Taittoa

Taittoa is a Finnish term derived from the verb taittaa, meaning to fold or bend. The word appears in two main senses. In everyday language it refers to the act of folding materials such as paper or fabric, and to the resulting fold or crease.

In publishing and printing, taitto has a more specialized meaning. It denotes the page layout or composition process, that is, the arrangement of text, images, and other elements on the pages of a book, magazine, or brochure. Taitto encompasses decisions about margins, column width, placement of illustrations, and overall visual balance. It is considered a core phase of graphic design and prepress work, typically following initial copyediting and before production printing.

The noun form taittoa is the partitive or inflected form used to express the act of folding or the process of layout in a general sense, depending on sentence structure. In Finnish usage, the term is most commonly associated with the publishing industry, where it signifies the craft of shaping content into a coherent, aesthetically pleasing page design. Outside of publishing, taitto remains a general reference to folding or bending materials, with context clarifying the intended sense.

See also: page layout, graphic design, prepress.