Link

Type Casting

Back To Basics

Grooming The Font

Dear, Influential Type

LINK Making connections to typographic art

issue 1 December 2014

Letter from the Editor:

Hello!

I am so overjoyed to have this magazine finally become a reality. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed creating it. Link is a magazine completely dedicated to the wonderful art of typography, something that surrounds us and helps make the world a more beautiful place. There is always so much more to learn and I hope to inspire and educate readers through this publication. Creativity is a marvelous thing and with typography creativity is endless. You can do so many incredible things. In this magazine we will explore some of those things and speak with some of the top typographers of today. There is no better way to grow as an artist than learning from the best, right? Anway, grab a cup of coffee and enjoy! xoxo Ashley Schopp

meet the link team!

Creative director: Joshua Slinski

Executive Editor: Joseph Bushe

Marketing Director: Kelsey Coon

Copy Editor: Ellie Wools

Contents: 17...

cover Articles

Type Casting by Steven Brower Exploring the world of publishing

27...

Back to Basics by John d berry

31...

Grooming The Font by anonymous

39...

From, Typography by Ashley schopp

3...

How Good is Good?

Stopping sloppy typography

All things you need to know about editing a font

Behind the scenes of a typographic installation

By: Stefan Sagmeister

Columns

9...

Difference between font and typeface

11...

history of Graphic Design

15...

what makes graphic design great?

17...

Its all about Legibility

By: John Brownlee

By: Charlotte Fish

By: Phaidon

By: Allan Haley

How Good Is Good?

By: Stefan Sagmeister

Current state of graphic design, ethics, advertising and aesthetics

I

n September design felt impotent and frivolous. There is nothing inherent in our profession that forces us to support worthy causes, to promote good things, to avoid visual pollution. There might be such a responsibility in us as people. In August, when thinking about my reasons for being alive, for getting out of bed in the morning, I would have written the following down.

1. Strive for happiness 2. Don’t hurt anybody 3. Help, others achieve the same Now I would change that priority: 1. Help others 2. Don’t hurt anybody

3

Link | First Issue | December 2014

3. Strive for happiness My studio was engaged in cool projects, things designers like to do, like designing a cover for David Byrne. We had a good time designing them, and since the products and events these pieces promoted were fine, I don’t think we hurt anybody who bought them.

One of the many things I learned in my year without clients, a year I had put aside for experiments only, was that I’d like a part of my studio to move from creating cool things to significant things.

The 80s in graphic design were dominated by questions about the layout, by life style magazines, with Neville Brody’s Face seen as the big event. The 90s were dominated by questions about typography, readability, layering,

with David Carson emerging as the dominant figure.

With prominent figures like Peter Saville recently talking about the crisis of the unnecessary and lamenting about the fact that our contemporary culture is monthly, there might now finally be room for content, for questions about what we do and for whom we are doing it. The incredible impact the First Things First manifesto had on my profession would certainly point in that direction.

The first sentence on page 1 of Victor Papanek’s “Design for the Real World” reads: “There are professions more harmful than industrial design, but only very few of them. And possibly only one profession is phonier: Advertising design. In persuading people to buy things they don’t need, with money they don’t have, in order to impress others that don’t care, it is probably the phoniest field in existence today.”

I do know that bad design can harm our lives. From the problems this little piece of bad typography caused in Florida to unnecessary junk mail and overproduced packaging, bad design makes the world a more difficult place to live in.

At the same time, strong design for bad causes or products can hurt us even more.

Good design + bad cause = bad

Just consider this age old and powerful symbol symbol and its transformation into a very successful identity program by the Nazis.

Context is all-important: The Christian cross had one meaning in 16th century Europe and another one in 20th century India.

Bad design + good cause = good?

On the other hand, bad design for a good cause can still be a good thing. We designed the logo for The Concert for New York, a huge charity event for the fire and policeman in Madison Square Garden, involving among others Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger, The Who. From a design point of view, the statue of liberty playing a guitar is a trite cliché. I am not suggesting that the logo had much to do with the over $ 20 million raised for the Robin Hood Foundation, well, actually, a tiny portion was raised through the logo in the from of merchandize sales.

How to be good?

Well, does help by definition have to be selfless? Am I allowed to get something out of myself? If I do help, am I permitted to have fun while doing so?

I read an interview with an art director in England disLink | First Issue | December 2014

4

cussing his award winning campaign ad campaign for an association for the blind, featuring a striking image of a guide dog with human eyes stripped in.

He mentioned that he knew that a picture of a cute puppy would have raised more donations for the association, but was more interested in winning awards. He had no problems with this attitude.

When GE gives 10 million to the WTC victim families, is it ok for them to look good for doing so?

Or, a more extreme case: Is it ok for Philip Morris to go and give 60 million to help out various charities and then spend another 108 million promoting this good deed in magazine ads?

Mates-values: belonging to a group, not letting it down Moral-values: religious values, general law, general values of a particular culture Mankind-values: human rights, ecology I often make the mistake of concentrating on just a couple of these values in my life. We all have heard of the philanthropist who gave away millions to charity and was a genuine asshole to all his friends. Or the guy who is totally devoted to his family and friends but hates himself, drives a Suburban and works for a Nuclear Missile Plant.

Or Mr. Bin Laden himself: I am sure he is totally devoted to his religious values as well as to the values of his own culture, but does not really care about human rights much.

If you are homeless and you just got a hot meal from St. For a full life I would have to be involved in all four.

Johns in Brooklyn, one of the organizations the money went to, you don’t really give a shit if the people who gave I do think there is a role for everyone. It does not really it to you tout their own horn afterwards. matter if I am the Mayor of New York, or if I design the tourist brochures for New York or if I sweep the streets in Even though it really is a ridiculous case, isn’t it still New York. There is always room to be nice to a co-worker, preferable to blowing the entire 168 million on a regular to send a sweet letter to Mom, to love Anni. ad budget?

Of course there are different degrees of separation. The And: Why are so many celebrities involved in charities? rescue worker down at Ground Zero is directly involved, Five years ago, my feeling was they just wanted to prowhen I design a pin to raise money to help the rescue mote their careers. Now I am somewhat less cynical. It is worker, I’m a couple of degrees further removed. But I conceivable that many simply came to realize the pursuit might just function twice as effective as a designer than I of money/fame/success does not hold the contentment it would as a rescue worker. promised and are on the lookout for more significance.

Well, while pondering those questions half a year ago, I Poor Sting practically ruined his career with all his do got invited to participate in a media design exhibition in gooding, transforming himself from the cool leader of the Police to just another sappy rain forest bard Vienna, Austria. One of the perks that came with the exhibit was a free, full-page ad in Austria’s best newspaper, space I was free to fill with whatever I liked.

Where do the critics come in? If I make fun of Sting, do I It’s an idea for a packaging that might be applied in zones keep other celebrities from following his lead and thereof large catastrophes, earthquakes and such. At the time fore somehow contribute to the destruction of the rainI was naively thinking of far away locations, India or Afforest? If I do criticize Sting, do I have to have a better idea to help the world? rica, not for a second conceiving that my hometown New York itself might be turned into the largest catastrophe When philosopher Edward DeBono talks about values, he zone. puts them into four equally important sections: It is basically a large, hollow Lego like block containing Me-values: ego and pleasure basic foods like milk powder, water, dried fish, rice. After

5

Link | First Issue | December 2014

the food has been consumed, the empty packaging can be filled with sand or dirt and used as an interlocking brick to build a shelter.

SO: I have to be part of an organization, part of a problem to be able to come up with a solution. Do-gooding from afar, as a tourist, won’t do.

In the ad I explained the idea and asked other designers, packaging manufacturers and aid organizations to contribute.

In the meantime in New York I was also at the center of a disaster, I was not tourist anymore. One of the tasks at hand was the creation of a symbol that could also work as a fundraiser for various charities hit hard by current events.

Responses came into my laptop immediately. Many from students who just wanted to help, some from Austrian packaging companies interested in participating and many from designers and architects offering ideas.

Also, it was an opportunity to feel and look good myself: The caring designer.

Our idea was a pin, made of the rubble of the World trade Center, a piece of metal that refused to be destroyed.

After the WTC disaster over 1 000 000 tons of rubble was removed from the site and brought by truck and barge to the Fresh Kills landfill in Staten Island.

Among all the positive responses was also a violently neg- The plan here is to make this into a large-scale project. ative one; We can raise $ 1.5 million per 100 000 pins sold.

