
Figure 8 is the report shown in Figure 7, with the details realigned and labels added, to make
it easier to match the labels with their data. This is the entire first page, which now has a
portrait orientation.

VERSION 4.01
This report is complete; the page heading shows the date and time when it ran, it has a title,
centered in its top line, below which a short phrase describes what is included and how the
records are sorted, and the upper right corner contains a complete page number.
There are five fundamental changes.
1. Text Alignment: Alphanumeric detail fields and their labels are left aligned, while
numeric data fields and their labels are right aligned.
2. Vertical Alignment of Labels and Data: Every data field and its label is aligned, left if
the field is alphanumeric, and right if it is numeric.
3. Underscored Label Text: The label text is underlined, to give the viewer’s eyes additional
guidance about which part of the text in the detail goes with which label in the page
heading.
4. Relocation of Date, Title, and Page Number: The report generator put the date and
page number in the page footer, where they are easily overlooked. Moving them to the
upper left and right corners, respectively, from the lower left and right corners, makes them
much more visible, and closer to the report title.
5. Time Stamp: The report generator omitted the time, which can be important if you are
comparing two or more versions of a report that were printed the same day, or if you arrive
at your desk to find two versions of the same report in your In basket.
Since Microsoft Access has a two-pass report writer, this report gets a complete page number,
meaning that the current page number is followed by the number of pages in the report.
Column Order
While a concrete example was easy to construct to illustrate the problem of Too Much Detail for
One Line and how to address it, column order does not lend itself as well to examples, without
making this document too awkward and bulky. Nevertheless, the issue is worthy of some
suggestions, provided here as food for thought.
1. Frequently, the needs of the business process dictate the column order. For example, an
edit list should list things in their order of appearance on the data entry form or the printed
form from which they are copied.
2. Lists, such as rosters, are usually sorted by name or organization, and the sort column
must be first.
3. Accounting reports, such as a list of customers who have outstanding balances, are
usually sorted by outstanding balance or by age (how long since the last payment). Lists
sorted by numerical value should usually list that numerical value last.
4. Save the middle for minor details. Most people read lists down the left edge or the right
edge; they seldom notice the middle columns, unless something draws their attention in
that direction, such as a detail in one of the edge columns about which they want to know
more.

VERSION 4.01
5. Flags, such as asterisks, go on the edges. Flags are useless unless they get noticed,
and the way they get noticed is when they occupy either the very first or very last column.
A flag must stand out from the detail to which it is attached. Things that stick out get
noticed.
Grouping Order
Most of the foregoing remarks about Column Order apply to grouping order, with a significantly
heavier weighting in favor of being first. Newspaper editors say that unless you have the
reader’s attention by the end of the first paragraph, you have lost it, because that’s when they
decide whether to read the whole article, or keep scanning. Tabular reports are that way, only
more so; they are more like feature stories, because reading all the way to the end requires a
significant commitment of time and effort.
Assume that your reader is too busy to read past the first page. If at all possible, put what they
really need to see there.
Printed Reports as Worksheets
With a little extra effort, certain types of reports can and should do double duty as worksheets
or check lists. For example, with a couple of extra columns containing names and phone
numbers, along with a little space to write short notes transforms a list of past due accounts
into a worksheet for making follow-up phone calls to the tardy customers. Many exception
reports are candidates for conversion to worksheets.
Insufficient Contrast
This subject received a tad of attention in the section covering navigation aids, but it deserves a
more complete treatment.
Ain for high contrast. This is the one area in which some graphic artists will send you
down the wrong rabbit hole. If they don’t show you a color wheel, and start pointing to
colors on opposite sides of it, run!
o Different shades of the same color are easy to select and apply, and often work
well.
o Contrasting colors chosen from opposite sides of the color wheel work well, too, until
you print the report in black and white. Avoid this risk by selecting a lighter shade of
one of them.
Save red for when you really need it. Not only does red imply STOP, in large amounts,
it is said to increase stress levels. Though this author is not an authority on the
psychological effects of color, observations, conversations with others about experiments
performed in engineering laboratories, and a literature search suggest that these claims
have legs.6
Exercise caution with yellow. It is ironic that yellow often signifies a need for caution,
because its use as a shading color is fraught with risks. When a page containing text

