Text, images, and/or graphics of variable content documents should be organized and laid out by a template to provide effective and quality documents. The best such template depends upon the variable content interaction with the template for each individual document. To analyze the qualitative nature of the template in quantifiable terms, the each variable content document is measure using various quantifiable factors; such as, balance, uniformity, white space management, alignment, consistency, legibility, etc.; that impact a qualitative nature of a document. Such quantifiable factors are then used to quantize the aesthetics, ease of use, eye-catching ability, interest, communicability, comfort, and convenience of the document, thereby giving a designer a measure of the quality of the template in the variable content document context.