TABLE OF
CONTENTS HISTORY
ANALYSIS
6
Before Newspapers
12
Bodoni
7
Movable Type
14
Franklin Gothic
9
The First Newspapers
16
Cheltenham
18
Futura
20
Times
COMPARISON
FACTORS
APPENDIX
24
Anatomy Comparison
32
Color
40
Bibliography
26
Individual Characters Comparison
34
Serif Verse Sans Serif
41
Image List
36
Digital Newspapers
28
Type Width and Weight
T S I H
Y R O T BEF
ABLE V O M , S R E P A ORE NEWSP
TYPE,
PAPERS S W E N T S R AND THE FI
BEFORE NEWSPAPERS Town Criers Ancient Rome China
The human race delivered news long before the learned ability to write or the development of newspapers in general. Previously, news was delivered through word of mouth at settings like campgrounds or markets. People holding the title of messengers would run from place to place to spread news of happenings occurring around the land, and criers traveled through villages to declare local occurrences such as births or marriages. With the formation of literacy, the delivery of news took on a more formal approach within centralized empires. In the Roman society, beginning in 59 BCE until 222 CE, Julius Caesar began having the government post daily news in the Roman Forum on handwritten sheets of paper titled
“Acta Diurna” or “Daily Acts”. The news included events like executions,military conquests, and local affairs. A second society with notable progress in delivering news was China. During the Han dynasty, the country passed out sheets of news called tipao among its officials. During the Tang Dynasty, news was handwritten on silk and posted to Kaiyuan Za Bao or “Bulletin of the Court”.
The modern
NEWSPAPER seems to originate in
EUROPE Fig 1
Black letter newspaper headings
6
MOVABLE TYPE Venice Gutenberg Industrial Revolution
Top (Fig 2) Newspaper emerging from a printed cylinder. Right (Fig 3) Full iron printing press invented by Charles, third Earl of Stanhope.
During the 16th century, Venice had begun to circulate handwritten sheets of paper with news among its population. Because this news was available to everyone, it is accredited with potentially being the oldest immediate descendent of today’s current newspaper. Around approximately the year 1439, a man named Johannes Gutenberg invented a letter press that implemented movable type where ink was applied to a raised surface of letters set by hand within a frame made of wood. The plate would then be pressed to a sheet of paper to print.
With this invention, printing presses soon began appearing around Europe to assimilate into delivering news. With the arrival of the Industrial Revolution, the printing press gained several improvements. During 1800, a man named Lord Stanhope incorporated cast-iron parts and required only onetenth of the previous strengthen necessary to use a wooden press. In 1814, Friedrich Koenig invented a steam-powered printing press that the London Times soon began to implement. This press was capable of printing 1,100 prints an hour.
HISTORY //
7
Left (Fig 4) A Model 5 Linotype, which had keyboards in over a thousand languages. Center (Fig 5) Divided cases store individual letters for typefaces for printing presses. This is where the terms “uppercase” and “lowercase” derive from. Right (Fig 6) Copies from the press are proofread.
8
THE FIRST NEWSPAPERS Germany Amsterdam American Colonies
The oldest newspaper based on today’s definition existed in Germany during 1609, and the oldest newspaper written in English appears to originate from Amsterdam some time in 1620. The early newspapers were normally printed on a
weekly basis and appeared in countries such as Spain, Italy, France, and England. The newspapers tended to drift to one of two styles. The Dutch papers were dense and packed full with news. These publications normally spanned over two to four pages. The German
style were pamphlets that expanded over eight to twentyfour pages. The first English newspapers began as the Dutch style but later took the Dutch style but later took on the more German style around 1622. The first American newspaper arrived in Boston in 1690 titled Public Occurrence.
HISTORY //
9
L A N A
S I S Y L CHELT , I N O D O B
ENH
OTHIC, G N I L K N AM, FRA
ES
D TIM N A , A R U FUT
Bodoni g e C 3
1
5
6
8
9
2
4
7
Modern Serif Giamattista Bodoni 1798 1
2 3
4
Unbracketed, hairline serif at a 90 degree angle
5 Dot on “i” placed high
High stroke contrast
7 Large loop
Curve in “d” ascender terminal Vertical stress
In 1798, Giamattista Bodoni derived inspiration from Baskerville to create the typeface Bodoni in Parma, Italy. Created during the Era of Enlightenment that rejected tradition and focused on reasoning to advance society, Bodoni is considered one of the first modern typefaces and indicators of calligraphy’s decline. The marks Bodoni as the creator of
6 Ball terminal
8 Large eye and small aperture 9 Symmetrical terminals on uppercase “C”
Fig 7 Peabody Essex Museum using Bodoni typeface.