- the writer stating that this is the absolute worst idea he ever saw in this context, that it’s a case of designing poverty, just plain ignorant and stupid.

I got really nervous. I am just not used to having my work hated that much. Maybe I should have stuck to CD covers.

Amongst all the positive responses there was also a violently negative one

The e-mail did prompt me to get quickly in contact with aid organizations and I had subsequently a discussion with the Director of Emergency Preparedness at CARE, the largest of them all.

It turns out that in emergency cases, Care tends to buy food whenever possible locally in bulk: That way they don’t have to package, there is less garbage, they avoid shipping problems and the food will be compatible with local tastes.

And similar thinking applies for shelter: It’s to everybody’s advantage to use as much local building material as possible. Care just supplies some additional resource materials like rolls of plastic or corrugated metal sheets and utilizes the ingenuity of the population. This results in sturdier, better-built shelter.

It turns out, my e-mail writer was right: This is a stupid idea.

Link | First Issue | December 2014

6

Good Design + Good Cause = Good Most of current graphic design done by professional design companies is used to promote or sell, which is fine, but design can also do so much more.

Design can unify Francis Hopkinson, a writer, artist and a signatory of the declaration of independence designed the American Flag (never got paid for it though).

Design can help us remember The towers of light by Julian Laverdiere and Paul Myoda, at this moment proposed as a temporary memorial down at Ground Zero, are a beautiful emotional response. They are ghost limbs; we can feel them even though they are not there anymore.

Design can simplify our lives Everybody who had to buy tokens in the New York subway system would agree that the Metro card eased the way we go around the city.

Design can make someone feel better After we designed the CD cover for the Rolling Stones there was quite some press interest in Europe and a number of Austrian and German TV stations came to New York for an interview.This was just around the time my Mom was celebrating her 70 Birthday. I made a T-shirt saying “Dear Mom! Have a great Birthday� and wore it during the interview. The Austrian station agreed to air the interviews exactly on her Birthday. Mom felt better.

Design can make the world a safer place Cipro comes with a complicated, difficult to understand information pamphlet. It could also inform quickly and efficiently about when and how to take it as well as side effects.

Design can help people rally behind a cause Robbie Canals poster series wheat pasted all over New York in the 80-ies probably spoke to the already converted, but showed me there are other people out there who are not happy with the administration. I guess I picked these posters over the hundreds or thousands of posters designers created that would qualify as an example

7

Link | First Issue | December 2014

because I saw those actually pasted on the street.

There is this entire subsection in design, the peace or environmental poster, where only hundreds are actually printed, only dozens go up in the street and the rest is distributed to design competitions.This of course does NOT help people rally behind a cause, it only helps the ego of the designer.

Design can inform and teach From the abstract geometric signs and animals of the cave paintings to the graphs in the New York Times, designers give us a better understanding of the issues.

Design can raise money As a stand in for all the promotions and ads that raised money for Non-Profit organizations I am showing here the Breast Cancer symbol which made a an impressive amount of money for cancer research.

Design can make us more tolerant Russian designer Andrey Logvin simple poster called Troika speaks for itself.

Winter Sorbeck, design teacher and fictional main character in Chip Kidd’s new novel The Cheese Monkeys, says at one point: Uncle Sam is Commercial Art, the American Flag is graphic design. Commercial Art makes you BUY things, graphic Design GIVES you ideas.

If I’m able to do that, to give ideas, that WOULD be a good reason to get out of bed in the morning.

Link | First Issue | December 2014

8

What’s the Difference Between A Font and A Typeface?

By: John Brownlee

O

ne of the major traps, when talking about type, is mixing up fonts with typefaces or treating them as synonymous. Many a typographic expert has haughtily corrected a beginner for mistakenly using the word font when he or she should have said typeface. To those of us who think about fonts only when choosing one in Microsoft Word, the distinction between the terms can seem confusing, esoteric, and even arcane.

In brief: A font is what you use, a typeface is what you Back in the good old days of analog printing, every page was laboriously set out in frames with metal letters. That was rolled in ink, and then it was pressed down onto a clean piece of paper. That was a page layout. Printers needed thousands of physical metal blocks, each with the character it was meant to represent set out in relief (the type face). If you wanted to print Garamond, for example, you needed different blocks for every different size (10 point, 12 point, 14 point, and so on) and weight (bold, light, medium).

This is where we get the terms typeface and font. In the example above, Garamond would be the typeface: It described all of the thousands of metal blocks a printer might have on hand and which had been designed with the same basic design principles. But a font was something else entirely. A font described a subset of blocks in that very typeface—but each font embodied a particular size and weight. For example, bolded Garamond in 12

9

Link | First Issue | December 2014

point was considered a different font than normal Garamond in 8 point, and italicized Times New Roman at 24 point would be considered a different font than italicized Times New Roman at 28 point.

The distinction between the two terms, and the processes they encapsulated, got muddied with the rise of desktop publishing. Fonts were no longer thousands of tiny blocks of movable type; they became digital computer files that scaled themselves up or down dynamically to whatever size or weight users wanted. So the distinction between process and end result disappeared in a puff of binary magic for most people.

Open up Microsoft Word and you’re asked to choose a font, not a typeface. From the perspective of Microsoft’s designers, this makes perfect sense. At any given time, after all, you’re working in a specific size and weight of a typeface. This is the proper term. But from the perspective of millions of computer users who have never given a thought to type—outside of deciding what they want to use for their email signature or homemade birthday card—the word font has come to represent the look, not the mechanism.

DOES IT EVEN MATTER ANYMORE?

Even among type professionals, there’s a growing acceptance that for most people, the terms font and typeface

can be used interchangeably. Only experts really need to worry about it.

“For most people in most situations, those terms can swap around without any trouble,” Tobias Frere-Jones tells Co.Design. “The distinction would matter in type design, obviously, but also contexts which involve engineering, like app development or web design.”

Gary Hustwit, director of Helvetica, agrees. “Most people other than type designers just say ‘font,’” Hustwit says.

“Among graphic designers, though, I’d say it’s a generational thing. A lot of the older designers I’ve met, like Massimo Vignelli, always say ‘typeface.’”

Experts agree: Typeface and font can be used interchangeably at this point

And Pentagram’s Eddie Opara puts it even more succinctly: “I think it’s the latter, a distinction for experts,” he says. “I know it certainly pisses experts off.”

IN A NUTSHELL

Even type experts agree: Typeface and font can be used interchangeably at this point. But if you come across an annoying pedant who cares deeply about maintaining the distinction for the masses, just remember this: The difference between a font and a typeface is the same as that between songs and an album. The former makes up the latter. Remember that and you’re good to go.

Link | First Issue | December 2014

10

A Brief History of Graphic Design By: Charlotte Fish From its first printed appearance in the West, type drew on existing forms, with the results then impacting on future designs. The letters printed in Renaissance Europe

by Johann Gutenberg were a direct interpretation of the ornate gothic handwriting of the day; black-letter, in movable, reusable hot metal. Black-letter would also influence the first italic type cut by Francesco Griffo, which was largely informed by 16th century Italian handwriting. But it was the renewed interest in classic Greco-Roman culture, rather than technological development, that would see our standard roman alphabet find its definitive printed expression.

The early Humanist faces derived their majuscules from stone-carved Roman capital letters (hence the serifs) while their minuscules were adapted from the formal calligraphy of scribes. The more successful types revealed an ability to differentiate the written from the printed character, as evidenced by the letters of Nicolas Jenson.

Extremely well-proportioned and unified in form, Jenson�s type reconciled capitals with small letters and provided the blueprint for future letterpress faces.

Our more familiar Baroque types of the 17th century were designed by Claude Garamond and, later, William Caslon. Displaying low stroke contrast and a diagonal stress derived from Italian cursive, they were elegant and highly legible, their dominance only challenged by the work of John Baskerville in the mid-18th century. His strongly vertical Neoclassical faces were based on earlier French grid-based designs and introduced the contrasting stroke weights which were to reach their apotheosis in the coming Romantic faces of Giambattista Bodoni and Firmin Didot.The influence of calligraphy now diminished as punchcutting evolved and letterforms began

11

Link | First Issue | December 2014

to echo their metal origins. Improved technologies had gradually facilitated fine detail like unbracketed hairline serifs and high stroke contrast. As a result these sophisticated designs earned type a newfound importance in their ability to command attention. This was timely as the next phase would require and produce various distinctive faces, though the beauty of their form would be contested.

