I was browsing through different editions of Dmitry Glukhovsky’s Metro series and discovered that the entire trilogy has been released in a single volume. There are also editions with different illustrations. One has a rather dull cover, while the other features artwork from the latest game in the series, Metro: Exodus. The latter looks very beautiful and perfectly fits the theme of the book (even though it’s based on the game).
But then I saw previews of individual pages from the edition and was quite surprised by the original approach taken by the typesetter (or designer) of this edition. Here’s an example of one of the printed pages:
It’s rather unexpected and very unusual to see text laid out in two columns on a page, making a total of four columns across a spread. Of course, it looks fresh and grabs attention. But for me, it would be inconvenient to read. And it’s unclear why it was done this way. What problem was the designer trying to solve?
Tell me, would it be comfortable for you to read like that?
