SIGMUND FREUD

Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.

Sigmund Freud (1856 –1939),

known as the father of psycho-
analysis, was an Austrian
neurologist who developed
techniques of free association
of ideas and theorized that
dreams are representative of
repressed sexual desires.Things
said without any forethought
sometimes result in what is
known as a “Freudian slip.”

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CHAPTER 3

Looking at type
HEAD
have to be big and at the top
typ
e

is
m eant to
sh
ow
off the ad

Display of the product

inside the
v

an
tag
es package it is
printed on.

T ype in books hasn’t changed much over the last five hundred years. Then
again, the process of reading hasn’t changed that much either. We might have
electric lights, reading glasses, and more comfortable chairs, but we still need a
quiet corner, a little time on our hands, and a good story. Paperbacks crammed
full of poorly spaced type with narrow page margins are a fairly new invention,
born out of economic necessities, i.e., the need to make a profit. Chances are the
more you pay for a book, the closer its typefaces resemble good historical models
that date back to the Renaissance. By the time we are adults, we have read so
much that is set in what are considered “classic” typefaces that we all think Caslon,
Baskerville, and Garamond are the most legible typefaces ever designed …

Small print is called small print even though it is actually only the type
Newspaper typography has created some that is small. To overcome the physical limitations of letters being too
of the very worst typefaces, typesetting, small to be distinguishable, designers have gone to all sorts of extremes,
making parts of letters larger and/or smaller, altering the space in and
and page layouts known to mankind. Yet around them so ink doesn’t blacken the insides of letters and obscure
their shapes, or accentuating particular characteristics of individual let-
we put up with bad line breaks, huge ters. Another trick is to keep the letters fairly large, while at the same
word spaces, and ugly type because that time making them narrower than is good for them or us so more of them
will fit into the available space. Often enough, however, type is kept
is what we are used to. After all, who small deliberately so that we have a hard time reading it – for example, in
insurance claims and legal contracts.
keeps a newspaper longer than it takes to
read it? And if it looked any better, would
we still trust it to be objective?
LINES
39

A nyone looking at a printed message will be A recurring element on these

pages, as first seen on page 19,
influenced, within a split second of making is the “Handgloves.” This word
eye contact, by everything on the page: the contains enough relevant
shapes to judge an alphabet but
arrangement of various elements as well as the is a change from the industry
individual look of each one. In other words, standard “Hamburgefons.” The
Handgloves show off typefaces
an overall impression is created in our minds used in the sample settings or
before we even read the first word. It’s similar referred to in the text.
to the way we respond to a person’s presence Designing typefaces for
before we know anything about him or her, particular purposes is more
widespread than most people
and then later find it difficult to revise our think. There is special type for
first impression. telephone books, small ads,
newspapers, and Bibles, and
We read best what we read most, even if it for the exclusive use of corpor-
is badly set, badly designed, and badly printed. ations. There are also typefaces
designed specially to comply
This is not to suggest there is a substitute for with technical constraints, i.e.,
good type, great design, or clean printing, low-resolution printers, screen
displays, monospaced type-
but is merely a reminder that certain images writers, and optical character
are deeply ingrained in the recognition. So far, all these
Handgloves
•. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . reader’s mind. typefaces have tried to emulate
historical models. Even bitmaps
Futura Extra Bold Cond.
Graphic designers, have become such a model,
Handgloves
•. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . typesetters, editors, printers, albeit one born of necessity.
Below are types that have been
Antique Olive Bl ack and other communicators designed for special purposes.
• Handglo are well advised to be aware
.............................................
f f Z a pata of these expectations. Bell Centennial
Handgloves Sometimes it may be best
•. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . to follow the rules; at other
designed for telephone books.

Hobo ITC Weidemann

times the rules need to be originally designed for a new
Handgloves
•. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . broken to get the point edition of the Bible.
Adobe Caslon Regular
across. Good designers Spartan Classified
Handgloves
•. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . learn all the rules before
made especially for small ads
in newspapers.
Swift Light they start breaking them.
Corporate A
•. . .Handgloves
..........................................
Daimler Chrysler’s corporate typeface.
f f M e ta B o o k
Sassoon Primary
for teaching handwriting
to schoolchildren.
1 2

3 4

5 6
 41

a b This is a typographic puzzle.

