ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries 1 6 0 / C&RL News D esigning w ith typ e , part 1 By S usan Ju r is t H ow to c h o o s e the best f o n t f o r y o u r m essage S e a r c h in g f o r g o o d ty p og rap h y is a s h a r d a s fin d in g th e q u estio n m a r k in a so u p c a n . — 1996– 97 catalog, TypeArt Foundry A s librarians, w e deal almost exclusivelywith text. Even when w e work with im­ ages or sound, there is a text caption. But as a profession, we seem to care (rightfully, most o f you will argue) more about the content than the form. I think we need to pay more atten­ tion to the form, even though (or because of) its effect on how you perceive an article, book, flyer, or newsletter is more unconscious than the effects o f what you read. To emphasize the importance o f form, imag­ ine the Campbell’s soup can logo. That font is so distinctive and iden­ tified with Campbell’s that even if the word was spelled “Compball’s ,” I bet it would take you awhile to realize it. This article will try to make you a little bit more conscious about type so you can create a better visual identity for your library and its prod­ ucts. It’s divided into two parts. The first part, appearing this month, deals with more traditional type and ty­ pographical rules and basic consid­ erations about using computer fonts. This section is appropriate for for­ matting large chunks o f text such as reports, but also relates to text in e-mail and W eb pages. The second part, coming in a fu­ ture issue, deals with choosing and using fonts, including how to acquire them without breaking the bank. Figure 1. A selection o f fonts. One note before we begin. Figure 1 is an illustration o f all the fonts mentioned in the article that I own. If I own a font, its name will be in italics in the text and illustrated in figure 1, followed by the source (source w here I ob­ tained the font— not the sole source, in most cases). If I don’t own a font, I will indicate a source for that font following its name. For ease o f finding, and because some fonts are referred to more than once, the fonts are in alphabeti­ cal order. If you are not familiar with type cata­ logs, you should know that w hen the type house is part o f the font name, it is ignored in the alphabetizations. For exam ple, L etraset P a ­ p y r u s will appear with the “Ps” not the “Ls.” J u s t b e c a u s e y o u c a n , d o e s n ’t m e a n y o u sh o u ld Rule number 1: if you are o f the typewriter generation, unlearn everything your typing Susan Jurist is visual arts librarian at the University o f California, San Diego; e-mail: sjurist@ucsd.edu mailto:sjurist@ucsd.edu M arch 1 9 9 7 / 161 teacher taught you in junior high school. As Robin Williams says in her book o f the same name, “the Mac is not a typewriter.” The PC is not a typewriter either. • Never underline text. Ever. It’s ugly and it’s hard to read. Underlining was used on a typewriter because the typewriter didn’t have italic text. If you are using a computer, you have italics (and bold if you need it), so you have n o excuse. • ALMOST NEVER USE ALL CAPS. ALL CAPS are also hard to read and give the im­ pression o f shouting. If you want to emphasize a portion o f your document, you have many other tools at your disposal: you can make the text bold, make the text a larger point size, or use a different font. Do a n y th in g but type in all caps! There are two exceptions to this rule: some fonts, like Copperplate Gothic and Lithos only com e in all caps; and sometimes, for stylistic reasons, you may want to have all caps (but use knowingly and sparingly). DO NOT use all caps in handouts or flyers w hen you want the reader to actually read and understand the text. If you don’t believe me, pick up whatever pa­ perback you are currently reading. Almost all have the author’s name and the b o o k ’s title in all caps at the top o f the page. W hen you read the text, you are never distracted by the all caps characters— your eyes instinctively ignore them. • The hardest rule to unlearn is that there should b e only o n e space after the period. Computer fonts are designed to make the two spaces used in typewriting unnecessary. Typ­ ing two spaces is as automatic as breathing for many o f us, so typing one space is hard to remember. But after about a year, you’ll get it right. Font w a r s You probably know the difference betw een serif and sans-serif fonts. Serif fonts are those with the little fringes like the text you are cur­ rently reading, and sans-serif are literally with- out-serif (like the font in the section headings o f this article). There are almost as many studies that say sans-serif is as readable as serif as there are studies that say the opposite. But pick up al­ most any newspaper or magazine, and you will see that the text is printed in serif. Even W ired magazine uses serif for its serious articles. For good or for bad, it’s what people are used to reading, and familiarity is one o f the most im­ portant factors in