The Industrial Revolution of the 19th century ushered in another typographic development not directly caused by technology. Advertising and commerce demanded that type work harder, resulting in heavily scaled novelty and display faces. Grossly inflated Romantic faces became fat-faces and Realist types emerged in the form of vertical, sturdy slab serifs or egyptians � their block-like forms anticipating the clarendon faces of the mid-1800s.

But most significantly, monoline sans serif or grotesque faces appeared, with Hermann Berthold’s Akzidenz Grotesk of 1896 becoming the first widely adopted sans in the wake of this typographic profusion.

Bulky wooden type was used in conjunction with the existing metal technology which, although accurate and efficient, was struggling to keep up with exhaustive typographic demands. It remained, however, until the invention of mechanised typesetting at the end of the century with the Linotype and Monotype machines. By this time type had become increasingly crude, and excepting notable achievements like Morris Fuller Benton’s Franklin Gothic of 1902, such forms surely helped trigger the rationale behind the impending designs.The early 20th century saw the progressive designers at the Bauhaus ally themselves with the machine age in a vigorous attempt to define the modern. Rejecting both calligraphy and

12

ornamentation in favour of purity and elemental form, they embraced refined sans forms and delivered Geometric Modernist types: grid-based, modular, often unicase alphabets like Herbert Bayer’s 1925 universal. Design was now being driven by a socialist ideology, with the new technology providing a functional aesthetic. Forms were tested to their limits and obliged to convey meaning along with content � even more so than Postmodernism would demand in the future.

In 1927 Paul Renner released the radical Futura, dubbing its modern geometric form ‘the typeface of our time’. The first sans designed as a text face, it heralded the arrival of the Swiss Style � a movement that would remain influential for the next 50 years. This milestone was paralleled by the 1928 release of Gill Sans by Eric Gill. Unlike Futura, this humanist sans serif was based on roman proportions but would also have an immediate impact and lasting popularity.The Lyrical Modernism of mid-century saw an enormous range of types break free from recent dogma. Sans were stressed into glyphics and slab serifs refined alongside the invention of expressive new script, brush and period faces. Pre-existing designs were revived and hybridised � Stanley Morison’s Times New Roman of 1932 being noteworthy as a fusion of Baroque, Neoclassical and Romantic elements; it became the most widely read and commercially successful text face. But it was the modern sans serif that was in demand and in order to compete commercially, the Swiss typefoundry Haas commissioned Max Miedinger’s infamous neo-grotesque, Helvetica, in 1957. Neutral, adaptable Helvetica (with its large family) prevailed from the 1960s on and it has not yet lost prominence.

The photosetting of the 1950s had used light to project and scale typefaces which often resulted in distortion, but Letraset dry-transfer lettering soon arrived to physically return type the the hands of the designer. Quick and cheap, this intermediate technology mirrored Pop Art in its brash, fun display faces. However, as computers increased their presence, type began moving definitively away from these physical restraints towards the pliancy of the digital; Neue Alphabet by Wim Crouwel and the OCR fonts of Adrian Frutiger in the late 1960s were inspired by and custom-designed for screen display � hinting at things to come.The design, production and distribution of type changed irrevocably in the early 1980s with the advent of desktop publishing and the Apple Macintosh. Efficient, user-friendly software democratised typography but simultaneously allowed design-

13

Link | First Issue | December 2014

ers to produce ill-conceived and badly drawn faces. An exception was the prolific Neville Brody whose geometric, authoritarian faces would define the decade. Ironically, Brody’s pre-digital types were hand-drawn yet they fully expressed the geometry of bitmaps.

The new technology also resulted in the proliferation of digital type foundries like Bitstream and Emigre. The latter’s Zuzana Licko was a pioneer in exploiting the lowres bitmap forms of the early Mac, while her later fonts would present timely challenges to legibility and provoke heated typographic debate.Type’s newly prominent status made for a highly creative period in the 1990s, with experimental design leading the way and technology coming a close second. Postmodern sampling resulted in hybrids loaded with self-indulgent typographic theory, subjective revivals and faces with both serif and sans versions. The distinct move towards vernacular references was an antidote to the ‘perfection’ of the new technology and grungy, raw typefaces expressed a metanarrative, best exemplified by Barry Deck’s Template Gothic of 1990 � declared the ‘typeface of the decade’ by its publisher Emigre.

A once arcane craft, typography is now widely accessible and highly visible. But good typography requires an understanding of proportion, rhythm and gestalt � objectives that become harder to see for the surrounding technology. Although our digital fonts retain the earmarks of the chisel, the pen and the metal punch, the new tools have rendered type far more elastic.Recent innovations, both technological and conceptual, appear to have effected a renewed reverence for classic form as revivals flourish and obscure historical faces are digitised.

Still, typographic design remains essentially commercially driven, with some dedicated enthusiasts experimenting alongside. Advertising has developed a pronounced preference for typefaces with the friendly, rounded forms that originated in 1979s V.A.G., while in the midst of the ongoing war between the modernists and the traditionalists, the search for the definitive sans serif continues, moving from Helvetica to Frutiger to Meta to Akkurat.

Elsewhere, experiments in dimensional typography, randomizing and onscreen time-and-motion type remain for a select audience.

In light of history, the current approach to typography appears sober, yet it may anticipate a phase of radical invention akin to the excesses of the late 20th century.

Link | First Issue | December 2014

14

wim Crouwel on what makes graphic design great By: Phaidon We sit the Dutch graphics legend down to talk great design, old and new

E

arlier this week, Amsterdam’s influential Stedelijk Museum revealed a completely new S-shaped identity, expertly provided by the talented Dutch design duo Mevis & Van Deursen. Given Wim Crouwel’s longstanding relationship with the institution – the Amsterdam-based designer presided over the Stedelijk’s print output for much of the 1960s, creating a body of work that remains as fresh now as it did when first produced – we thought it was high time we sat him down to hear a few of his thoughts. Here, Crouwel lists some of his favourite pieces of graphic design, waxes lyrical about Swiss master Josef Müller-Brockmann, and explains the necessity for experimentation in contemporary practice.

Let’s start with the Stedelijk logo. What do you think of it?

There’s been so much critical uproar around it that I’ve been keeping my mouth shut. But I like it now I’ve seen the first results – it’s very clear and straightforward. In my opinion it will function well.

Stedelijk Museum logo, Mevis & Van Deursen, 2012

15

Link | First Issue | December 2014

What makes a piece of graphic design great?

It must be an eye-catching, original and straightforward visualisation of a given subject. And some experimentation is never bad. You have to try to do things that haven’t been done before; take ideas you have to the boundaries and look for unexpected things. It doesn’t always happen, but every now and then you’re lucky enough to catch something.

Could you pinpoint a few examples?

There are so many! But here’s what comes to mind: DRU’s British Rail symbol; Hans Rudi Erdt’s 1911 Opel poster; Cassandre’s 1927 Etoile du Nord poster; Josef Müller-Brockmanm’s 1960 Der Film poster; Philippe Apeloig’s ‘The poster’ poster from 2000; and Alan Fletcher’s logo for the V&A. But it’s so direct and recognisable, and so many rail companies afterwards have been influenced by its design. The Dutch rail symbol comes more or less from the English version. The two lines, running up and down – it’s the most straightforward representation of a railway.

Are there individual designers who’ve influenced your work?

From the ‘50s onwards I was highly influenced by Swiss design. I met the first Swiss designers in 1953 during an early job and was introduced to the Basle design scene by them. But it was Josef Müller-Brockmann in particular, who I met personally for the first time in 1957, who had a lasting influence on my work with his Tonhalle posters.

He was my great hero.

What about contemporary designers?

Philippe Apeloig, who I mentioned, is a very talented designer. And, although his work is very different, his thought processes are very similar to mine. There is Experimental Jetset here in Holland, and Mevis & Ven Deursen. And Karel Martens, too, who still teaches at the Werkplaats. They are all experimental designers.

The New Alphabet, which you finished in 1967, is one of two of your works included in the Phaidon Archive of Graphic Design. Could you explain what prompted its creation, and why you think it has been such a success?

New Alphabet, Wim Crouwel, 1967

It was a reaction to the first generation of electronic type-setting machines. I saw these machines in operation during a print exhibition in Germany in 1965, and was shocked by their very low resolution output. Since I believed we would have to deal with this technique for at least 20 years, I started developing a mono-space typeface with only straight lines and corners to obtain a cleaner typographic structure. The typeface was proposed as a direction of thinking and, since it was almost unreadable, was never to be used.