Which typeface do you think fits
which shoe? The answers are on
the next page, but don’t look

Cooper Black Mesquite now – that would be cheating.

Remember which letter from
the boxes on this page goes
with which number from the
opposite page, then turn the
page and check against our per-
sonal favorites.

c d

Arnold Böcklin CAMPUS

e f

Tekton Snell Roundhand

In some cases it
Stop
is very easy to
spot a typographic
faux pas.
1d 2b

CAMPUS Mesquite

3f 4a
Snell Roundhand Cooper Black

5b 6e
Arnold Böcklin Tekton
 43

No one would use the same shoes to go Your personal choice of type-
faces to match the shoes will
dancing, run a mile, climb the north face of the probably be quite different
Eiger, and walk to the office – not many people, from the ones shown here. With
more fonts to choose from than
anyway. While your feet may pretty much stay there are shoes in your typical
the same shape, they need different types of shoe store, the task is daunting.
support, protection or, indeed, enhancement Luckily, the intended typo-
to perform all the above tasks and many others graphic purpose narrows the
choice down as much as where
besides. you will be wearing your shoes.
This also applies to type. Sometimes the Fortunately for the fashion-
conscious designer, there are
letters have to work hard to get across straight many options, even for similar
facts or numbers, or they may need to dress design applications.
up the words a little to make them seem more Cooper Black – see opposite
pleasant, more comfortable, or simply prettier. page – is a very popular type-
face, and was even more so
Some shoes fit your feet better than others, thirty-five years ago. It has its
and you get to like them so much that you just advantages: nice and cuddly,
heavy, and relatively unusual.
want to keep buying the same kind over and But if you think it’s been used a
over. Your friends, however, might begin to give little too often, you can try
Goudy Heavyface, ITC Souvenir
you a rough time over your taste in footwear, so Bold, Stempel Schneidler Black,
why not buy a few pairs of the same model but or ITC Cheltenham Ultra.
Compare them with each other
in different colors? Now you have more choices and you will see they’re all
at the same comfort level. quite different, but might do
the same job just as effectively.
Where’s the analogy with type? Well, you
can print it in different colors, on different Not all of us want to be seen
wearing the same shoes as
backgrounds, dark on light or light on dark. everybody else.
It will always appear as if you are actually using
more than one typeface.

•. . .Handgloves
...........................................
G o u d y H e av y f a c e

•. . .Handgloves
...........................................
itc Souvenir Bold

•. . .Handgloves
...........................................
Stempel Schneidler Bl ack

• Handgloves
..............................................
i t c C h e lt e n h a m U lt r a
Doubt
 45

So type has its practical uses – it can walk, run, skip, Runic Condensed is a typeface
from Monotype. Released in
jump, climb, and dance. Can it also express emotions? 1935, it replicates a late nine-
Of course. If you look closely at a letter, you can see teenth-century display type.
personality expressed in its physical characteristics: Bodega Sans adopts ideas from
light or heavy, round or square, slim or squat. Letters the high period of Art Deco.
It was designed by Greg
can stand at attention next to each other like soldiers or Thompson in 1990; its serifed
they can dance gracefully on the line. Just as some words companion followed in 1992.
sound better than others, some words look nicer than Block is a family of typefaces
others. That may be because we don’t like the meaning originally designed by
H. Hoffmann in 1908, with many
of the word, but often we’ve formed an opinion before subsequent versions released
we’ve even read it. Isn’t it nice that the o imitates the way through 1926. Block simplified
the setting of justified display
we make our lips round to pronounce it? And how could lines with a system of capital
the i stand for anything but the pointed sound it has and lowercase letters of varying
widths that allowed the com-
in“pick”? positor to use the more extend-
Dark emotions call for a black typeface with sharp ed alternate characters to fill
out short lines. Block was the
edges; pleasant feelings are best evoked by informal, staple jobbing font for German
light characters. Or are they? The trouble is that as soon printers well into the 1960s,
when phototypesetting
as you select a typeface that looks appropriate, put it replaced hot metal. The irregu-
on a page, surround it with space and perhaps other lar “mealy” outlines appeal to
a modern audience, who like
elements, it can take on a totally different look. So for the that recycled, used-before look.
moment, we’ll stick to choosing appropriate typefaces.
Neville Brody designed the
movie titles for A Rage in
Harlem. In 1996, he was per-