12
Bodoni originally became popular in the eighteenth century for Italian books. During the 1960s to around the 1990s, newspapers began to use the typeface for headlines. Newspapers considered the high contrast of the strokes visually striking to look at and a superb way to grab potential reader’s attention on a new stand. With the implementation of sans serif typefaces, Bodoni’s popularity in the newspaper industry began to slow down. However, the Washington Post still uses a modified version the paper commissioned called Postoni for its headlines in 1997. Founded in 1877, the newspaper is the United States oldest existing newspaper and most widely distributed paper among the Washington D.C. area. The paper is known for being highly controversial among both liberal and conservative viewpoints. Today Bodoni is more heavily used among advertising and large print pieces since the high contrast makes it less than ideal for small text and body copy but perfect for large announcements and headlines. The typeface conveys a high-end, elegant feeling because of the hairline serif lacking brackets and the ball terminals.
Top (Fig 8) Example of Bodoni
Left (Fig 9) The Herald American advertising
Right (Fig 10) School Bell
POSTONI The
WASHINGTON
uses a customized version of Bodoni called
ANALYSIS //
13
1
Franklin Gothic 5
2
4
3
9
8
6
7
Grotesque Serif
Morris Fuller Benton 1903
14
1 Wide capitals 2 Vertical terminal 3 Terminal flares out on the “a”
4 Stem and leg far apart
7 Vertical stress and oval shape
5 Square dot
8 Slight angle at the of “t” stem
6 Inward terminal
9 Stroke Contrast
Fig 11 MOMA Design Store in Soho. MOMA uses Franklin Gothic as its official typefaces
Named after the famous Benjamin Franklin,Morris Fuller Benton was commissioned by the American Type Founders (ATF) Company in 1903 to create the Franklin Gothic typeface. ATF was set on a task to unify and enhance typefaces gained by ATF after the joining of several American type foundries. The type was officially completed in the year 1912 and is a marker for modernizing 19th century design. Franklin Gothic has since become considered one of the most widely used typefaces produced, donning the title “the patriarch of modern American Gothic”. An updated version of Franklin Gothic was create in 1979 by Vic Caruso for the International
Typeface Corporation (ITC) . It primarily incorporated a larger choice of weights to choose from.
advertising field. Currently, Franklin Gothic also holds the honor of being the official typeface for the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA).
It is interesting to note that a large amount of Europeans choose to use this sans serif created in America rather than typefaces designed in their own region. It could potentially be because Franklin Gothic still retains the “old-fashioned” two-story anatomy for the lowercase “a” and “g” instead of the more geometric approach of many European sans serifs.
Several movies have also utilized Franklin Gothic for various purposes including posters and promotional material. Rocky used it for its title, Star Wars used Franklin Gothic as subtitles, and The Dark Knight implemented it into promotional material. Also Franklin Gothic is used on music album covers such as Lady Gaga It has also been featured in several typefaces, including TNT, ESPN, and Showtime.
Franklin Gothic is primarily used for newspaper headlines and for areas were space becomes a limited commodity. Along with newspapers, it’s also heavily utilized in the
ANALYSIS //
15
Cheltenham g 2
3
7
4
5
1
6
Old Style Serif
Bertram Goodhue
1 Terminals become narrower towards the end
4 Serif with terminal at a slight angle
7 Vertical stress
2 Connects strokes same as serifs
5 Stroke contrast
9 Large x-height
3 Large aperture and small eye
8 Ball terminal
6 Open loop on “g� with a ball terminal
Designed by Bertram Goodhue, the typeface Cheltenham was commissioned in 1899 by Ingalls Kimball, who was the director of the New York Cheltenham Press. Taking three years to complete, the typeface was finished in 1902 and was publically released and patented in 1904.
