pure design
Finger reading Don’t let the size of the so-called “agate” (type set 6 points or smaller) fool you. When it comes to heavy traffic and high visibility, the content that is usually set in small type plays an important role. Consider what your newspaper would be without sports results, and start counting the complaints you would get from business people if you stopped running stock listings. How many readers decide to visit a restaurant or museum after they saw it mentioned, yes, in very small type? I refer to all of these areas of newspaper and magazines as “finger reading.” Readers tend to run their finger over the page when they search out these items, something they don’t do when reading a narrative set in 8 or 10 point. Fingers and eyes in unison, doing the moving. Here are some tips for designing them effectively:
Always select the most legible typeface; sans-serifs do better than serifs. For The Wall Street Journal we picked Retina, but many other faces do just as well. Pay attention to category breakers, and make them slightly larger, and bolder, and maybe set in all capital letters.
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