Doubt?
Runic Condensed is suaded to turn that design into
slightly awkward a full family of typefaces.
and definitely not The informal weight is aptly
suited for long pas- named Harlem Slang.
sages. Its spiky serifs Runic Condensed
and exaggerated In 1937 Morris Fuller Benton

Doubt? Doubt?
letterforms do not designed Empire for Vogue
agree with classic magazine. David Berlow revived
ideals of beauty and it in 1989, adding an italic and
fine proportion. If a lowercase, both unavailable
Bodega Sans Light Bodega Serif Light
unusual letterforms in the original.
express uneasy feel-
ings, these other
condensed types
might be a good
choice.
Doubt?
Block Extra Condensed

Doubt?
Harlem Slang

Doubt?
Bureau Empire
 47

Mistral was designed by Roger

Some words are much more fun to find an Excoffon in 1955. His other
appropriate typographic equivalent for than typefaces – Antique Olive, Choc,
Banco – also show a character-
others. (Surprise, surprise.) It may be fairly istic Gallic style and have been
difficult to find a majority agreement on the enormously successful in France
and other European countries.
right typeface to spell “doubt,” but this one
shouldn’t cause any problems. Susanna Dulkinys’ Letter
Gothic Slang replaced some
What’s more unexpected, more surprising, characters with others that
than someone’s handwriting? The best casual have similar shapes, but differ-
ent meaning. The S is a dollar
typefaces have always managed to carry some of sign; the p is the thorn – used
the spontaneity of handwritten letters into the in Icelandic, Old English, and
phonetics; the i is an upside-
mechanical restrictions of typesetting. Even the down exclamation mark used
names of some typefaces make you want to in Spanish for quotes; and the
e is a currency sign.
choose them. How about this one: Mistral –
a cool wind blowing from the north into south-
ern France. And indeed, in the south of France
it seems to have become the standard typeface
for every shopfront and delivery van.
In case you don’t agree that Mistral suggests
surprise, here are some alternatives.

Surprise
The complete free- “Surprise” is shown
dom offered by at right in its un-
computer applica- altered form.We
tions makes type didn’t like the join
even more flexible between S and u, so
– if a word doesn’t we created outlines
look right when in Adobe Illustrator,
Mistral
first set, you can cleaned up that
manipulate the detail (and a few

Surprise
outlines until it others), and placed
does exactly what it in our photo-
you want. graph, where you
can see the revised
Letter Gothic Slang
word. Most people
would believe that
it had been written
by someone with a
felt-tip pen, not
Surprise
Dogma Script
simply set as part
of a complete page.

Surprise
Dizzy

Surprise
Ottomat Bold
Joy
 49

The more characters in a word, the more ITC Kabel, Syntax, and Lithos
are modern interpretations of
chances there are to find the right letterforms classical letterforms; they
to express its meaning. This word doesn’t give maintain a chiseled look with-
out formal stroke endings,
us many choices, just three characters: j o y which are known as serifs.
or J O Y . Seeing that the lowercase j and y
The letter Y, a latecomer to
look so similar, an all-capital setting will work the Latin alphabet, is called
better with this one. All three typefaces here i grec in French (Greek i ).
Its shape is derived from one
have a generous feel to them – open forms with of the calligraphic variations
confident strokes and a sense of movement. of the Greek upsilon.

JOY
The original Kabel, designed
by Rudolf Koch in 1927, has
distinct Art Deco overtones,
whereas International Type-
face Corporation’s 1976
version has a very generous ITC Kabel Book
x-height and is more regular
and less quirky.

