Some Finer Points of Type. Some Finer Points of Type
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Some Finer Points of Type. Some Finer Points of Type. (Or, how to use dashes, figures, hanging quotes, and other typographic details) Let’s begin with some basics. Never put two spaces after a period. (No matter what they told you in high school.) Never put two spaces after a period. The Bliss Madonna, a glazed terracotta known in one The Bliss Madonna, a glazed terracotta known in one other example (see below), is a quintessential Luca other example (see below), is a quintessential Luca della Robbia work. Seen in half-length, the Virgin della Robbia work. Seen in half-length, the Virgin occupies a niche defined by gold-painted ribs against occupies a niche defined by gold-painted ribs against a turquoise ground. The frame is embellished with a turquoise ground. The frame is embellished with a floral design, and its upper corners are emblazoned a floral design, and its upper corners are emblazoned with the Bartorelli and Baldi coats of arms, likely with the Bartorelli and Baldi coats of arms, likely denoting a marriage between those Florentine denoting a marriage between those Florentine families.1 Turquoise is signally rare as a ground color families.1 Turquoise is signally rare as a ground color but encountered in other Della Robbia floral reliefs. but encountered in other Della Robbia floral reliefs. As if shying from an onlooker, the Christ Child As if shying from an onlooker, the Christ Child stands on the edge of the niche and leans in toward stands on the edge of the niche and leans in toward his mother, embracing her neck, while she supports his mother, embracing her neck, while she supports him with one hand on a foot and the other on his hip. him with one hand on a foot and the other on his hip. Their heads touch, but their blue gray eyes look out Their heads touch, but their blue gray eyes look out at the viewer. The Virgin’s thick mantle and robe and at the viewer. The Virgin’s thick mantle and robe and Never put two spaces after a period. The Bliss Madonna, a glazed terracotta known in one The Bliss Madonna, a glazed terracotta known in one other example (see below), is a quintessential Luca other example (see below), is a quintessential Luca della Robbia work. Seen in half-length, the Virgin della Robbia work. Seen in half-length, the Virgin occupies a niche defined by gold-painted ribs against occupies a niche defined by gold-painted ribs against a turquoise ground. The frame is embellished with a turquoise ground. The frame is embellished with a floral design, and its upper corners are emblazoned a floral design, and its upper corners are emblazoned with the Bartorelli and Baldi coats of arms, likely with the Bartorelli and Baldi coats of arms, likely denoting a marriage between those Florentine denoting a marriage between those Florentine families.1 Turquoise is signally rare as a ground color families.1 Turquoise is signally rare as a ground color but encountered in other Della Robbia floral reliefs. but encountered in other Della Robbia floral reliefs. As if shying from an onlooker, the Christ Child As if shying from an onlooker, the Christ Child stands on the edge of the niche and leans in toward stands on the edge of the niche and leans in toward his mother, embracing her neck, while she supports his mother, embracing her neck, while she supports him with one hand on a foot and the other on his hip. him with one hand on a foot and the other on his hip. Their heads touch, but their blue gray eyes look out Their heads touch, but their blue gray eyes look out at the viewer. The Virgin’s thick mantle and robe and at the viewer. The Virgin’s thick mantle and robe and Bad word spacing is to be avoided at all costs. Well-justified text is fine; ragged right setting is ideal. Avoid hyphens where you can. Use them if you must to avoid bad word spaces. Pay attention to the hyphenation and justification options in InDesign. Use them. A good rag is short, long, short, long, etc., in an evenly uneven and organic manner. Imagine that you have before you a flagon of wine. You may choose your own favorite Like so: vintage for this imaginary demonstration, so that it be a deep shimmering crimson in color. You have two goblets before you. One is of solid gold, wrought in the most exquisite patterns. The other is of crystal-clear glass, thin as a bubble, and as transparent. Pour and drink; and according to your choice of goblet, I shall