To my surprise, it was during the ‘80s that I suddenly saw it appear on record covers and in pop magazines, often made a bit more readable. Then, again to my surprise, in the ‘90s The Foundry proposed to digitise it for general use. There are always moments in history that one looks over its shoulders to the past. Maybe it is still a success because of the new interest in experimentation and structure in typography?

What do you think of contemporary graphic design in general?

Vormgevers Poster, Wim Crouwel, 1968

There’s always great graphic design, and there’s much more of it now than ever before. Of course, there’s much more being produced at the moment, but the percentages of good and bad design always remain the same. You can see when something’s come straight from the computer; you can tell when somebody’s relying too heavily on a computer programme, a tool. But, despite the influence of technology, good graphic design will remain. The difference now is that graphic design is no longer graphic. It surrounds us, instead of being confined to the old parameters of print. It’s three-dimensional, spread across various media. But there’s still so much print – print well surely never disappear.

Link | First Issue | December 2014

16

It’s All About Legibility By :Allan Haley

T

ypographic clarity comes in two flavors: legibility and readability. What’s the difference? Legibility is a function of typeface design. It’s an informal measure of how easy it is to distinguish one letter from another in a particular typeface. Readability, on the other hand, is dependent upon how the typeface is used. Readability is about typography. It is a gauge of how easily words, phrases and blocks of copy can be read.

ter proportions usually result in a more legible typeface.

Legibility: A Trait, Not Always a Goal First, not all typefaces are–or should be–created with legibility as a primary design function. Many faces are drawn for the purpose of creating a typographic statement, or for providing a particular spirit or feeling to graphic communication. Some typefaces are just designed to stand out from the crowd. To the degree that a typeface has personality, spirit, or distinction, however, it almost always suffers proportionally on the legibility scale.

Individual letter shapes can also affect typeface legibility. For example: the two-story ‘a’ such as the one found in Stellar or Exlibris is much more legible than the single-story ‘a’ found in Futura or Erbar. The lowercase ‘g’ based on Roman letter shapes is more legible then the simple ‘g’ found in Helvetica or Glypha. In Old Style typefaces such as Monotype Plantin, Galena and ITC Berkeley Oldstyle, individual characters have more personality than those in traditional “legibility” faces with virtually no loss in character legibility.

Three Aspects of Legibility So what makes a typeface legible? A long-standing typographic maxim is that the most legible typefaces are “transparent” to the reader–that is, they don’t call undue attention to themselves. Additionally, the most legible typefaces contain big features and have restrained design characteristics. While this may seem like a typographic oxymoron, it’s not. “Big features” refers to things such as large, open counters, ample lowercase x-heights, and character shapes that are obvious and easy to recognize.

The most legible typefaces are also restrained. They are not excessively light or bold, weight changes within character strokes are subtle, and serifs, if the face has them, do not call attention to themselves.

Large x-height can improve legibility

Counters, the white space within letters such as ‘o,’ ‘e,’ ‘c,’ etc., help to define a character. Typographers believe that large counters are an aid to character recognition. A byproduct of open counters is usually a large lowercase x-height. As long as the x-height is not excessively large, this can also improve legibility in a typeface. Because over 95% of the letters we read are lowercase, larger let-

17

Link | First Issue | December 2014

Naturally open counters While virtually any serif typeface can benefit from large open counters, “Clarendons” like Nimrod or Scherzo and contemporary interpretations of “Old Style” designs, such as Monotype Bembo and ITC Weidemann, tend to come by this trait most naturally.

Character shapes affect legibility While the argument continues to rage about whether sans serifs are easier to read than serif fonts in text copy, sans serif typefaces, because their letter shapes are simpler, have been proven to be slightly more legible than their serifed cousins.

Little Serifs and Light Weights Another potential drawback of serif typefaces is that the legibility of individual letters suffers when serifs have exaggerated shapes. Long serifs, those that are exceptionally heavy and those with unusual shapes all detract from legibility. Ideal serifs are somewhat short and slightly bracketed. They are also heavy enough to be obvious yet not conspicuous. Typefaces such as Monotype Sabon and ITC Stone have great serifs.

Lighter typefaces are usually more legible than heavier weights of type. They allow for full, open counters and unmodified character shapes. Studies have shown that

the best character stroke thickness for text typefaces is about 18% of the x-height. Typefaces with weights similar to that of Albertina Regular, ITC Officina Sans Book and Cartier Book Roman fall into this general category.

Transparent Type The metaphor of “transparent type” was coined by Beatrice Warde, Monotype Imaging’s famous marketing manager of the 1930s and 40s. She once wrote in an article that good type is like “a crystal goblet” which allows content to be more important than the container.

Warde contended that the best types do not get in the way of the communication process: these faces are virtually invisible and allow words to make the statement–not the type. While this is sage advice, if this principle were followed rigidly, graphic communication would be about as exciting as a head cold. This does not mean that legible typefaces can’t be distinctive in design, or that we should be using Ionic No. 5 for all typography. Some distinctive typefaces, such as Truesdell, Agfa Rotis, or Alinea, also make fine legibility fonts. The metaphor is, after all, a crystal goblet–not an empty jam jar.

Situational Typography Specific situations or contexts can also affect typeface legibility. For example, if copy has a lot of numerals, a sans serif face may be the best choice. The reason? Sans serif numerals are simpler and have more recognizable character shapes than their roman counterparts.

Then there are times when you have a lot to say–and not much room in which to say it. In instances like these, faces with condensed proportions are the best choice.

Condensed typefaces of light to medium weight also work well in cramped typographic quarters because their counters are not prone to filling in. Sans serif faces are almost always the safest choice because their individual character shapes tend to be more legible. A serif typeface such as ITC Garamond Condensed or Galena Condensed can be effective as small as 8 point or 9 point, but when smaller sizes are required, a sans serif like Generica Condensed or Abadi Condensed are better options.

Space-efficient and legibleEven though virtually anyone can set type today, there are still many skills that separate the typographer and graphic designer from the desktop publisher. Picking the absolute best–and sometimes the most legible–typeface is one of those skills.

Link | First Issue | December 2014

18

title spread article 1

C e

t sa

p y T

19

Link | First Issue | December 2014

g in

title spread article 1

By: Steven Brower Link | First Issue | December 2014

20

M

y first job in book design was at New American Library, a publisher of mass-market books. I was thrilled to be hired. It was exactly where I wanted to be. I loved the written word, and viewed this as my entrance into a world I wanted to participate in. Little did I suspect at the time that mass-market books, also known as “pocket” books 9they measure approximately 4” x 7”, although I have yet to wear a pocket they fit comfortably into), were viewed in the design world as the tawdry stepchild of true literature and design, gaudy and unsophisticated. I came to understand that this was due to the fact that mass-market books, sold extensively in supermarkets and convenience stores, had more in common with soap detergent and cereal boxes than with their much more dignified older brother, the hardcover first edition book. Indeed, the level of design of paperbacks was as slow to evolve as a box of Cheerios.

On the other hand, hardcover books, as if dressed in evening attire, wore elegant and sophisticated jackets.

Next in line in terms of standing, in both the literary and design worlds, was the trade paper edition, a misnomer that does not refer to a specific audience within an area of work, but, rather, to the second edition of the hardcover, or first edition, that sports a paperbound cover. Trade paperbacks usually utilize the same interior printing as the hardcover, and are roughly the same size (generally, 6” x 9”).

Mass-market books were not so lucky. The interior pages of the original edition were shrunk down, with no regard for the final type size or the eyes of the viewer. The interiors tended to be printed on cheap paper stock, prone to yellowing over time. The edges were often dyed

21

Link | First Issue | December 2014

to mask the different grades of paper used. The covers were usually quite loud, treated with a myriad of special effects (i.e., gold or silver foil, embossing and de-bossing, spot lamination, die cuts, metallic and Day-Glo pantone colors, thermography, and even holography), all designed to jump out at you and into your shopping cart as you walk down the aisle. The tradition of mass-market covers had more in common with, and, perhaps, for the most part is the descendant of, pulp magazine covers of earlier decades, with their colorful titles and over-the-top illustrations, than that of its more stylish, larger, and more expensive cousins.

What I Learned

So, when I made my entry into the elite world of literature, I began in the “bullpen” of a mass-market house. I believed I would be afforded a good opportunity to learn something about type and image. Indeed, in my short tenure there, I employed more display typefaces in a year and a half than I will in the rest of my lifetime. And, I abused type more than I ever dreamed possible.