JOY
Syntax has the proportions
of ancient Roman letters,
but no serifs, making it both
contemporary and classic
•. . .Handgloves
looking. It was designed by
Hans-Eduard Meier in 1968. Syntax ............................................
A completely redesigned itc Kabel Book
and expanded version was
released by Linotype in 2001. •. . .Handgloves
............................................
S y n ta x

JOY
Lithos is Carol Twombly’s
• Handglov
1989 rendering of Greek
inscriptions – just as elegant ...............................................
as Roman capitals, but less Lithos Regular
restrained.This face became
an instant success (graphic Lithos Regular
designers still use it for all
sorts of trendy purposes),
which goes to show that a It is nice to see words typeset
classic can also be cheerful so their own explanations are
and modern. carried in the letters.These
free and easy shapes certainly
make you think of a joyful
person with arms in the air.
Anger
 51

Anger, like doubt, can be described as a Most really black typefaces

have been overused because
dark feeling that calls for a black, heavy type- there aren’t enough choices for
face. Anger is not as narrow as doubt. It needs the designers of posters and
tabloid newspapers. These
room to expand, sometimes to shout out loud. kinds of faces can be set with
It helps if the letters are not perfectly hardly any space between
letters, which makes a large
worked out and closed in on themselves, but impact in a small space.
rather a little irregular, leaving room for our
Futura Extra Bold and
imagination. A well-balanced Univers or ITC Franklin Gothic Heavy have
Helvetica would not do. been favorites for a long time.
Inspiration for Solex – designed
by Zuzana Licko in 2000 –

Anger!
Flyer Extra Black
reportedly came from two
Condensed,
principal sources: Alternate
designed in 1962
Gothic and Bauer Topic (also
by Konrad Bauer
known as Steile Futura) and is
and Walter Baum. Flyer Extra Black Condensed
her exploration of the indus-
trial sans serif genre. Eagle is

Anger!
Poplar is a 1990
FontBureau’s 1989 adaptation
revival from Adobe
of Morris Fuller Benton’s
of an old wood
famous titling, Eagle Bold,
type from the mid-
drawn – caps only – in 1933 for
nineteenth century. Poplar
the National Recovery Adminis-
tration. Officina Black adds
Block Heavy (1908)
is the fattest mem-
ber of the family.
Its outlines are
deliberately irre-
Anger!
Block Heavy
weight to the 1990 sans and
serif family; the new versions
were digitized by Ole Schäfer.
Giza brings back the glory of the
Victorian era. David Berlow
gular, which helped
based the family (1994) on
prevent damage
when metal type
was printed on
heavy platen
presses. You could
Anger!
Angst Heavy
showings in Figgins’ specimen
of 1845.

And all the way from the 1960s,

Roger Excoffon’s Antique Olive
call it a pre-
Nord shows that good typefaces
stressed design. Anger! are indestructible.
Franklinstein
Angst and Frank-
linstein are both
rightly named.
Jürgen Huber and
Fabian Rottke
designed them –
respectively – in
•. . .Handgloves
............................................
•. . .Handgloves
............................................
F ly e r E x t r a B l a c k C o n d e n s e d Futura Extra Bold
1997 for FontFont’s
•. . .Handgloves •. . .Handgloves
Dirty Faces™ group.
............................................ ............................................
Po p l a r i t c F r a n k l i n G o t h i c H e av y

•. . .Handgloves
............................................
•. . .Handgloves
............................................
Solex Bl ack Giza Nine Three

•. . .Handgloves
............................................
•. . .Handgloves
............................................
itc Officina Bl ack Eag le Bl ack

• Handgloves
...............................................
• Handglo
...............................................
B l o c k H e av y Antique Olive Nord
S E R I F