VERSION 4.01
highlighted in some common shades of yellow, such as that of the traditional felt tipped
highlighting pen is printed in black and white, the shading is so dark that the text is illegible.
If you must use yellow, choose a very light shade, and test on a variety of black and
white printers. The reason for this caution is so important that it gets its own section.
Color Caveats
The widespread availability of color displays and printers has profoundly affected report design,
and it may come as a shock to some that shades of gray need careful selection and testing, too.
Fading to Black: About 25 years ago, this author created an improved layout for a
Material Safety Data Sheet that featured lightly shaded headings for its ten sections that
made them stand out in a printed original.
o Then, we fed a sheet to a fax machine, and, to our dismay, the headings were illegible
because the fax machine severely darkened those pretty light gray backgrounds. There
are plenty of articles about color gamut, but you can be assured that there is such a
thing as gray gamut, too, and fax machines are at the bottom end of that scale!
o The immediate solution was to eliminate the shading, replacing it with boxes, drawn
with the ASCII line and box drawing characters.
o The long term solution was to replace the black text on gray backgrounds with white
text on black backgrounds. Testing with this combination proved that it can survive a
trip through a fax machine. When they say that the fax machine is black and white, they
mean business.
o These tests were performed on a Group III fax machine, the most widely deployed type.
A newer standard, Group IV, has better resolution and supports color, but color faxes
never really took off.
Variations in Color Gamut: Color gamut refers to the range between intensities of the
brightest and darkest colors as they are rendered by a video display or printer. Color gamut
variations among computer displays has become less significant, thanks to the adoption of
the sRGB standard for color gamut, but it remains a significant problem for color printers
and mobile phone displays.9
Color Overwhelm: As is true of almost anything, a report can use too many colors.
o Color loses its impact when there are more than a handful in the same document.
o Make your colors count by using them to draw attention to important parts of the
report. Leave the rest of it in unobtrusive black and white. Regardless of your office
dress code, the dress code for reports is always navy blue pinstripes.
Variations in Color Perception: Many factors affect the way a color is perceived.
Following is a partial list.
o Color Blindness: The most common involves red and green, but other variations exist.

VERSION 4.01
o Ambient Light: Brightness, spectrum, and uniformity of light significantly affect color
perception. For example, grocery stores use this to make red meat more appealing, by
shining red or pink light directly onto it.
The fluorescent light tubes used in many offices come in a huge variety of hues,
including pink, pale blue, pale yellow, and “pure” white.
The colors of paint or other wall coverings, placement and orientation of windows
relative to the sun, and orientation of furniture are among many factors that
influence the perceived hue of interior lighting. Direct sunlight can completely
overwhelm it; it’s pretty hard to compete with the brightest light source in the room
when it’s our local star.
Distribution of light fixtures and objects suspended from the ceiling can create areas
within a room that are more, or less, brightly lit than the rest of the room.
Orientation of screens and work areas relative to windows and other light sources
significantly alter the perceived color and intensity of the light in the immediate area.
Printer Cartridge Variations: Some variation from one printing cartridge to another,
even of the same brand and lot, are inevitable. Manufacturing tolerances can only be made
so tight, leaving room for slight variations that can have a surprising effect on the perceived
colors in its output. As they age, the colors become lighter as their color gamut decreases
with age.
o Since they are dependent more on just one of the primary colors (red, green, and blue
in the RGB color space, or cyan, yellow, magenta, and black in the CYMK color space),
primary and secondary colors present fewer problems.
o Except for black, very light and very dark shades of all primary colors are the most
troublesome, often becoming indistinguishable from dirty white (light shades) or black
(dark shades). For a subsequent revision of the Material Safety Data Sheet template, we
attempted to apply the dark shade of green, technically Deep Ocean Green, from the
company’s new logo, to the section headings. We abandoned the idea, and reverted to
black, because the color was almost impossible to reproduce on the color printers and
video displays of the day. That was unfortunate, because the color looked great on
glossy brochures and store signage.
Rendering Artifacts: Many layers of software stand between the designer and reader,
many of which may be out of the designer’s control. Video and printer drivers are among
the most important such elements, and they can affect the output in several ways.
o Thin lines vanish. That fine ½ point line looked great on your monitor and your printer,
but what about the monitor and printer your reader uses to view and print the report? If
its resolution is 1 point, your half-point line may as well not be there. You are probably
fairly safe down to 1 or 1.5 points; below that, the ice is as thin as those lines.
o Background patterns vanish or become blotches. The same coarse-grained rendering
engine that eats thin likes can do one of two things to background patterns; they either
vanish or become dark spots that render the text illegible.