know whether or not you are a connoisseur of wine. For if you have no feelings about wine one way or the other, you will want the sensation of drinking the stuff out of a vessel that may have cost thousands of pounds; but if you are a member of that vanishing tribe, the amateurs of fine vintages, you will choose the crystal, because everything about it is calculated to reveal rather than hide the beautiful thing which it was meant to contain… You will find that almost all the virtues of the perfect wine-glass have a parallel in typography. Type well used is invisible as type, just as the perfect talking voice is the unnoticed vehicle for the transmission of words, ideas… Printing demands a humility of mind, for the lack of which many of the fine arts are even now floundering in self-conscious and maudlin experiments. There is nothing simple or dull in achieving the transparent page. Vulgar ostentation is twice as easy as discipline. When you realize that ugly typography never effaces itself; you will be able to capture beauty as the wise men capture happiness by aiming at something else. The ‘stunt typographer’ learns the fickleness of rich men who hate to read. Not for them are long breaths held over serif and kern, they will not appreciate your splitting of hair-spaces. Nobody (save the other craftsmen) will appreciate half your skill. But you may spend endless years of happy experiment in devising that crystalline goblet which is worthy to hold the vintage of the human mind. —Beatrice Warde, Lecture to the British Typographers Guild, October 1930 Some details… caps, small caps, and figures these are small caps which fit nicely with lowercase letters. these are old style figures: 123456. To use small caps properly you must be working with a typeface that includes small caps as part of its family. Adobe Pro Open Fonts almost all include a small cap & old style figure set. abc DE1256 abcy xheight 1256 small caps full caps and lining figures old style or text figures Use old style figures 123 and small caps in running text so as not to make too jarring or bold an interruption to the overall color and texture of a page. Like this: Because of its ascenders and descenders, the number 1683 looks better than 1683 when set in the midst of a paragraph. And 500 bce should probably also be set in small caps and old style figs. It’s more elegant than 500 BCE. Don’t you think? If you have to mention an acronym, such as YMCA or USSR in the middle of a page, the use of small caps is more harmonious and less abrupt, for example: “He stayed at the ymca when he went on a trip to the ussr in 1989.” This is less disruptive to the page. ps: Also note that the period goes inside the quotation mark. some fonts don’t include true small caps Many sans serifs don’t have small caps. When you use the “small cap” styling option in InDesign for a font without true small caps, you can create some not-so-pleasing visual irregularities: Helvetica, FOR EXAMPLE doesn’t have true small caps. When you use the “fake” small caps InDesign allows, the weights don’t look quite right. You need to be very conscious of these details. MPLE doe some fonts don’t include old style figures Many sans serifs also don’t have old style figures. As a result, numbers must be set as lining figures and often look too large compared to the text. You may want to reduce the size of the lining figures by 0.25 or 0.5 points. January 1950 January 1950 these are “FULL” or “LINING” caps and these are lining figures: 0123456789 They align nicely with LINING CAPS 1975 Check your Open Type options in InDesign’s Character panel to see if you have old style figures and small caps available. CHARACTER > SHOW OPTIONS > OPENTYPE letter space (tracking) Please note, when using all caps or small caps, you should always add a little bit of letter space (tracking) around each letter since the forms of caps are very rectilinear and can look squeezed, requiring a bit of breathing room. This is especially true in serif faces. serif faces tracked 0 serif faces tracked 100 SERIF FACES tracked 0 SERIF FACES tracked 100 an example: THIS IS RATHER TIGHT THIS IS A BIT BETTER another example: gotham light smallcaps without and with letterspacing BODONI CAPS without and with TRACKING Please be extra careful when letterspacing lower case letters as it makes type harder to read AND BY THE WAY, YOU PRETTY MUCH WANT TO AVOID SETTING A LOT OF TYPE IN ALL CAPS. IT LOOKS RATHER LIKE HOW SCREAMING SOUNDS AND IS BUSY AND OFFENDS THE EYE.