Golden ratio

I have heard about Golden ratio in class and it really attracted me. This ratio was applied in many fields of art. Particularly, it is widely applied in designing medieval book. Artists often use Golden ratio by using Golden rectangle. Firstly, they draw a perfect square. After that, they draw a line from the middle point of one side to an opposite angle. This line is a radius of a circle which defines the side of Golden retangle.

The Golden ratio is applied in lengths of sides of this rectangle.In book design, margins and type area are important things which are most considered. There are two main methods: Van de Graaf Canon and Golden Canon. These methods do not apply exactly the Golden rectangle but in approximation.

The Golden canon is more closer to Golden ratio or Golden section. According to Tschichold, the creator of this method, the Golden section includes type area and has a propotion of 1:1.618 and the proportion for other elements of a book's page is that "Page proportion 2:3. Margin proportions 1:1:2:3".

Although these methods are old and applied in medieval books, I think they are still usefull for us today. I know that I have an assignment about designing book cover page in this semester so this may give me some concepts. You can learn more about Golden ratio in Wikipedia