16
/
Cheltenham is most know for being one of the first scientifically designed typefaces based on Goodhue’s own personal theories on producing the best readability with a typeface. He created the ascenders unusually tall and descenders extremely short because he believed people read lowercase
/
8
}
9
1902
characters solely be word shape instead of individual letters. Also, he stated he thought characters get their unique shape from ascenders more than descenders. Finally, to compensate for the paper used by newspapers at this point in history, Goodhue thickened the thin strokes. Cheltenham is also known for being the first true large type family and the first typeface created for Linotype and hand type since it was carved with weight variations: regular, medium, bold, extra condensed, and wide. In 1975, Cheltenham was redesigned by Tony Stan into a digital typeface called ITC Cheltenham. This version featured a thicker stroke with more condensed proportions and a larger x-height to give a
contemporary look. The ascenders were also shortened from Goodhue’s original design. Today the New York Times uses Cheltenham as its sole primary headline typeface since 1906. Previously, the newspaper had used it with other typefaces including News Gothic, Latin Extra Condensed, and Century Bold Italic, and Bookman.
SCIENTIFICAL SCIENTIFICALLY LY DESIGNED The first
Left (Fig 12) The New York Times January 4, 1961 front page headlines Right (Fig 13) The New York Times September 8, 2014 headline
TYPEFACE
(based on Goodhue’s theories of readability)
ANALYSIS //
17
Futura Geometric Sans Serif
1
/
Paul Renner /
3
gec 2
5
6
7
4
1927
1
Asymmetrical
2
No curve at the terminal
3
Some minor stroke contrast
4
The “a” makes almost a perfect circle
5 A one-story “g” with a loop that doesn’t close 6 An almost closed aperture with a small eye 7 Vertical terminal
18
Left (Fig 15) USA Today nameplate Right (Fig 16) USA Today headline
The Futura typeface is often associated with the German Bauhaus movement, promoted the concept of function over form. However, the designer of Futura, Paul Renner, was never associated with the movement. Eventually, The Bauer Type Foundry of Frankfurt would create Futura into metal type, while simultaneously making many noticeable changes to the typeface. Futura’s capital letter designs are based on Ancient Greece’s classical proportions, why is very distinguishable in Futura’s capital “R”. As a result, Futura’s capitals show a large variations in widths. Some of the capitals such as the “F” appear very narrow compared to other capitals like “M”. Renner’s original design included many odd shapes that hurt readability, but when the The Bauer created the metal type, the removed many of these shapes and gave the characters a more simplistic geometric shape. Ascenders were revised to stand taller than the capitals, widths were changed to demonstrated more asymmetrical traditional proportions
Fig 14 COCA Piercing Visions Survival Research
Laboratories, Freak House, and Alternative Bumbershooot posters
of the 16th century, which is notable in the lowercase “t”. Because of its many weights and geometric design, Futura holds a variety of usages. Primarily, its bold and condensed weights serve the function for visually striking, large display designs. However, Futura can also be used in smaller point sizes for small book text, short amounts of body copy, and captions and pull-quotes.
During the 1980s, Futura began to emerge as a popular typeface to use fornewspapers because of its easy readability and bold weights. The USA Today is currently the most known newspaper to continue using Futura for both its headlines and name tag. For the name, the newspaper uses the bold weight, while it tends to drift to the bold condensed for headline text.
ANALYSIS //
19
Times r g 2
3
3
4
1
Transitional Serif
/
Thin Serif
2
“i” has a small dot and is far from its stem
5 Very narrow terminal 6 Ball terminal 7
3 4
Slanted serif Small eye on “e”
7
Stanley Morison and Victor Lardent
1
6
5
Diagonal stress
8 High contrast
1932
A typographic advisor to both Monotype and The Times newspaper of London, Stanley Morrison was given the task to redesign The Times in the year 1929. Morrison made the decision to design the typeface Times after deciding existing typefaces previously used for the newspaper remained unsuitable. The primary goal for this new typeface was to make it seem larger and heavier than the previous typefaces used but still take up the same amount of space. Morrison based his design for Times the typeface Plantin, but made it more modern with higher contrast, wide capitals, and narrow serifs. Because of these odd traits, Times is less than ideal for body copy usage despite it being used as a standard font for digital publishing systems.