There, type was always condensed or stretched so the height would be greater in a small format. The problem was that the face itself became distorted, as if it was put on the inquisitionist rack, with the horizontals remaining “thick” and the verticals thinning out. Back then, when type was “spec’d” and sent out to a typesetter, there was a standing order at the type house to condense all type for our company 20 percent. Sometimes, we would cut the type and extend it by hand, which created less distortion but still odd-looking faces. Once, I was instructed by the

art director to cut the serifs off a face, to suit his whim.

It’s a good thing there is no criminal prosecution for type abuse.

The art director usually commissioned the art for these titles. Therefore, the job of the designers was to find the “appropriate” type solution that worked with these illustrations to create the package. It was here that I learned my earliest lessons in the clichés of typography. Mass-market paperbacks are divided into different genres, distinct categories that define their audience and subject matter. Though they were unspoken rules, handed down from generation to generation, here is what I learned about type during my employ: Typefaces:

Square serif Script and cursive LED faces Nueland Latin Fat, round serif faces Sans serif Hand scrawl 1950s bouncy type

Genre: Western Romance Science Fiction African Mystery Children’s Nonfiction Horror Humor/Teen titles

And so it went. Every month, we were given five to six titles we were responsible for, and every month, new variations on old themes hung up on the wall. For a brief period I was assigned all romance titles, which, themselves, were divided into subgenres (historical, regency, contemporary, etc). I made the conscious decision to create the

very best romance covers around. Sure, I would use script and cursive type, but I would use better script and cursive type, so distinctive, elegant, and beautiful that I, or anyone else, would recognize the difference immediately.

(When, six months after I left the job, I went to view my achievements at the local K-Mart, I could not pick out any of my designs from all the rest on the bookracks.)

Soon after, I graduated to art director of a small publishing house. The problem was, I still knew little of and had little confidence in, typography. However, by this time, I knew I knew little about typography. My solution, therefore, was to create images that contained the type as an integral part of the image, in a play on vernacular design, thereby avoiding the issue entirely. Thus began a series of collaborations with talented illustrators and photographers, in which the typography of the jacket was incorporated as part of the illustration. Mystery books especially lent themselves well to this endeavor. A nice thing about this approach is that it has a certain informality and familiarity with the audience. It also made my job easier, because I did not have to paste up much type for the cover (as one had to do back in the days of t-squares and wax), since it was, for the most part, self-contained within the illustration. This may seem like laziness on my part, but hey, I was busy.

Eventually, my eye began to develop, and my awareness and appreciate of good typography increased. I soon learned the pitfalls that most novice designers fall into, like utilizing a quirky novelty face does not equal creativity and usually calls attention to the wrong aspects of the solution. The importance of good letterspacing became paramount. Finding the right combination of a serif and

Link | First Issue | December 2014

22

sans serif face to evoke the mood of the material within was now my primary concern. The beauty of a classically rendered letterform now moved me, to quote Eric Gill, as much “as any sculpture or painted picture.” I developed an appreciation for the rules of typography.

The Rules

As I’ve said, it is a common mistake among young designers to think a quirky novelty face equals creativity. Of course, this couldn’t be farther from the truth. If anything, for the viewer, it has the opposite of the intended effect. Rather than being the total sum of individual expression, it simply calls attention to itself, detracting from, rather than adding to, the content of the piece. It is no substitute for a well-reasoned conceptual solution to the design problem at hand. As a general rule, no more than two faces should be utilized in any given design, usually the combination of a serif face and a sans serif face. There are thousands to choose from, but I find I have reduced the list to five or six in each category that I have used as a body text throughout my career: Serif Bodoni Caslon Cheltenham Garamond

San Serif Franklin Gothic Futura Gill Sand Ners Gothic Trade Gothic

You should never condense or extend type. As I stated, this leads to unwanted distortions. Much care and consideration went into the design of these faces, and they should be treated with respect. There are thousands of condensed faces to choose from without resorting to the horizontal and vertical scale functions. Do not use text type as display. Even though the computer will enlarge the top beyond the type designer’s intentions, this may result in distortions. Do not use display type as text. Often, display type that looks great large can be difficult to read when small. Do not stack type. The result is odd-looking spacing that looks as if it is about to tumble on top of itself. The thinness of the letter I is no match for the heft of an O sitting on top of it. As always, there are ways to achieve stacking successfully, but this requires care. Also, as I noted, much care should be given to letterspacing the characters of each word. This is not as simple as it seems.

The computer settings for type are rife with inconsistencies that need to be corrected optically. Certain combi-

23

Link | First Issue | December 2014

nations of letterforms are more difficult to adjust than others. It is paramount that even optical (as opposed to actual) spacing is achieved, regardless of the openness or closeness of the kerning. It helps if you view the setting upside down, or backwards on a light box or sun-filled window, or squint at the copy to achieve satisfactory spacing.

I would caution you in the judicious use of drop shadows.

Shadows these days can be rendered easily in programs such as Adobe’s Photoshop and Illustrator, and convincingly, too. The problem is, it is so easily done that it is overdone. Thus, the wholesale usage of soft drop shadows has become the typographic equivalent of clip art.

Viewers know they have seen it before. Rather than being evocative, it mainly evokes the program it was created in.

Hard drop shadows, ones that are 100 percent of a color, are easily achieved in Quark and placed behind the main text. This method is generally employed when the main text is not reading against the background, because of the neutral tone or an image that varies in tone from dark to light. The handed-down wisdom is: If you need a drop shadow to make it read, the piece isn’t working.

These solid drop shadows always look artificial, since, in reality, there is no such thing as a solid drop shadow.

There should be a better solution to readability. Perhaps the type should be paneled or outlined. There are an infinite number of possible variations.

If you must use a solid drop shadow, it should never be a color. Have you ever seen a shadow in life that is blue, yellow, or green? It should certainly never be white. Why would a shadow be 100 percent lighter than what is, in theory, casting a shadow? White shadows create a hole in the background, and draw the eye to the shadow, and not where you want it to go: the text.

Justified text looks more formal than flush left, rag right.

Most books are set justified, while magazines are often flush left, rag right. Centered copy will appear more relaxed than asymmetrical copy. Large blocks of centered type can create odd-looking shapes that detract from the copy contained within.

Another thing to consider is the point size and width of body copy. The tendency in recent times is to make type smaller and smaller, regardless of the intended audience.

However, the whole purpose of text is that it be read. A magazine covering contemporary music is different from Link | First Issue | December 2014

24

the magazine for The American Association of Retired Persons. It is also common today to see very wide columns of text, with the copy set at a small point size. The problem is that a very wide column is hard to read because it forces the eye to move back and forth, tiring the reader. On the other hand, a very narrow measure also is objectionable, because the phrases and words are too cut up, with the eye jumping from line to line. We, as readers, do not read letter by letter, or even word by word, but, rather, phrase by phrase. A consensus favors an average of ten to twelve words per line.1

Lastly, too much leading between lines also makes the reader work too hard jumping from line to line, while too little leading makes it hard for the reader to discern where one line ends and another begins. The audience should always be paramount in the designer’s approach, and it is the audience – not the whim of the designer, or even the client – that defines the level of difficulty and ease with which a piece is read. As Eric Gill said in 1931, “A book is primarily a thing to be read.”

A final consideration is the size of type. As a rule of thumb, mass-market books tend to be 8 point for reasons of space. A clothbound book, magazine, or newspaper usually falls into the 9.5 point to 12 point range. Over-

25

Link | First Issue | December 2014

sized art books employ larger sizes – generally, 14 point to 18 point or more.

Choosing the right typeface for your design can be time-consuming. There are thousands to choose from.

Questions about. Is the face legible at the setting I want?

Does it evoke what I want it to evoke? Is it appropriate to the subject matter? There are no easy answers. When a student of mine used Clarendon in a self-promotion piece, I questioned why he chose a face that has 1950s connotations, mainly in connection with Reid Miles’ Blue note album covers. He answered, “Because I thought it was cool.” I lectured him profusely on selecting type simple based on its “coolness”. Later, I relayed the incident to Seymour Chwast, of the legendary Pushpin Group (formerly Pushpin Studios). He observed that Clarendon is actually a Victorian face, which he and his peers revived as young designers in the 1950s. When I asked him why they chose to bring this arcane face back to life, he replied, “Because we thought it was cool.”

