Anyone with a background in journalism or some similar field will have been introduced to the phrase "layout and design," a phrase I am having difficulty finding a good, solid, standard Spanish translation for.

How is this phrase typically translated by experts in the field? Bonus points for anyone who can also recommend a good glossary or dictionary of terms used in the field of publishing.


I was asked to provide more context or specific examples. To be honest, I didn't really have any in mind. I just kind of wanted a general, basic, standard translation for the phrase "layout and design." I suppose if I were to provide examples of what I had in mind, these would suffice:

"the layout and design of a website"

"an updated layout and design"

"... the layout and design is better than the writing."
— "CN publishes its own history book," Cherokee Phoenix

"... the layout and design may look slightly different on other operating systems."
— "How to restore the old Google Chrome design," ghacks.net

Clearly, I was referring to publishing of some sort and not, for example, the "layout and design" of a home or building.

Things have changed a lot since I first learned of the phrase "layout and design." My initial exposure to it came from this book here ...

Though I couldn't find a bookseller that allowed a preview of this book, you can purchase it via Amazon and the link to it is here.

… but when I first drafted this question, I don't think I necessarily had newspaper layout and design in mind. During the past couple of decades the concept of "layout and design" for newspapers has really kind of become synonymous with the layout and design of a web page, a medium upon which so many "newspapers" are now found. In English, we use the same phrase for both. We also use this same phrase — layout and design — for houses and buildings. Is this true of Spanish, too? Or does the terminology used depend on the setting (e.g., print publishing, websites, construction, …)?

¿Cómo se traduce "layout and design" al español?

Cualquiera con conocimientos de periodismo o campos similares conoce la frase "layout and design," una frase de la que me está resultando laborioso encontrar una buena traducción y una que se considere estándar del sector.

¿Normalmente cómo se traduce esta frase por expertos en el ámbito de la publicación? Y, puntos de bonificación en forma de mi gratitud para alguien que pueda recomendarme un buen glosario o diccionario de términos utilizados en el ámbito de la publicación.


Me pidieron más contexto o ejemplos específicos. Para ser honesta, en realidad no tenía ninguna en cuenta. Simplemente quería una traducción estándar, general y básica para la frase "layout and design." Supongo que si tuviera que dar ejemplos de lo que tenía en mente, estos serían suficientes:

[Véanse arriba en la sección inglesa.]

Claramente, me refería a publicación de algún tipo y no, por ejemplo, el "layout and design" de una casa o un edificio.

Las cosas han cambiado mucho desde que me enteré de "layout and design". Mi exposición inicial vino de este libro aquí ...

[Véanse arriba en la sección inglesa.]

Aunque no pude encontrar una librería que ofrezca una vista previa de este libro, puede enconrarse en Amazon y el enlace está aquí.

... pero inicialmente, no creo que tuviera en mente "layout and design" para un periódico, per se. Durante las últimas dos décadas, el concepto de "layout and design" para periódicos realmente han pasado a ser un poco sinónimo con el "layout and design" de una página web, un medio en que tantos periódicos se encuentran hoy. En inglés, usamos la misma frase para un diario de papel así como para un sitio web. También, usamos la misma frase — layout and design — para casas y edificios. ¿Es esto verdad en español también? O, ¿depende la terminología usada del escenario (p. ej., la publicación tradicional de prensa, sitios web, obras de la construcción, ...)?

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    For layout you can also use maquetación: maybe maquetación y diseño. Can you put it in a context? – enxaneta Dec 11 '18 at 8:45
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    @enxaneta Thank you for the suggestion (and teaching me a new word)! As for context, I didn't really have a specific one in mind, I just happened to be thinking about various terms used in English when discussing elements of publishing. The phrase "layout and design" is so common, I've never really spent any time defining it, but I suppose, specifically, it refers to page layout and graphic design, both of which, when shortened would have left me with diseño y diseño and I felt certain that surely there had to be a better way to translate such a phrase. – Lisa Beck Dec 12 '18 at 21:10
  • LOL, you are right: I often use diseño de página for web layout – enxaneta Dec 12 '18 at 21:14
  • @enxaneta Again, thank you for introducing me to "maquetación." It led me to some additional exploration that led me to a book called Diseño, maquetación y composición, leading me to believe that, as a single word, it can mean both layout and design, but, depending on context, may be referring specifically to just layout. Again, thank you for suggesting this word as a possible translation. I had never heard of it before and somehow my initial searches didn't lead me to it or had gotten me so confused that I didn't really identify it as a standard translation. – Lisa Beck Dec 12 '18 at 23:06

I'm a Graphic Designer specializing in Web Design and Development.

Maquetación y Diseño is correct, mostly when using it in an editorial context. But be aware that, at least in Mexico, the word Maquetación is a synonym for Front-End Development and in some cases it may not be made by the same person.

By the way, Layout is actually used in Spanish, and it can be used either to mean wire-frame, or a complete design proposal, just before the developer does any coding (you can check the meaning at this link). So "Diseño de layouts para Web" is possible to use in this context.

  • Both you and Charlie have given really good answers. In fact, I was about to award Charlie with the green check mark when I saw your answer. As much as I like Charlie and all of the many good answers he has given, I may award you with the green check mark since you've got the street cred I was looking for (you're a graphic designer) and you're a new contributor. I want to give others a chance to submit an answer, though, so I'm going to leave this unchecked for a bit longer. In the meantime, know that you're a strong contender and I really appreciate your answer. Welcome to this exchange! – Lisa Beck Dec 13 '18 at 8:04

No soy un experto en diseño gráfico, aunque algo he tocado y tengo amigos y gente conocida que sí se dedican a ello. Creo que el término que buscas es diagramación o maquetación. Según la Wikipedia:

La diagramación, también llamada a veces maquetación, es un oficio del diseño editorial que se encarga de organizar en un espacio contenidos escritos, visuales y, en algunos casos, audiovisuales (multimedia) en medios impresos y electrónicos, como libros, diarios y revistas.

