Choices ou are faced with choosing typefaces for your editorial spreads project. The implications of your choice of type- face for large type may be more obvious than of your text type so I’ll concentrate on the “main” typeface you choose and the focus will be on what makes type welcoming to about type readers and easy to read. Some people make the claim that almost all typefaces are inter- changeable, that it’s simply a matter of what people are used to. Type design- er Zuzana Licko once said “We read best what we read most.” (Licko—pro- nounced “LEECH koh”—is one of the partners and the main type designer for Emigre. She is the designer of the very popular Mrs Eaves—an update of Baskerville—and of Matrix. Some of you will recognize Matrix extra bold as the new face of East Carolina University athletics.) Licko used the black- letter type of Gutenberg-era bibles as an example. I’d have to say that she was right and wrong. The blackletter of a Gutenberg bible is objectively difficult to read because of density and very even rhythm. Or, to put it another way, the blackletter of a Gutenberg bible is objectively difficult to read because of density and very even rhythm. (That was set in Fette Fraktur, a face similar Gutenberg’s. The rest of this text is in Adobe Caslon. Which is easier to read and more welcoming?) Gunnar Swanson September, 2014 I would argue that 15th century Christians did not read the bible in the same way that 21st century people read a Stephen King novel. They read aloud. This was a performance of the Incarnate Word of God—something to be treasured and admired, not something to be absorbed as “information.” Any native reader of German older than 80 would, however, tell you that other blackletter styles are easier to read than Roman type. German books and newspapers used blackletter faces so that was what they read most. Adobe Caslon Serif That doesn’t argue for choosing typefaces arbitrarily. It would be somewhat arrogant of a designer to say, essentially, “I don’t care what makes you com- Helvetica Neue fortable. I want to use this and you’ll get used to it.” Sans Serif Lubalin Graph Serif Discussions about type for extended reading often begin with arguments about serif vs. sans serif typefaces: Serifs are the little “feet” you see on most Avant Garde Gothic Sans Serif of the type on this page. Notice, however, that there are many differences in form between these two typefaces (Adobe Caslon and the Helvetica Neue Officina Serif that says sans serif, above) than the presence or absence of serifs. Although Serif those would be typical examples, the examples on the right also show more Officina Sans similar typefaces that are serif and sans serif, respectively. Sans Serif Adobe Garamond ITC Garamond Oldstyle Baskerville Times New Roman Adobe Caslon Oldstyle Bodoni Century Schoolbook Adobe Garamond Oldstyle Even though most of the typefaces I will suggest are serif faces, features Janson other than the presence of serifs have great effect on how we regard a Transitional typeface. The x-height (how tall the lower case letters are compared to the Baskerville overall height), evenness of weight, angle of stress (the angle formed by the Transitional thinner parts of the letters, and general geometry all play a big role. Times The group of highly traditional typefaces with relatively little thick/ Modern thin contrast, a strong angle of stress, and small serifs with heavy brackets Bodoni (the fillet that connects the serif to the rest of the letter) are called oldstyle. Variations of Caslon, versions of Garamond , Minion (which is also based Modern Didot on Claude Garamond’s type designs), Bembo, Janson, Sabon (another Garamond interpretation), Electra, and Centaur are all examples. (Centaur Egyptian Century Schoolbook is the typeface you see as the East Carolina University wordmark.) They are all well-suited for continuous reading. Typesetters used to have a saying: Egyptian Rockwell When in doubt, set it in Caslon. They may all seem alike to you at this point, something like subtle variations of the same butter, lemon, and cream Geometric Sans Futura reduction sauce on fish but if you want to be a good cook, trying to notice the differences in sauces before trying to invent something brand new is Geometric Sans Century Gothic probably good practice. They are probably good places to start. Typefaces that have a very strong contrast in stroke thickness, Humanist Sans Humanist Sans vertical stress, and hairline serifs with little or no bracketing are called modern. (They were popular in the late 18th century when type classification Humanist Sans Humanist Sans systems first became popular so they were modern for their era.) Bodoni and Didot (pronounced DEE dough) are