VERSION 4.01
o Fine lines in the white space. Though less common now, occasionally, the rendering
engine for a video display or printer would insert thin, wispy lines into open white space.
Careful selection of spot colors can turn a boring report into something that is almost worth
reading. Leave color for its own sake to artists and interior decorators.
Include or Exclude
As important as decisions about its layout are those about what goes into the report, and,
equally important, what should or must be omitted.
Always exclude the following items.
Passwords
Personal Identification Numbers
Secret Questions and Answers
Shared secrets that protect encryption keys, smart cards, etc.
Include it if it meets any of the following criteria.
It is safety critical.
You know or anticipate that the reader needs it to take action.
It is required in order to correctly interpret other data in the report.
It contributes to evaluating the accuracy of other details.
Its inclusion will significantly influence the ultimate outcome of the resulting action.
The report is a worksheet, there is room for it, and it saves a data base lookup.
Exclude it if it meets one or more of the following criteria.
It is a configuration setting, and its inclusion unnecessarily exposes information that could
be used to compromise a computer system or the safety of people or property.
It unnecessarily exposes sensitive information, such as Social Security Numbers,
telephone numbers, email addresses, and account numbers.
It is part of an authentication scheme, such as a user name, unless its presence is
absolutely essential to the utility of the report.
Its presence doesn’t save a trip to the data base for other information that is omitted.
It distracts from the goal.
Mobile Considerations
If the delivery medium is a mobile phone or tablet, as is increasingly true, the report design
must take its limitations into account. This is significant because, while the capabilities of other
delivery media have improved dramatically, mobile phones are, in many respects, about 25
years behind other computing devices.

VERSION 4.01
Screen Resolution is much lower than that large screen attached to your desktop
computer. For example, the IPhone 4 has a screen resolution of 640 by 460.7
Physical Screen Size is much more confining than the screen resolutions would suggest.
For example, the IPhone 4 has a screen height of a mere 3.5 inches.8
Faithfulness of Color Rendering can be a very subjective matter, but there are
measurable technical reasons for the wide variation in colors that we see daily, not only in
smart phone displays, but in those of computer monitors and high definition television sets.
This is something to take into account whenever choosing colors that will be displayed on
any computer display, but the situation is exacerbated for mobile phone displays, due to the
lack of generally accepted standards, compounded by the effects of the extreme variations
in ambient light in which they are operated.9
Dependence on Screen Orientation may be a significant consideration, because some
phones, such as the Apple IPhone, can be locked into portrait orientation. This may work
against you if your report layout assumes landscape. Fortunately, most modern phones and
tablets have built-in accelerometers that usually manage to put the device into the desired
orientation on demand.
The size of an adult human thumb plays a significant role if your report includes hot
spots that cause the phone to “do” things, such as display additional information in a child
window. While a stylus affords more precise pointing than a thumb or a little finger (pinkie),
your design must take into account whether your users have ready access to one when they
are using it.
As touch screens become more commonplace on desktop computers, the issue of pointing
sensitivity will extend in that direction. This is not entirely new, due to the established use of
pointing devices, mostly mice, in Web browsers and other desktop applications that run in any
windowing environment, whether the underlying operating system is Microsoft Windows, one of
the Apple Macintosh OSes, or Linux with a graphical shells fitted to it. What is new is the
precision of the pointing device; thumbs, middle fingers, index fingers, and pinkies are less
precise than most modern mice.
Overuse of Graphics
Wise men have advised for centuries to seek balance in all things. Carefully choose from the
graphic arts tools at your disposal to get the job done, then put them away.
If you had the misfortune to be working in the middle and late 1980’s, during the advent of
desktop publishing software, you remember some of the hideous results that came about as
people without much graphic arts training began to do work that had once been the exclusive
domain of graphic artists and typesetters.
Graphic Design
You can design great looking, readable reports without a degree in graphic arts, but it helps to
understand some of the principles of the graphic arts, and how to apply them to report design.
The objective of this section is to draw attention to a handful of basic principles that have

