In the general curriculum guidelines of 12-year basic education, the core literacy of cultivating
students' knowledge, affection and skill integration is valued. In the past, textbook design focused on
content editing. In the future, aesthetic forms should be actively developed as a complement to achieve
the learning goals of multiliteracies. In order to understand the similarities and differences in the
characteristics and context of textbook illustration style and layout design among different publishing
units, this study arranged the samples of the fifth grade elementary school textbooks of national
languages published by three domestic publishing units, including Kang Hsuan, NANI BOOK, HAN
LIN, as well as TOKYO SHOSEKI of Japan, and Aestheticell Association. The non-intrusive methods
of content and text analyses of were used to achieve the effect of equal emphasis on quality and quantity
as well as in-depth analysis with cross-validation strategies. The results show that there are indeed
differences in illustration performance between Taiwan, Japan and aesthetic textbooks. The biggest
differences are in illustration type, size and use of blank space. The illustration style is based on story
scenes and character themes, photography and watercolor media, as well as cartoons and physical photo
forms for bulk. In addition to considering the negative space technique, the design of national language
textbooks should also combine curriculum learning and teaching objectives, and use interesting, role-
based, universal, and scenario expression skills to achieve the effect of popularizing cultural beauty and
affective learning.