Breaking the Rules

Of course, there are always exceptions to the rules. An infinite number of faces can be used within one design, particularly when you employ a broadside-style type solution, a style that developed with the woodtype settings of

the nineteenth century. Another style, utilizing a myriad of faces, is that influenced by the Futurist and Dada movements of the early twentieth century. As Robert N. Jones stated in an article in the May 1960 issue of Print magazine: “It is my belief that there has never been a typeface that is so badly designed that it could not be handsomely and effectively used in the ads of the right… designer.”3 Of course, this was before the novelty type explosion that took place later that decade, and, again, after the advent of the Macintosh computer. Still, Jeffery Keedy, a contemporary type designer whose work appears regularly in Emigre, concurs: “Good designers can make use of almost anything. The typeface is the point of departure, not the destination.” Note the caveat “almost.”

Still, bad use of the good type is much less desirable than good use of bad type.

When I first began publishing, a coworker decided to let me in on the “secrets” of picking the appropriate face. “If you get a book on Lincoln to design”, he advised, “look up an appropriate typeface in the index of the type specimen book.” He proceeded to do so. “Ah, here we go – ‘Log Cabin!’” While, on the extremely rare occasion, I have found this to be a useful method, it’s a good general rule of what not to do.

There are ALWAYS exceptions to the rules Notes 1. Eric Gill, “An Essay on Typography” (Sheed and Ward, 1931), p.

136; (Godine, 1988).

2 and 3. Richard Hendel, On Book Design (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998). photos by: Cara Barer Book Art Collection

Adapted from Publication Design (Delmar Learning, 2004).

Link | First Issue | December 2014

26

Back To Basics :

STOPping SLOPPY TY

27

Link | First Issue | December 2014

YPOGRAPHY by: John D. Berry

Link | First Issue | December 2014

28

T

here’s billboard along the freeway in San Francisco that’s entirely typographic, and very simple.

Against a bright blue background, white letters spell out a single short line, set in quotation marks: “Are you lookin’ at me?” The style of the letters is traditional, with serifs; it looks like a line of dialogue, which is exactly what it’s supposed to look like. Since this is a billboard, and that text is the entire message of the billboard, it’s a witty comment on the fact that you are looking at “me” – that is, the message on the billboard – as you drive past.

But, as my partner and I drove past and spotted this billboard for the first time, we both simultaneously voiced the same response: “No, I’, looking at your apostrophe!”

The quotation marks around the sentence are real quotation marks, which blend in with the style of the lettering – “typographers’ quotes,” as they’re sometimes called – but the apostrophe at the end of “lookin’” is, disconcertingly, a single “typewriter quote”, a straight up-and-down line with a rounded top and teardrop tail at the bottom.

To anyone with any sensitivity to the shapes of letters, whether they know the terms of typesetting or not, this straight apostrophe is like a fart in a symphony – boorish, crude, out of place, and distracting. The normal quotation marks at the beginning and end of the sentence just serve to make the loud “blat!” of the apostrophe stand out. If that had been the purpose of the billboard, it would have been very effective. But unless the billboards along Highway 101 have become scene of an exercise in typographic irony, it’s just a big ol’ mistake.

Really big, and right out there in plain sight.

The Devil Is in the Details

This may be a particularly large-scale example, but it’s not unusual. Too much of the signage and printed matter that we read – and that we, if we’re designers or typographers, create – is riddled with mistakes like this. It seems that an amazing number of people responsible for creating graphic matter are incapable of noticing when they get the type wrong.This should not be so. These fine points ought to be covered in every basic class in typography, and basic typography ought to be part of the education of every graphic designer. But clearly, this isn’t the case – or else a lot of designers skipped that part of the class, or have simple forgotten what they once learned about type. Or, they naively believe the software they use will do the job for them. Maybe it’s time for a nationwide – no, worldwide – program of remedial courses in type.

29

Link | First Issue | December 2014

Automated Errors

As my own small gesture toward improvement, I’ll point out a couple of the more obvious problems – in the hope that maybe, maybe, they’ll become slightly less commonplace, at least for awhile.

Typewriter quotes and straight apostrophes are actually on the wane, thanks to word-processing programs and page-layout programs that offer the option of automatically changing them to typographers’ quotes on they fly.

(I’, not sure what has made the phenomenon I spotted on that billboard so common, but I’ve noticed a lot of examples recently of text where the double quotation marks are correct but the apostrophes are straight.) But those same automatic typesetting routines have created another almost universal mistake: where an apostrophe at the beginning of a word appears backwards, as a single open quotation mark. You see this in abbreviated dates (‘99, ‘01) and in colloquial spellings, like ‘em for them.

The program can turn straight quotes into typographers’ quotes automatically, making any quotation mark at the start of a word into an open quote, and any quotation mark at the end of a word into a closed quote, but it has no way of telling that they apostrophe at the beginning of ‘em isn’t supposed to be a single open quote, so it changes it into one.

The only way to catch this is to make the correction by hand – every time.

Anemic Type

The other rude noise that has become common in the symphony hall is fake small caps. Small caps are a wonderful thing, very useful and sometimes elegant; fake small caps are a distraction and an abomination.

Fake caps are what you get when you use a program’s “small caps” command. The software just shrinks the fullsize capital letters down by a predetermined percentage – which gives you a bunch of small, spindly-looking caps all huddled together in the middle of the text. If the design calls for caps and small caps – that is, small caps for the word but a full cap for the first letter – it’s even worse, since the full-size caps draw attention to themselves because they look so much heavier than the smaller caps next to them. (If you’re using caps and small caps to spell out an acronym, this might make sense; in that case, you might want the initial caps to stand out. Otherwise, it’s silly. (And – here comes that word again – distracting.)

If it weren’t for a single exception, I’d advise everyone to just forget about the “small caps” command – forget it ever existed, and never, ever, touch it again. (The exception is Adobe InDesign, which is smart enough to find the real small caps in an OpenType font that includes them, and use them when the “small caps” command is invoked. Unfortunately, InDesign isn’t smart enough, or independent enough, to say, “No, thanks,” when you invoke “small caps” in a font that doesn’t actually have any. It just goes ahead and makes those familiar old fake small caps.) You don’t really need small caps at all, in most typesetting situations; small caps are a typographic refinement, not a crutch. If you’re going to use them, use a real small caps: properly designed letters with the form of caps, but usually a little wider, only as tall as the x-height or a little taller, and with stroke weights that match the weight of the lowercase and the full caps of the same typeface. Make sure you’re using a typeface that has true small caps, if you want small caps. Letterspace them a little, and set them slightly loose, the same way you would (or at least should) with a word in all caps; it makes the word much more readable.

Pay Attention, Now

There are plenty of other bits of remedial typesetting that we ought to study, but those will do for now. The obvious corollary to all this is, to produce well-typeset words, whether in a single phrase on a billboard or several pages of text, you have to pay attention. Proofread. Proofread again. Don’t trust the defaults of any program you use.

Link | First Issue | December 2014

30

31

Link | First Issue | December 2014

t n o f e th Link | First Issue | December 2014

32

The practice of typography is like playing the piano

W

riting begins with the making of meaningful marks. That is to say, leaving the traces of meaningful gestures. Typography begins with arranging meaningful marks that are already made. In that respect, the practice of typography is like playing the piano – an instrument quite different from the human voice. On the piano, the notes are already fixed, although their order, duration and amplitude are not. The notes are fixed but they can be endlessly rearranged, into meaningful music or meaningless noise.

Pianos, however, need to be tuned. The same is true of fonts. To put this in more literary terms, fonts need to be edited just as carefully as texts do – and may need to be re-edited, like texts, when their circumstances change.

The editing of fonts, like the editing of texts, begins before their birth and never ends.

You may prefer to entrust the editing of your fonts, like the tuning of your piano, to a professional. If you are the editor of a magazine or the manager of a publishing house, that is probably the best way to proceed. But devoted typographers, like lutenists and guitarists, often feel that they themselves must tune the instruments they play.

LEGAL CONSIDERATIONS Check the license before tuning a digital font.

Digital fonts are usually licensed to the user, not sold outright, and the license terms vary. Some manufacturers claim to believe that improving a font produced by them is an infringement of their rights. No one believes that tuning a piano or pumping up the tires of a car infringes on the rights of the manufacturer – and this is true no matter whether the car or the piano has been rented, leased or purchased. Printing type was treated the same way from Bí Shēng’s time until the 1980s. Generally speaking, metal type and phototype are treated that way

33

Link | First Issue | December 2014

still. In the digital realm, where the font is wholly intangible, those older notions of ownership are under pressure to change.