Fig 17 Portion of Jim White’s album cover No Such Place
20
The Times newspaper utilized Monotype and Linotype and required a set of type for each. For the Linotype machine a another, nearly identical typeface was created and called Times New Roman, which is the typeface primarily used today for phototype and digital type. Working with The Times executive staff and monotype designer Victor Lardent, Morrison took two years to fully design Times. The Times first used the Times typeface in 1932 and became a public commercial font a year later in 1933. Though originally created for newspaper headlines, Times and Times New Roman have expanded their usage into other areas. These areas include type for books, annual reports, and periodicals. Time’s readability is most ideal in the Display settings instead of the regular Roman weight. Left (Fig 18) Pearl Jam’s The Rocket newspaper page using Times New Roman as body copy and Helvetica as the headline
Top Right (Fig 19) Record packaging for Mambomania
Bottom Right (Fig 20) Beatkit logo from Shawn Wolfe Studio
ANALYSIS //
21
A P M O C
N O S I R A IV
Y, IND M O T A N A
TERS
ARAC H C L A U ID
TH
WID E P Y T D , AN
ANATOMY COMPARISON
Headline Headline Headline
Bodoni Std Roman 133 pt
Futura Std
Medium 133 pt
ALL TYPEFACES
Times Regular 139 pt
f
i
a
c
g
d
e
h
k
SERIF TYPEFACES
r
n
t
m
q
o
SANS SERIF TYPEFACES
24
p
Book 128 pt
j
b
l
Cheltenham Std
s
u
Franklin Gothic Medium 133 pt
Univers Bold 118 pt
SERIF TYPEFACES a Bodoni has a thinner cross
bar than the other serifs. b Cheltenham has the shortest
and most curved bracket. Bodoni’s is the thinnest. c All serif typefaces have
relatively small eyes in comparison to the size of the “e”. Time’s eye is unsymmetrical compared to Bodoni and Cheltenham’s symmetrical eyes. This contributes to its unsuitableness for body copy. d Times has an elongated,
tear-shaped counter for its “a”, making it a more vertical typeface than the other two serifs.
o h Time’s descendor is the
only serif at an angle. i Cheltenham’s “i” dot is
very low, which causes it to appear more horizontally oriented than Bodoni and Times. j Times has an angled stress. k Bodoni’s and Time’s
terminals gradually get thinner; however, Cheltenham remains relatively the same. Cheltenham has a lower stroke contrast than the other two typefaces. Paired with a large x-height his gives papers the option to use Cheltenham at a smaller size.
Franklin Gothic’s “a” counter is tear shaped, but Futura’s is a geometric circle.
p Franklin Gothic’s “a” termi-
nal has a flare, but Futura is straight up and down. q
Franklin Gothic’s is more ovular and Futura is made of circles.
r Different “i” dot shapes. s Futura is more symmetrical t Futura has a lower x-height. u Futura’s terminal has a
greater angle.
e Bodoni’s “d” counter shape
is reverse to compensate for its much thicker stroke f Times’s ascender serifs has the most extreme angle. g Bodoni has both the thick
and thinnest strokes, making it have the highest contrast.
SANS SERIF TYPEFACE l Futura has a thinner stroke. m Both have closed apertures
with small eyes n Two-story and one-story “a”.
COMPARISON //
25
INDIVIDUAL CHARACTERS COMPARIONS Comparing all three serifed typefaces, Bodoni’s capital letters are the most dissimilar. Starting with the “W”, Bodoni’s “W” center strokes cross through each other creating an x formation. With the “C”, Bodoni’s “C” has serifs on both the top and bottom terminal, while Cheltenham and
Times only have a serifed top terminal. The “R” leg in Bodoni comes out much farter with a larger curve, and the “G” does not come up as high as the others. All of the traits contribute to Bodoni’s more elegant feeling. Cheltenham’s “G” does have the unique trait of a spur, and Times’ caps are the widest with the exception of “R”.