classic examples. They are often associated with elegance (think Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar magazines) but One more tip in choosing typefaces: If you want because of their strong vertical nature, they may need extra leading (i.e., small caps, hanging numerals, or other special extra space between lines of type) to be readable and don’t stand up to noisy characters, look for them when choosing between faces. backgrounds because of their extremely thin strokes and serifs. (Not that Typefaces sometimes have them in “expert sets” and you’ll want to use noisy backgrounds, of course.) you’ll find many of them in Adobe faces labeled “Pro” Between oldstyle and modern is a group of typefaces that are so Adobe Garamond Pro will have hanging numerals often called transitional. Transitional typefaces have more thick and thin available in the character menu of InDesign. and closer-to-vertical stress than oldstyles but appear to most people to have more in common with oldstyles than with modern faces. Baskerville and Utopia are good examples and you may find them to be good choices. page 2 Choices about type Times is also a transitional and was work very much as a family. Many people find Bookman to be designed specifically for newspapers Other versions of less-rough heavy and “slow” but it has many of but perhaps because it’s so overused sans include various geometric sans the same features. Typefaces along and is associated with the bad serif faces like Futura, the higher these lines seemed exotic when they typography of the Microsoft Word x-height Century Gothic, Avant came into popularity in the 19th world, it appears to be tired, clumsy, Garde Gothic, and, to a lesser extent, century at the time that treasures and clunky. Gotham (another official East of ancient Egypt were first seen in Although there is argument Carolina University typeface.) They Western Europe, so are often called about the question, sans serif faces tend to appear exceptionally clean Egyptians. can serve in long reading situations and rational but, like modern serif The same term is also often like books and certainly can function faces, may require extra leading or used for typefaces like Memphis very well in medium-length reading other efforts to make them flow. or Rockwell—essentially even like magazines. Some would argue Stepping away from the weighted sans serif faces with for classic gothics like Trade Gothic round-and-square regularity of the unbracketed slab serifs attached. and Franklin Gothic because of geometric sans serif faces, there are Some other faces like American some sense of authority. I see them sans serif faces often labeled as hu- Typewriter share some of those as having an un-pretty dignity—the manist. Myriad (which is patterned attributes but don’t make the mistake equivalent of concrete as a building after Adrian Frutiger’s eponymous of thinking that Courier—a classic material. If used without thought, typeface, Frutiger) is a great example. face for typewriters—will have the they could seem merely crude but It has some of the clean, even spirit same feeling. It is monospaced rather their lack of pretension means that of other sans serif faces but retains than proportional; a lower case i they stay out of the way when you the spirit of drawn and carved letter- takes the same horizontal space as build something with them. Classic forms. Gill Sans is another but the an upper case M, leaving it looking sans serif faces like Akzidenz Grotesk lower case g is strangely dark, causing loose and uneven. have some of this dignity. If un- odd spots in text. Verdana fits the de- Other faces that you’ll want to pretty has no appeal but avoiding scription but it was designed to work void are scripts, italics, handwriting flamboyance makes sense to you, on screens in low resolution with fonts, and anything with ornaments Helvetica is the regularized version very wide, open characters so it often on the letterforms. If this sounds like of Akzidenz Grotesk and Helvetica seems clumsy in print and, at very the advice is to seek out typefaces Neue has a range of weights and least, should be used at a small size. that appear boring, it is. If a typeface widths to let you find exactly what With short, heavily bracket- “says it all” then it won’t leave you you need in the way of typographic ed slab serifs, Century Schoolbook room to say anything. color. (“Neue” means new and mixes some of the appeal of old- depending where the speaker styles and the ruggedness of many The same advice goes for images comes from, it’s pronounce “noy” or sans serif typefaces. Georgia (which you’ll use in the illustrations for “NOYuh.”) Univers predates Helvetica was drawn for the screen at about this project.