The Linotype Library’s standard font license says that “You may modify the Font-Software to satisfy your design requirements.” FontShop’s standard license has a similar provision: “You do have the right to modify and alter Font Software for your customary personal and business use, but not for resale or further distribution.”

Adobe’s and Agfa Monotype’s licenses contain no such provision. Monotype’s says instead that “You may not alter Font Software for the purpose of adding any functionality…You agree not to adapt, modify, alter, translate, convert, or otherwise change the Font Software….”

If your license forbids improving the font itself, the only legal way to tune it is through a software override. For example, you can use an external kerning editor to override the kerning table built into the font. This is the least elegant way to do it, but a multitude of errors in fitting and kerning can be masked, if need be, by this means.

ETHICAL & AESTHETIC CONSIDERATIONS If it ain’t broke…

Any part of the font can be tuned – lettershapes, character set, character encoding, fitting and sidebearings, kerning table, hinting, and, in an OpenType font, rules governing character substitution. What doesn’t need tuning or fixing shouldn’t be touched. If you want to revise the font just for the sake of revising it, you might do better to design your own instead. And if you hack up someone else’s font for practice, like a biology student cutting up at frog, you might cremate or bury the results.

If the font is out of tune, fix it once and for all.

One way to refine the typography of a text to work your way through it line by line, putting space in here, removing it there, and repositioning errant characters one by one. But if these refinements are made to the font itself, you will never need to make them again. They are done for good.

Respect the text first of all, the letterforms second, the type designer third, the foundry fourth.

The needs of the text should take precedence over the layout of the font, the integrity of the letterforms over the ego of the designer, the artistic sensibility of the designer over the foundry’s desire for profit, and the founder’s craft over a good deal else.

Keep on fixing.

Check every text you set to see where improvements can be made. Then return to the font and make them. Little by little, you and the instrument – the font, that is – will fuse, and the type you set will start to sing. Remember, though, this process never ends. There is no such thing as the perfect font.

HONING THE CHARACTER SET If there are defective glyphs, mend them.

If the basic lettershapes of your font are poorly drawn, it is probably better to abandon it rather than edit it. But many fonts combine superb basic letterforms with alien or sloppy supplementary characters. Where this is the case, you can usually rest assured that the basic letterforms are the work of a real designer, whose craftsmanship merits respect, and that the supplementary characters were added by an inattentive foundry employee. The latter’s errors should be remedied at once.

You may find for example that analphabetic characters such as @ + ± × = . - − © are too big or too small, too light or too dark, too high or too low, or are otherwise out of tune with the basic alphabet. You may also find that diacritics in glyphs such as å ç é ñ ô ü are poorly drawn, poorly positioned, or out of scale with the letterforms.

José Mendoza y Almeida’s Photina is an excellent piece of design, but in every weight and style of Monotype digital Photina, as issued by the foundry, arithmetical

signs and other analphabetics are out of scale and out of position, and the copyright symbol and at sign are alien to the font. The raw versions are shown in grey, corrected versions in black.

é ù ô ã --> é ù ô ã Frederic Goudy’s Kennerley is a homely but quite pleasant type, useful for many purposes, but in Lanston’s digital version, the letterforms are burdened with some preposterous diacritics. Above left: four accented sorts are issued by the foundry. Above right: corrected versions. All fonts are candidates for similar improvement.

Below left: four accented sorts from Robert Slimbach’s carefully honed Minion, as originally issued by Adobe in 1989. Below right: the same glyphs revised by Slimbach ten years later, while preparing the OpenType version of the face.

á è ï û --> á è ï û If text figures, ligatures or other glyphs you need on a regular basis don’t reside on the base font, move them.

For readable text, you almost always need text figures, but most digital fonts are sold with titling figures instead. Most digital fonts also include the ligatures fi and fl but not ff, ffi, fj or ffj. You may find at least some of the missing glyphs on a supplementary font (an ‘expert font’), but that is not enough. Put all the basic glyphs together on the base font.

If, like a good Renaissance typographer, you use only upright parentheses and brackets (see §5.3.2), copy the upright forms from the roman to the italic font. Only then can they be kerned and spaced without a fuss.

Link | First Issue | December 2014

34

If glyphs you need are missing altogether, make them.

Standard ISO digital text fonts (PostScript or TrueType) have 256 slots and carry a basic set of Western European characters. Eastern European characters such as ą ć đ ė ğ ī ň ő ŗ ș ť ů are usually missing. So are the Welsh sorts and , and host of characters needed for African, Asian and Native American languages.

The components required to make these characters may be present on the font, and assembling the pieces is not hard, but you need a place to put whatever characters you make. If you need only a few and do not care about system compatibility, you can place them in wasted slots – e.g. the ^ < > \ | ~ ` positions, which are accessible directly from the keyboard, or slots such as ¢ ÷123 ™ 0/00 1/1, which can be reached through insertion utilities or by typing character codes or by customizing the keyboard.

If you need to add many such characters, you will need to make a supplementary font or, better yet, an enlarged font (TrueType or OpenType). If these are for your own use only, the extra characters can be placed wherever you wish. If the fonts are to be shared, every new glyph should be labeled with its PostScript name and Unicode number.

Check and correct the sidebearings.

The spacing of letters is part of the essence of their design. A well-made font should need little adjustment, except for refining the kerning. Remember, however, that kerning tables exist for the sake of problematical sequences such as f*, gy, “A, To, Va and 74. If you find that simple pairs such as oo or oe require kerning, this

35

Link | First Issue | December 2014

is a sign that the letters are poorly fitted. It is better to correct the sidebearings than to write a bloated kerning table.

The spacing of many analphabetics, however, has as much to do with editorial style as with typographic design.

Unless your fonts are custom made, neither the type designer nor the founder can know what you need to prefer.

I habitually increase the left sidebearing of semicolon, colon, question and exclamation marks, and the inner bearings of guillemets and parentheses, in search of a kind of Channel Island compromise: neither the tight fitting preferred by most Anglophone editors nor the wide-open spacing customary in France. If I worked in French all the time, I might increase these sidebearings further. abc: def; ghx? klm! <<non>> abc: def; ghx? klm! <<hmm>> abç: déf; ghx? klm! <<oui>> Refine the kerning table.

Digital type can be printed in three dimensions, suing zinc or polymer plates, and metal type can be printed flat, from photos or scans of the letterpress proofs. Usually, however, metal type is printed in three dimensions and digital type is printed in two. Two-dimensional type can be printed more cleanly and sharply than three-dimensional type, but the gain in sharpness rarely equals what is lost in depth and texture. A digital page is therefore apt to look aenemic next to a page printed directly from handset metal.

This imbalance can be addressed by going deeper into two dimensions. Digital type is capable of refinements of spacing and kerning beyond those attainable in metal, and the primary means of achieving this refinement is the kerni.

Always check the sidebearings of figures and letters before you edit the kerning table. Sidebearings can be checked quickly for errors by disabling kerning and setting characters, at ample size, in pairs: 11223344…qqwweerrttyy….

If the spacing within the pairs appears to vary, or if it appears consistently cramped or loose, the sidebearings probably need to be changed.

The function of a kerning table s to achieve what perfect sidebearings cannot. A thorough check of the kerning table therefore involves checking all feasible permutations of characters: 1213141516 … qwqeqrqtqyquqiqoqpq … (a(s(d(f(g(h)j)k)l … )a)s)d)f)g … -1-2-3-4-5 …

TqTwTeTrTtTyTuTiToTp … and so on. This will take several hours for a standard ISO font. For a full pan-European font, it will take several days.

Class-based kerning (now a standard capability of font editing software) can be used to speed the process. In classbased kerning, similar letters, such as a á â ä à å ā ă ä ą, are treated as one and kerned alike. This is an excellent way to begin when you are kerning a large font, but not a way to finish. The combinations Ta and Tä, Ti and T ï, il and íl, i) and ï), are likely to require different treatment.

Kerning sequences such as Tp, Tt and f( may seem to you absurd, but they can and do occur in legitimate text. (Tpig is the name of a town in the mountains of Dagestan, near the southern tip of the Russian Federation; Ttanuu is an important historical site on the British Columbia coast; sequences such as y = f(x) occur routinely in mathematics.) If you know what texts you wish to set with a given font, and know that combinations such as these will never occur, you can certainly omit them from the table.

