In order to access the Front Page layout parameters, you should select first the default menu item (that is, the starred item in the starred menu; in the default template it should be the Main Menu → Home). The layout parameters that can be chosen within that menu item are : leading, intro, columns, and links.
Leading is the number of full width (one article across the page) intros to show first.
Intro is the number of intro-text of articles to show below the leading articles.
Columns. Intros will be arranged in the number of columns as defined in the next Column parameter. For example, if 2 is the number of columns there will be two intros next to each other, each taking up 50% of the width of the page.
Links, finally, is the number of article titles to show that did not show up as intros on the page. If there are 8 total articles set to Front Page, and 3 intros chosen to show up, then the number of possible links would be 5. That number could be set lower using the “Links” parameter.