C CC W W W G GG BB B R RR R B Futura’s capitals show a greater variation in character width than Franklin Gothic. The “C”, “W”, and
26
“G” are much wider, while the “R” and “B” are very distincly narrower. Also, Futura’s B stands out from the rest of the caps since it unsymmetrical compared to the rest of the capitals. Another difference between the two is that Futura’s “W” (and “M” not shown) come to a point at its apex and vertex. All of this helps distinguish it as a geomtric sans serif typeface comapred to Franklin Gothic, which is a transitional sans serif typeface.
g ff f tt t g gg oo o rr r ss s Bodoni’s lowercase letters make the typeface’s smaller x-height compared to the other serifs very apparent. Again, Bodoni shows a large amount of unique characteristics to the typeface, including how the “t” cross-stroke does not connect with a bracket or the rectangular counter in the “o”. Cheltenham’s “g” shows a distinct charac
terisitc where its loop is left open and ends in a ball terminal instead of a closed bowl. The typeface’s “s” terminal ends in ball terminals instead of Bodoni’s and Time’s serifs. The most distinct difference between Futura and Franklin Gothic is the “g”. Futura has the typical geometric sans serif, one-story
“g”, while Franklin Gothic’s “g” is a traditional two-story “g”. Also, Franklin Gothic’s “o” is ovular, Futura’s is a circle. In all, Franklin Gothics lowercase and capital letters reflect the structure of serifed typefaces, while Futura’s character structures represent shapes that people handwrite.
COMPARISON //
27
Fig 21 Mercurey Bold typeface designed by Jonathan Hoefler in 2003. It was made for modern newspapers to print quickly on cheap paper.
28
TYPE WIDTH AND WEIGHTS Bodoni
Cheltenham
Times
Franklin Gothic
Futura
Newspapers Newspapers Newspapers Newspapers Newspapers
For the serif typefaces, Cheltenham has the longest type width; however, unlike Bodoni and Times, Cheltenham has condensed weight options for both its traditional book weight and an ultra condensed weight. Bodoni has a fairly standard type width compared to other headline typefaces, but it does have the benefit of a poster weight that is a much heavier weight. Times has the shortest type width, primarily due to its purpose of fitting into the standard The Times area for headlines. Both Franklin Gothic and Futura have a similar type width; however, Futura has the benefit of having a large type family that includes condensed and extended versions. Franklin Gothic primarily only has the benefit of a demi, heavy, and light weight.
Type Width according to 45pt
COMPARISON //
29
T C FA
S R O T G
FOR TY
-MAKIN N IO IS C E D IC H POGRAP
Fig 22 A participant in the Poynter Research Study looks at a Times cover page.
32
Top Right (Fig 23) One of the cover pages from the research study that explores the effect of blue on viewers
Bottom Right (Fig 24) Large colored pictures on newspapers’ front pages draw viewers’ attention
COLOR To a certain degree, people’s reactions to different colors are culturally based. However, studies show that people have uniform physiological reactions to certain colors. Red, an energetic color, will actually excite and stimulate the brain by raising eye blinking rate, blood pressure, and breathing rate. However, the color blue does the exact opposite to all three. Therefore, red has been labeled as an “active” color, and blue is a “passive” color. In general, newspaper are well aware of the fact that color will attract readers attention. This is especially true when the color of the type is reflected in the photograph on the page. Papers chose to use blue or red because red will excite and grab readers attention, but blue has the somber, serious feeling that papers want conveyed to readers as they skim the daily news. Fig 25
FACTORS //
33
Left Fig 26) Futura typeface is a geometric sans serif
Top Right (Fig 27) A n example of a serif
Bottom Right (Fig 28) Bodoni typeface is a modern serif
34
SERIF vs. SANS SERIF There are several types of serif typefaces for newspapers to chose from for headlines. If using old style, newspapers prefer Caslon or Garamond. These typefaces normally have a calligraphic look and tend to not be used for headlines. Transitional typefaces evolved from old-style and are used by newspapers looking a more elegant look since they have high contrast and a vertical stress. Modern typefaces have the strongest contrast
with sharp, thin serifs and no brackets. If a newspaper chooses to utilize a modern typeface, they often drift towards the typeface Bodoni; however, newspapers are beginning to drift away from it because it doesn’t come off as trendy has other typefaces, particularly against sans serif typefaces. As the name implies, sans serif typefaces lack serifs, and they generally have a fairly uniform stroke thickness with little contrast. Newspapers tend to drift towards sans serif typefaces for headlines because of their easy readability compared to serif typefaces.