Yo personalmente he oído más (aquí en España) el término maquetación para referirse a la distribución del contenido de una publicación sobre las páginas del mismo.

En cuanto a un glosario, desconozco dónde puede haber uno, aunque te recomiendo que leas el artículo de la Wikipedia que te enlazo y a partir de ahí vayas saltando a otros artículos para ir adquiriendo el vocabulario que necesites.

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    Curioso, para layout yo siempre había usado disposición. – guifa Dec 11 '18 at 8:37

I am going to shamelessly answer my own question, even though I have no intention of awarding myself the green check mark. I've decided to do this simply because I have some things to add that might be helpful to someone learning Spanish, and I suppose I'm concerned that simply adding some of it to a comment here and a comment there won't give the information I want to share the visibility that it would get if I just consolidated my comments in an answer.

Let me first start by giving a little more background on the initial question I posted. Earlier this week, I got to wondering about some of the jargon used in publishing, namely the phrase "layout and design." It's such a common phrase in English that I didn't think I'd have much trouble finding a translation of it in Spanish, but I soon discovered that it was a bit more complicated than just typing in the phrase at WordReference, Tureng, or Collins.

So then I got to thinking, What does "layout and design" really mean in English? Though "layout and design" can have subtleties in meaning depending on context, in publishing, it usually refers to "page layout" and "graphic design" — the graphic design of the page. So, with this in mind, I attempted to find a good translation for "page layout" and "graphic design." This is what I got:

diseño de página


diseño gráfico

Needless to say, it left me wanting something better because shortening this to "diseño y diseño" seemed just a bit redundant and short on meaning. I suppose I didn't necessarily need to shorten these phrases, but I sensed that there was another word or phrase used for this concept. So, I posted my question here and have read through answers posted through December 12, 2018. After doing so, I've come across four words that I want to devote just a wee bit more attention to:


The Spanish Royal Academy provides this definition of it:

Acción y efecto de maquetar.

The verb "maquetar" means to:

layout, format, design, draft

You may find it sometimes spelled as "maquetear."

The verb "maquetar" comes from "maqueta" (model or demo), which was borrowed from the Italian macchietta, a word that can mean, among other things, "sketch" (little drawing).

I took the time to explore this word a bit and after doing so, it appears that this word can be used to mean "layout and design" or just "layout." From what I observed, it is a word often used to describe the layout of a page whether printed or electronic. If you see it used in the same sentence with "diseño," it is probably just referring to a page's layout. To give you an example, below is the title of a book I found:

Diseño, maquetación y composición

It also has a very specific meaning in the field of information technology. Please see LudovicoN's excellent answer for more details on that.


Again, I'll start off with a Royal Spanish Academy definition:

Acción y efecto de diagramar.

And "diagramar" is defined as:

Hacer el diagrama de algo, especialmente de una publicación.

If you go to the Wikipedia page suggested by Charlie, whose answer is very good and worth reading, you will learn that "diagramación" redirects to Spanish Wikipedia's page for "maquetación" where it informs the reader that "maquetación" is sometimes used for "diagramación." This Google Ngram

seems to indicate that as well, but when referring to newspapers and books, specifically, it appears that there may be a slight preference for "maquetación." And when talking about the layout of a page, specifically, "maquetación" seems to be far more preferred over "diagramación" (like 500 times more common). It shouldn't be surprising, then, that the Spanish Wikipedia page for "maquetación" has been translated as "page layout" for English Wikipedia. Oddly enough, there seems to be more of a preference for "diagramación" rather than "maquetación" when referring to magazines.


Definition #9 of the Royal Spanish Academy's entry for "disposición" seems to have the closest association with what is being discussed in this thread:

Colocación ordenada o distribución pertinente de los distintos elementos de una composición literaria.

This doesn't seem too far distant from the meaning of "layout and design," but "disposición" is a word with a lot of different meanings and looks as if it is used for things other than the layout of something intended for publishing.


I wouldn't necessarily say that "diseño" is a word with a lot of different meanings, but it is a less specific word than some of the others mentioned. That said, definition #3 of the entry for "diseño" provided by the Royal Spanish Academy appears to be the best match for what is discussed in this thread:

Concepción original de un objeto u obra destinados a la producción en serie. Diseño gráfico, de modas, de industrial.

However, because this word is so much broader in meaning and can apply to so many different types of things, I would likely only use it if I were speaking in very general terms and probably wouldn't use it unless I wanted to say, specifically, "layout and design," in which case, after looking at all of the suggestions in this thread here, I'd go with LudovicoN's suggestion — maquetación y diseño. If I needed to just refer to the layout, not the design, I'd opt for either "maquetación" or "diagramación."

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    Technical jargon is a very tricky thing, it happens to me a lot, since I learned to develop in english and trying to explain myself to an engineer is very difficult since the technical words in spanish sometimes don't match the intention of the original name and sometimes there's not even a naming standard. The best thing you can do is to look for articles on the topic and select the most used terms, even though the literal meaning differs. I recomend you foroalfa to get more familiar with the terms of the industry. – LudovicoN Dec 13 '18 at 18:17
  • @LudovicoN Thanks for the link. In fact, I came upon this comment of yours as I was trying to remember who I had intended to award the green check mark. As good as Charlie's answer was I think I was going to give it to you. The inclusion of that link in the comment above sealed the deal. Well done and welcome to the Spanish Language StackExchange. I look forward to reading more of your answers in the future. – Lisa Beck Dec 27 '18 at 7:38

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