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If you have found this article quickly and easily, then the new design of The Sunday Times is doing its job. Perhaps you were directed here through the colour-coded contents panel on page 2 of the main newspaper, which sets out – clearly, we hope – the main offerings in each of our 12 sections. Which is how you find yourself reading this page in the new and expanded News Review section.

Now you’re here, we thought it only fair to explain the thinking behind the redesign of your paper. The Sunday Times has recently moved its printing to our state-of-the-art plants in Broxbourne on the M25 and at Knowsley, near Liverpool. For the first time in its 186-year history, every page of every section of this newspaper can now be published in colour. It was these new presses that prompted a comprehensive review of how we produce and present the paper, and the design you see today is the result.We were keen to use colour to maximum effect without going over the top.

Colour itself is a useful tool in a paper as big as this one. Not only are the sections colour-coded: green for Sport, blue for Business and so on – but we have used colour to help you find your way through each section. You will see that the News pages of the main paper carry blue liveries; the Comment section carries green; special reports red. Some news stories carry a yellow tab at the beginning of the standfirsts, highlighting the subject or location of a news story. We hope that the use of colour makes the paper easier to navigate.

Throughout we have tried to ensure that the design serves the interests of you, the reader. We have not altered the basic architecture of the paper, or moved regular features around. Perhaps most important of all, the crosswords remain in their usual berths. There are one or two exceptions. India Knight’s column has moved from the opening page of Comment to page 22 in the main section; this is so we can promote her incisive writing to a page lead. The Weather has moved to a permanent position on the inside back page of the main section, where previously it was to be found on the page opposite.

We have brought in much that is new, but not at the expense of the old.

We have expanded the Comment section, introducing new features that present analysis in a fresh and, we hope, engaging way. Next to India Knight you will find the Briefing column in which an issue or story of the day is dissected from different perspectives. On the page opposite you will find Think Tank, in which writers can road-test new ideas for the 21st century.

You are being invited to contribute your own ideas and responses to this column, and throughout the paper we would like to hear and publish your views. The new Message Board feature opposite the expanded Letters page (page 24 of the main section) will publish the best of the issues you can debate each week online (go to www. timesonline.co.uk/feedback for details).

The Little Britain column, a new addition to the Atticus diary on page 21 of Comment, invites you to send your observations about the joys and irritations of modern life.

And for the first time we have a bespoke typeface for the main news section, called Sunday Times Modern. This is the serif face you will see on the splash, the lead story on the front page of the paper, and on the main news stories inside. The characteristics of this typeface, for the growing numbers of you who are keen students of design and typography, are illustrated on this page. Suffice to say here that we think it is a bolder, fresher headline face than the old Century which served us well for many years.

The body copy is called Greta, and is used in all articles with the exception of Culture, Style and The Sunday Times Magazine which, for now, remain unchanged. The sans face, which is used in headlines for Sport, Business, News Review and the supplements, is called Flama. Greta and Flama are modern typefaces, designed in 2007, and are designed to make the paper easier to read as well as better looking.

Throughout you will find new ideas, new features, new fact boxes, graphics and side-bars designed to enhance your reading pleasure. We hope you like the new design. But most of all, we hope that you won’t give it much thought.

What really matters is the content – the stories, the investigations, the analysis, the comment, the photography, and the writers who make The Sunday Times Britain’s best and biggest-selling quality paper.

The paper you see today has been through many versions and I would especially like to thank Tristan Davies, the former editor of the Independent on Sunday, who has put huge energy into overseeing this redesign. Working alongside him has been Al Trivino, a talented Spanish designer, and Gordon Beckett, our experienced and creative head of Sunday Times design.

Change on a paper is never easy; everyone has strong views on how their newspaper should look. This paper has often been in the forefront of innovation and at times readers have reacted with irritation or disdain at each new development.

Most have eventually come round to the view that we are constantly striving to make the paper look better and to improve the quality of the journalism.

On this occasion we have tried to mini-mise disruption while using colour and new typefaces to give The Sunday Times a fresher and more vibrant look.

In the end, of course, you will be the judge, and we look forward to reading your reaction. Please contact us at feedback@ sunday-times.co.uk.