FACTORS //
35
Left (Fig 29) Dateline Alabama’s online newspaper with sans serif headlines
Center (Fig 30) Dateline Alabama article page with both the body copy and headlines sans serif
Top Right (Fig 31) Metal plate for printing
Bottom Right (Fig 32) Another online newspaper article layout
36
DIGITAL NEWSPAPERS With the implentation of publishing newspapers online, newspapers have had to change their approach to typography. Sans serif typefaces work better for digital media since they don’t have fine serifs to get pixelated. Since web designers can only have so much control over the size of the text since its often times based on the setting in an individual computer, fonts need to be able to retain readability at a small size. Helvetica is a heavily used font for newspapers posted on the web since its a typeface most people have the font on their computer.
FACTORS //
37
N E P P A E P P A
X I D N EENDIX AGES
AND IM Y H P A R G IO L BIB
BIBLIOGRAPHY Coles, Stephen. The Anatomy of Type: A Graphic Guide to 100 Typefaces. New York: Harper Design, 2012. Print. Consuegra, David. Classic Typefaces: American Type & Type Designers. New York:Allworth, 2011. Print. Craig, James, Irene Korol. Scala, and William Bevington. Designing with Type: TheEssential Guide to Typography. 5th ed. New York: Watson-GuptillPublications, 2006. Print. Garcia, Mario R., and Don Fry. Color in American Newspapers. St. Petersburg, FL:Poynter Institute for Media Studies, 1986. Print. Garcia, Mario R. Contemporary Newspaper Design: A Structural Approach. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1981. Print. Garfield, Simon. Just My Type: A Book about Fonts. NY, NY: Gotham, 2011. Print. Lupton, Ellen. Thinking with Type: A Critical Guide for Designers, Writers, Editors, & Students. New York: Princeton Architectural, 2004. Print.
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MacDougall, A. Kent. The Press; a Critical Look from the inside. Princeton, NJ: Dow Jones, 1972. Print. Meggs, Philip B., Alston W. Purvis, and Philip B. Meggs. Meggs’ History of GraphicDesign. Hoboken, NJ: J. Wiley & Sons, 2006. Print. Mott, Frank Luther. American Journalism: A History of Newspapers in the United Statesthrough 260 Years. 2nd ed. New York: Macmillan, 1950. Print. Pao, Imin, and Joshua Berger. 30 Essential Typefaces for a Lifetime. Gloucester, MA: Rockport, 2006. Print. Stovall, James Glen. Web Journalism: Practice and Promise of a New Medium. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 2004. Print.
IMAGE LIST Fig 1 – Just My Type
Fig 18– 30 Essential Typefaces for a Lifetime
Fig 2 – Contemporary Newspaper Design: A Structural Approach
Fig 19– 30 Essential Typefaces for a Lifetime
Fig 3 – Meggs’ History of GraphicDesign Fig 4 – Meggs’ History of GraphicDesign Fig 5 – Thinking with Type
Fig 20– 30 Essential Typefaces for a Lifetime Fig 21– Thinking with Type Fig 22– Color in American Newspapers Fig 23– Color in American Newspapers
Fig 6 – Contemporary Newspaper Design: A Structural Approach
Fig 24– Color in American Newspapers
Fig 7 – 30 Essential Typefaces for a Lifetime
Fig 25– Color in American Newspapers
Fig 8 – 30 Essential Typefaces for a Lifetime
Fig 26– Contemporary Newspaper Design: A Structural Approach
Fig 9 – Contemporary Newspaper Design: A Structural Approach Fig 10 – Contemporary Newspaper Design: A Structural Approach Fig 11– 30 Essential Typefaces for a Lifetime Fig 12– The New York Times Page One: Commemorative Edition 1896–1996 Fig 13– The New York Times September 8, 2014 Fig 14– 30 Essential Typefaces for a Lifetime Fig 15– USA Today September 8, 2014 Fig 16– USA Today September 8, 2014 Fig 17– 30 Essential Typefaces for a Lifetime
Fig 27– Contemporary Newspaper Design: A Structural Approach Fig 28– Contemporary Newspaper Design: A Structural Approach Fig 29– Web Journalism: Practice and Promise of a New Medium Fig 30– Web Journalism: Practice and Promise of a New Medium Fig 31– Web Journalism: Practice and Promise of a New Medium Fig 32– Contemporary Newspaper Design: A Structural Approach Fig 33– Web Journalism: Practice and Promise of a New Medium APPENDIX //
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