But if you are preparing a font for general use, even in a

single language, remember that it should accommodate the occasional foreign phrase and the names of real and fictional people, places and things. These can involve some unusual combinations. (A few additional examples: McTavish, FitzWilliam, O’Quinn, dogfish, jack o’-lantern, Hallowe’en.)

It is also wise to check the font by running a test file – a specially written text designed to hunt out missing or malformed characters and kerning pairs that are either too tight or too loose. On pages 204 – 205 is a short example of such a test file, showing the difference between an ungroomed font and a groomed one.

It is nothing unusual for a well-groomed ISO font (which might contain around two hundred working characters) to have a kerning table listing a thousands pairs.

Kerning instructions for large OpenType fonts are usually stored in a different form, but if converted to tabular form, the kerning data for a pan-European Latin font may easily reach 30,000 pairs. For a well-groomed Latin-Greek-Cyrillic font, decompiling the kerning instructions can generate a table of 150,000 pairs. Remember, though, that the number isn’t what counts. What matters is the intelligence and style of kerning. Remember too that there is no such thing as a font whose kerning cannot be improved.

Check the kerning of the word space.

The word space – that invisible blank box – is the most common character in almost every text. It is normally kerned against sloping and undercut glyphs: quotation marks, apostrophe, the letters A, T, V, W, Y, and often to the numerals 1, 3, 5. It is not, however, normally kerned more than a half either to or away from a preceding lowercase f in either roman or italic.

A cautionary example. Most of the Monotype digital re-

Link | First Issue | December 2014

36

37

Link | First Issue | December 2014

vivals I have tested over the years have serious flaws in the kerning tables. One problem in particular recurs in Monotype Baskerville, Centaur & Arrighi, Dante, Fournier, Gill Sans, Poliphilus & Blado, Van Dijck and other masterworks in the Monotype collection. These are well-tired faces of superb design – yet in defiance of tradition, the maker’s kerning tables call for a large space (as much as M/4) to be added whenever the f is followed by a word space. The result is a large white blotch after every word ending in f unless a mark of punctuation intervenes.

Is it east of the sun and west of the moon – or is it west of the moon and east of the sun?

Professional typographers may argue about whether the added space should be zero, or ten, or even 25 thousandths of an em. But there is no professional dispute about whether it should be on the order of an eighth of a quarter of an em. An extra space that large is a prefabricated typographic error – one that would bring snorts of disbelief and instantaneous correction from Stanley Morison, Bruce Rogers, Jan van Krimpen, Eric Gill and others on whose expertise and genius the Monotype heritage is built. But it is an easy error to fix for anyone equipped with the requisite tool: a digital font editor.

HINTING If the font looks poor at low resolutions, check the hinting.

Digital hints are important chiefly for the sake of how the type will look on screen. Broadly speaking, hints are of two kinds: generic hints that apply to the font as a whole and specific hints applicable only to individual characters.

Many fonts are sold unhinted, and few fonts indeed are sold with hints that cannot be improved.

Manual hinting is tedious in the extreme but any good font editor of recent vintage will include routines for automated hinting. These routines are usually enough to make a poorly hinted text font more legible on screen. (In the long run, the solution is high-resolution screens, making the hinting of fonts irrelevant except at tiny sizes.)

mark legislation. The names are often better protected, in fact, because infringements on the rights conferred by a trademark are often much easier to prove than infringements of copyright. Nevertheless there are times when a typographer must tinker with the names manufacturers give to their digital fonts.

Text fonts are generally sold in families, which may include a smorgasbord of weights and variations. Most editing and typesetting software takes a narrower, more stereotypical view. It recognizes only the nuclear family of roman, italic, bold, and bold italic. Keyboard shortcuts make it easy to switch from one to another of these, and switch codes employed are generic. Instead of saying “Switch to such and such a font at such and such a size,” they say, for instance, “Switch to this font’s italic counterpart, whatever that may be.” This convention makes the instructions transferable. You can change the face and size of a whole paragraph or file and the roman, italic and bold should all convert correctly. The slightest inconsistency in font names can prevent this trick from

Digital hints are important

NAMING CONVENTIONS The presumption of common law is that inherited designs, like inherited texts, belong in the public domain. New designs (or in the USA, the software in which they are enshrined) are protected for a certain term by copyright; the names of the designs are also normally protected by tradeLink | First Issue | December 2014

38

From: Influential Type By:Ashley Schopp

39

Link | First Issue | December 2014

Link | First Issue | December 2014

40

Open up the world of typography

M

y team and I have a passion for typography. We made it our goal to make people take notice that typography is all around them, often in places they overlook. Just think about it. Typography is on the signs of our favorite stores, on the packages to our favorite foods, and on the tags of our favorite brands. It influences us in many aspects of our life without us even realizing it. We wanted to think of a way to spread this message to people, and bring light to how important typography is.

Investigation

We brainstormed on ways to get our message out in a way that people would find interesting. We looked into things people would generally respond well to while on a stroll around the town. We wanted to give them something worth stopping for. We decided that something interactive that people could do themselves and have something to take home with them after would be something fun that people might actually enjoy

Insight

The insights gained from our investigation and research fueled the concept. We decided to create an interactive type installation for the art walk that takes place on the first Friday of every month. That way there would be a lot of foot traffic around the town and we could really get people interested in what we had to show them.

Idea

Our idea was to make a large scale typographic installation made completely out of 1700 2x2 white envelopes all filled with small 2x2 notes explaining the project. Each little note also had a hand written quote on the back from an inspirational person. It gave it a personal touch, almost like it was a hand written letter that was made specifically for each person that took one. We decided it would be smart to install it on the side of a building next to a busy road so it drew a lot of attention. And it worked!

41

Link | First Issue | December 2014

Budget

We did not end up spending a whole bunch of money.

Since there were three of us it was easy to split up the cost. And on top of that we bought everything in bulk, which really cut down on cost.

Envelopes: $80 Small info notes: $60 Cardboard: Free Labor: Paid in sweets

Research

We did not need to do a lot of research because our idea was pretty straight forward. There were really only 2 key things that we were really interested in researching. We looked into interesting typefaces to use that would not be what people expected. We did not want the clunky type that is associated with a typeface that does not have and organic curves. We wanted something with some substance that could be beautiful. Something people would want to take pictures of and share with their friends. After looking into it we found a typeface that we all agreed would be the strongest compositionally.

We also did research for our quotes. We did not want generic sayings that you could find on pintrest or tumblr alongside an oversaturated picture. We wanted to choose quotes that made people think and feel inspired. We chose quotes from influential people throughout history.

And we were very picky about it. We wanted to make sure we were putting out the message we intended to put out.

Challenges

If only it was possible for a project to go flawlessly without any problems at all, unfortunately that rarely ever happens. None of us had issues putting the letters together. The problems came when it was time to install our installation. Every time we would finish hanging up a letter and would move to the next one the previous letter would fall down. It got to the point where it was almost comical. Luckily we were installing our project on the outside of an art supply building so we were able to purchase some stronger adhesive and get all the letters on the wall.

Another problem we encountered was people trying to remove the entire envelope instead of just the card that was inside, even though the envelope was clearly glued down to the piece. That was an easy fix though. All we Link | First Issue | December 2014

42

had to do was explain things a bit more clearly. We also had to work on not all talking over eachother when someone would walk up. The excitement of people coming up and interacting with the work was really encouraging to all of us and we got a bit carried away trying to talk to people. But that problem resolved itself when bigger crowds started to gather because then we just split up and spoke with individual groups of people.

Effectiveness

People had a very positive attitude about our piece. Almost every person that walked by was interested in hearing more information about the project, which was really encouraging to us since we worked so hard on it. We drew a lot of attention. At the end of the night most of the notecards had been taken from the envelopes. It seemed as though we really helping people realize how important and abundant typography is. It was a very exciting night.

Some people even expressed sorrow to hear that it would only be up for one night. They thought it added some beauty to the building wall. It was great to see people become a little more educated about typography.

Additional Information

We want to give a special thank you to The Red Sable art supply store for letting us use the wall of their building.

It was the perfect canvas for our installation. We want to thank Vistaprint for getting our 1700 informational cards back to us in a timely manner as well as Davesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Coin Envelope Online store, without the envelopes we would not have a project.

This was a great experience. It is always fun to interact with people, especially when there is such a positive reaction from it. I think this project definitely made us appreciate typography a bit more. It is a beautiful art form that hopefully more people are aware of after our project.

almost every person that walked by was interested in hearing more information about the project 43

Link | First Issue | December 2014

Link | First Issue | December 2014

44