Abstract: A document publishing system includes a layout quality tagger (40) for tagging candidate layouts (36) of selected content (32) with overall layout quality criterion values using an overall layout quality criterion (16, 18) combining a set of component quality criteria as a weighted linear combination of kernels. Each kernel corresponds to an inner product comparing component quality criteria values of a training layout with corresponding component quality criteria an input layout. A trainer (14) trains the overall layout quality criterion using the training layouts (12). A layout selector (42) validates a layout for the selected content (32) based at least on the tagged overall layout quality criterion value of the layout. A publisher (50, 52, 54) publishes the validated layout (44) including the selected content (32).