VERSION 4.01
proven themselves in daily use. Since everything covered in this section has already been
mentioned, this section is devoted to summaries and references for further reading.
Choosing Colors
The most obvious aspect of report design affected by graphic arts is choosing colors. One of
many good places to start is “Basic Colour Theory for Programmers,” by Vincent Tan. The three
illustrations below are the first three figures in his article.10
Figure 9 is a basic color
wheel.11
Figure 10 is the HSV color
space, illustrated by a color
cone.12
Figure 11 is the unusually
complete color picker in the
popular free paint program
PAINT.NET.13
Two good quick overviews of common color spaces are “CMYK, RGB, PMS: Color Systems
Defined,” at http://www.visiblelogic.com/blog/2011/05/cmyk-rgb-pms-color-systems-defined/
and “Color Systems - RGB & CMYK,” at http://www.colormatters.com/color-and-design/color-
systems-rgb-and-cmyk. “Color Systems,” at http://www.worqx.com/color/color_systems.htm
offers a more thorough treatment.
Others have suggested the Mumsell Color System, based on Hue, Value, and Chroma axes,
which seems to have found its way, in some form, into many computer color pickers.14
White Space
White space has been mentioned here and there throughout this document. “11 Reasons Why
White Spaces Are Good In Graphic Design,” at http://naldzgraphics.net/design-2/11-reasons-
why-white-spaces-are-good-in-graphic-design/ is a nice, well-illustrated tutorial on the subject.
Equally enlightening in a different way is “White Space in Graphic Design, and Why It’s
Important,” at http://www.printwand.com/blog/white-space-in-graphic-design-and-why-its-
important, as is “Why is White Space Good For Graphic Design,” at
http://designmodo.com/white-space-graphic-design/. At the end of the day, though, the best
guidance about white space is to trust your own judgement, and solicit input from test subjects
when you can.

VERSION 4.01
Page Balance
Closely related to white space is page balance. Though simple, the principle deserves comment;
unbalanced pages are harder to read than balanced pages, because your eyes and brain slow
down to figure out why all that extra space is there. Spread your columns out a bit. If there
simply isn’t enough information to fill the page, center the content horizontally.
Conclusion
While it covers a lot of ground, this document cannot cover every possible situation that can
arise in report design. However, used as intended, it can remind you of things to consider, and
offer useful suggestions for addressing the issues that make the difference between a very
ordinary report and a great report. By itself, this document cannot make you a great report
writer, but it can inspire you to greatness.
If it does that, it has met its goal.
Bibliography
“11 Reasons Why White Spaces Are Good In Graphic Design,” at
http://naldzgraphics.net/design-2/11-reasons-why-white-spaces-are-good-in-graphic-design/ is
clear and well-illustrated.
“Color Systems”, a tutorial, http://www.worqx.com/color/color_systems.htm.
Eric Meyer’s Color Blender, cited in “Color Systems,” is available as a usable tool at
http://meyerweb.com/eric/tools/color-blend/#::1:hex.
Pantone, LLC, which owns the Pantone Matching System widely used in the American printing
industry, is at http://www.pantone.com/pages/pantone/index.aspx.
“The Principles of Design,” J6 Design, http://www.j6design.com.au/6-principles-of-design/.
“Understanding Color Models and Spot Color Systems” belongs to a collection of articles
gathered into a resource Web site called Designers Insights. The color model article is at
http://www.designersinsights.com/designer-resources/understanding-color-models, and their
home page is at http://www.designersinsights.com/.