legibility. W hich is not to say that this is a rule you shouldn’t break. Sans-serif fonts can be used quite effectively in reports, handouts, etc., but you will need to pay a bit more attention to formatting than you would with a more tradi­ tional looking font. Sans-serifs like Optima work well because the modulated (thick and thin) letters give a more formal look to the text. To ju s tify o r not to ju stify There are four kinds o f type justification. The one w e are most familiar with on the printed page is “justified,” where both the left and right margins are even (as in the text you are cur­ rently reading). But unless you are using page layout software like Quark or PageMaker, avoid ju s t if ie d te x t ( C&RL N e w s is s e t u sin g PageMaker). It usually results in irregular word spacings and is best left in the hands o f profes­ sionals. For most o f the work you do, use left jus­ tified text with a ragged right margin. In gen­ eral, especially in the hands o f novices, this is the best choice because it is the least disrup­ tive to reading. Right justified text with a ragged left margin and centered text are best used as design ele­ ments and not as long blocks o f text. They are fine in handouts, announcem ents, etc., and should be used sparingly. Never center a large block o f text. Library writing is not poetry, and large centered blocks (especially on W eb pages) are annoying to read. And never justify fixed-spaced fonts like Courier. Here’s an exam ple o f how awful it looks when you do: T h is is w h a t h a p p e n s w h e n y ou try to fo r c e ju stify m o n o s p a c e d ty p e. It is te r r ib ly u g ly , i s n ’t it? P le a s e d o n ’t d o th is o r, at le a s t, d o n ’t s e n d m e e -m a il th a t lo o k s lik e th is. The m e d iu m is the m e s s a g e With computers, the ultimate destination o f the product will play an important part in deter­ mining which fonts you will use. Computers have both screen and print fonts. Screen fonts are those that are designed to look clear and readable on the screen, while print fonts are designed to look good on the printed page. In the Mac world, almost any font with the name o f a city ( C h ic a g o , M o n a co , N ew York) is 1 6 2 / C&RL News Figure 2. One logo idea. a screen font; on Windows/DOS m achines screen fonts are usually C o u r ie r and Arial (com es with Windows and other Microsoft pro­ grams). Why do you need to know this? B e­ cause you should not print screen fonts. They were designed to look clear and readable on the screen with its low resolution— on the printed page they look awkward and clumsy. On the other hand, some print fonts look awful on the screen but great when you see them on the printed page because those fonts have more detail than the screen can deliver. Screen resolution is 72 dpi (dots per inch) while most o f the inkjet and laser printers we use are 150-300 dpi. Just because the font looks great in the catalog doesn’t mean it will look great in your multimedia project or as a logo on the Web. Some do. I’ve had good luck with Eurostile, B e n g u ia t Gothic, ITC Eras, Serpentine, and Op­ tim a. I use Benguiat Gothic as the default for my W eb browser and Eras as the default font for e-mail. Figure 2 contains a logo I designed for the University o f California, San D iego (UCSD) Biomedical Library. The font is Eurostile B o ld E x te n d ed 2. For the most part, squarish fonts work best, though “dirty” fonts (more on this next time) also work well because they are rough to start with. You actually have to be more careful when choosing type for on-screen use than for print if you want text that will be both attractive and readable The final consideration when choosing fonts for print is the resolution of your printer and the method you will use for reproduction. If you are creating one copy o f a letter to be printed on a 600 dpi laser printer, you can use a m ore delicate font. If you are creating a flyer that will be printed at 300 dpi and p h otocop ied, you want to ch o o se a more sturdy font w hose features w o n ’t disappear at small sizes. To sm ooth o r not to sm ooth When creating decorative fonts for use on­ screen, another choice you will have to make is whether or not to anti-alias your fonts. Anti­ aliased fonts are those that look softer on the screen because the jaggies have been smoothed. You may now be wondering why this is an issue— smooth is better right? Not always. Un­ fortunately, there is n oth in g between jaggy and blurry for screen type. A rule o f thumb is not to anti-alias any type smaller than 14 points b e­ cause it virtually disappears, though in prac­ tice 24 -3 6 might be a better guideline. One of the reasons the squarish fonts named above work well on the screen is because they look good aliased and can be used at smaller sizes without having to sacrifice style. Also, on the Web, gif files with anti-aliased text have larger file sizes and take longer to load. Figure 3 shows an example of the font Im ag o aliased and