The difference between dominance and proportion.

Dominance

In design dominance is used to create a variety of differing emphasis within a composition, dominance is used frequently within design to bring a hierarchy of importance to a composition, this has become second nature to designers and the viewer. It has been implicated as standard in many modern design tools, for example the hyper text mark up language used by the world wide web has preset values for Headers (dominant) Sub headers (sub-dominant) and paragraphs (subordinate). These are the three main categories of dominance in design to create visual effect and draw the views eye, although many more can be used.

Proportion

Proportion is the comparison of different elements within the design, comparing either dimension or position with relation to one or more elements. The designer can use proportion to gain rhythm, symmetry, or a sense of depth to a composition. for example, a designer may try and maintain the same corner angle on all text boxes within a design to maintain a standard of proportion and a balanced composition.

The above text is written in three different font sizes, the header drawing your eye to the top of the page being the Dominant, then your eye tracks down to the first sub-header "dominance" and then to the second sub-header "proportion" witch are both sub-dominate to the header, these two sub-headers are in proportion to one another reflecting equal status. The main difference between dominance and proportion is that dominance includes the composition as a whole, whereas proportion can be in relation to anything within the composition.