VERSION 4.01
Colophon
This document, created using Microsoft Word 2010 (32 bit edition), running on Microsoft
Windows 7 (64 bit edition), is a technical tour de force of cross references, bookmarks,
sections, and custom properties. The text in the page headings comes from the Title and
Subject properties, and the copyright notice lives in the Publisher property, an obscure built-in
property hidden in the Custom tab of the document property sheet. The PDF was generated by
DocuDesk DeskPDF, version 2.5, with help from the GhostScript version 8.5 PostScript
document generation engine coupled with the Sumatra PDF reader, version 2.0 as the PDF
document viewer. The sample reports were generated from Microsoft Access 2010, running on
the same computer, from which JASC Paint Shop Pro, version 7.02, captured pictures of the
print preview screens.
1
For good definitions, please see https://statistics.laerd.com/statistical-guides/descriptive-inferential-
statistics.php, https://www.khanacademy.org/math/probability/descriptive-statistics,
http://www.socialresearchmethods.net/kb/statdesc.php,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Descriptive_statistics.
2
See definition of “landscape” at http://www2.archivists.org/glossary/terms/l/landscape-orientation.
3
See “Pixel,” at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pixel, which covers the topic in great details, and is backed
by substantial references.
4
See “Point (Typography) in Wikipedia, at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Point_(typography), a thorough
treatment of the subject that is supported by good citations.
5
See definition of “portrait” at http://www2.archivists.org/glossary/terms/p/portrait-orientation. The
Wikipedia article is not cited because it is devoid of references.
6
“Color Psychology: How does color affect us?”,
http://www.pantone.com/pages/pantone/Pantone.aspx?pg=19382&ca=29, “Psychological Effects of
Color,” by Drew Hartlanov, 19 December 2007, at http://ezinearticles.com/?Psychological-Effects-of-
Color&id=888693, “Psychological Properties Of Colours,” by Angela Wright, at http://www.colour-
affects.co.uk/psychological-properties-of-colours, “Color Psychology: How Colors Impact Moods, Feelings,
and Behaviors,” by Kendra Cherry,
http://psychology.about.com/od/sensationandperception/a/colorpsych.htm
7
See “Apple Cell Phone Screen Resolution,” at http://cartoonized.net/cellphone-screen-
resolution.php?brand=Apple and “Popular Screen Resolutions: Designing for All,” at
http://mediag.com/news/popular-screen-resolutions-designing-for-all/, and “Common Smartphones and
Tablets Devices Values,” (sic), at http://mydevice.io/devices/.
8
See “List of Tablet and Smartphone Resolutions and Screen Sizes,” at
http://www.binvisions.com/articles/tablet-smartphone-resolutions-screen-size-list/.
9
See “Color Gamut in Smartphones: Why Bigger Isn’t Always Better,” by Joshua Ho, 03 March 2014, at
http://www.anandtech.com/show/7821/color-gamut-in-mobile-and-pcs.
10
Basic Colour Theory for Programmers,” by Vincent Tan, 4 August 2008,
http://polymathprogrammer.com/2008/08/04/basic-colour-theory-for-programmers/.
11
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:BYR_color_wheel.svg
12
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HSV_cone.png

VERSION 4.01
13
http://www.getpaint.net/index.html
14
“Mumsell Color”, at http://munsell.com/, and “The Munsell Color System,” originally published by
Adobe, is archived at
“http://web.archive.org/web/20030813092028/www.adobe.com/support/techguides/color/colormodels/m
unsell.html

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