anti-aliased at various sizes. W h o s a y s s ir e d o e s n ’t count? Some fonts were designed to work at only large (at least 24 point) sizes. These fonts, called “dis­ play” fonts, are not attractive, and are often unreadable in smaller sizes. Always read the descriptions of fonts or sets of fonts. If it says “display,” it’s a warning to you that you can use them in section headings and announce­ ments, but no matter how pretty they are on the box, they are not suitable for use in blocks o f text. While one reason is the design of the font letters, another is the de­ fault font spacing. B ecau se they are meant to be seen at large sizes, display font letters have less space between them proportionally than text fonts do. When you use a display font in a small size, the letters often run into each other in anFigure 3. Aliased and anti-aliased type. M arch 1 9 9 7 / 163 unreadable way. In figure 4, B u r e a u E m p ire is shown in a variety o f sizes. At 12 point, even with very loose tracking (the space betw een letters is adjustable in page layout programs) it’s unreadable. But at the larger sizes, it’s very attractive. Too m a n y fo n ts a r e w o r s e th an too m a n y c o o k s Remember all those early attempts at desktop publishing? The ones with 20 different fonts that began to look like ransom notes? For the most part, people have learned to curb their desire to put every font they own into every­ thing they do (unless, o f course, they are lucky enough to write an article about fonts), but the rule still needs to be stated. Two to three fonts per page should be more than sufficient, and the fonts should be distinctive enough so that it makes sense as to why you are using them. As an example, look at the page you are read­ ing; it effectively uses a bold sans-serif as the section headings, serif as the body text, and italic for the footers. A good guideline for beginners is to start with two fonts, a serif and a sans-serif. Use one for the headings and the other for text. This guideline is also appropriate for Power-Point presentations as well as long reports, though in presentations you will often see the head­ line text in serif and the body in sans. The trick is to use fonts that look good together but are different enough to make an effective contrast. If you are unsure o f what will work with what, some font families now com e in both serif and sans-serif styles. The Stone family is an excellent choice and even includes an “in­ formal” style. Agfa Rotis, just a little more dar­ ing, com es in serif, semi-serif, semi-sans, and sans. It is so readable it’s used quite heavily in magazines, as both text and section headings, and the four styles give you more than enough variety for a publication. And remember, you can also get variety by using different weights o f the same font. E ras Ultra is more than enough contrast for E ras B o o k as C aslon B la c k is for C aslon B o o k . N a m e d ro p p in g I remember when I first was able to use Times and H elvetica. After years o f living in a totally C o u rier world, those two fonts were like magic. Now if you use Helvetica, it’s the same as wear­ ing lime-green bell-bottom pants— they’re from the same era and give the same effect. Figure 4. Size counts. C aslon and G a r a m o n d are two o f the serifs used most often in book publishing (this text is Garamond). Those two, and most of the others m entioned in this article, were all designed precomputer. But beware: the fonts you use on the computer are variations that may or may not actually reference the original designs. For example, look in a large type catalog and you w ill s e e as m any as fifte e n fo n ts ca lle d “Garamond.” Look at the letters carefully (the small “a” and the small “g ” are two o f the let­ ters that vary the most among fonts) and you will wonder why these Garamonds have the same name. Other alternatives to T im es: G a llia r d and C h e lte n h a m have a slightly more modern look and are a bit heavier; the Stone family (Adobe) is so readable it’s even used by newspapers; K o r in n a has an almost sans-serif look and may be too stylized for long blocks o f text but looks great as clues on J e o p a r d y . A van t-G arde, Futura, G ill Sans, and Univers (Adobe) are sans-serifs that can be used instead o f Helvetica whenever you would have used Helvetica in the past (the subheads here are in Futura). O ptim a and P op p l L a u d a tio are great sans-serifs and the modulated letters make them useful for formal as well as informal situations. C o m in g so o n to a jo u rn a l n e a r y o u Part 2 o f this article, “Just because you shouldn’t doesn’t mean you can ’t,” will present you with more options for choosing and using fonts— especially when you want to attract attention. After all, rules were meant to be broken. Name dropping, font wars, and many new friends will make their appearance. Part 2 also will go into detail about criteria for purchasing fonts, in­ cluding con tact inform ation for many font houses. ■