MvB Sirenne

Handgloves
S A N S S E R I F

Thesis Sans 5

S C R I P T
Handgloves
Freestyle Script

D I S P L AY
Handgloves
Ironwood

S Y M B O L S


Carta
 53
V E N E T I A N
There are seven deadly sins, seven seas,
and seventh sons of seventh sons, but
thousands of typefaces. Someone had to
Handgloves
Centaur

come up with a system to classify them, G A R A L D E

since describing how different type designs

express different emotions just isn’t exact Handgloves
Sabon
enough. Unfortunately, there is not only one
system, but quite a few, all of them too T R A N S I T I O N A L

The unofficial type

involved for anyone but the
classification – do most devoted typomaniac.
Handgloves
not confuse with Janson Text
the official one on
So here’s the most rudimen-
this page. tary method of classifying D I D O N E

type. It’s not historically

correct, nor does it give a complete overview Handgloves
ITC Bodoni
of the available choice of fonts. It simply
shows that with just a few basic principles, S L A B S E R I F

hundreds of ways of designing typefaces

become possible, the same way a few basic Handgloves
Memphis
emotions evoke a million ways to make a face.
S A N S S E R I F

In case anyone
wants it for the
record: here’s the
Handgloves
Syntax
official Adobe type
classification.
G LY P H I C
We have chosen a
typical typeface
for each category,
trying to avoid all
Handgloves
Friz Quadrata
the best-known
ones.
S C R I P T

Handgloves
Ex Ponto

D I S P L AY

Handglove
Charlemagne

B L A C K L E T T E R

Handgloves
Wilhelm Klingspor Gotisch

S Y M B O L S


Universal News and Commercial Pi
 55

Scientists have not been content with just By now you will have noticed that
we use the words typeface and type
calling the human face “beautiful” if it meets to describe what people these
certain ideals, or “ugly” if it doesn’t. They had to days refer to as a font. Much of
the terminology used today comes
go out and measure proportions of nose to jaw, from the era of metal type. The
forehead to chin, and so on, to establish why spaces between lines are still (and
not very accurately) described as
some faces are more appealing than others. leading, even though they certainly
Typographers and graphic designers often aren’t made up of strips of lead
anymore. A font was a prescribed
choose typefaces for the very same reason they grouping of letters from one type-
Albrecht Dürer might fancy a person: they just like that face assembled by a typefoundry
tried to figure out for sale. These were apportioned
what makes the
person. For more scientifically minded to the number of letters used most
human body look people, however, there are specific frequently in any given language.
beautiful by The English printer who bought a
measuring the
measurements, components, details, and French font of type, for instance,
proportions of proportions to describe various parts of soon noticed its lack of sufficient
the parts. k and w and its large supply of q.
a letter. While these won’t tell you what Italian demands a larger number
makes a typeface good, they will at least give you of c and z; Spanish, far more of d,
t, and all the vowels; German,
the right words to use when you discuss the more capital letters and more z,
benefits of a particular face over another. You but less y.
can say “I hate the x-height on Such-a-Gothic” We design typefaces and we pro-
or “These descenders just don’t work for me” duce fonts. And throughout this
book, we maintain that distinc-
or “Please, may I see something with a smaller tion. While the language of typog-
cap height?” and you’ll know what you are raphy still adheres to some rules,
there really aren’t any standards
talking about. for type designers to follow. Typo-
graphic features, such as large
x-heights, wide counters, and
counter kern
exaggerated ascenders, are no
.........................

..........

ascender
less slaves to fashion than the
x-height perpetual changes in skirt lengths
descender determined on Paris runways.
The size of type, indicated in
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . kern
points (a point is .01384 inch;
12 points = 1 pica; 6 picas =
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . serif 1 inch), is only a reminder of a
historical convention, when type
was cast on a body of metal.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . baseline
The body size of all 12-point type
cap height
would have been the same, but
the actual image on that body
could be vastly different. Have a
look at the 20-point types below –
they don’t have very much in
common apart from the baseline.

The moral?
What you see is what you get –
trust your eyes, not the scientific
body measurements.

Sizes Sizes Sizes Sizes Sizes

 57

While metal letters could be made to any Editing pixels is like a game of
chess: there are only a few black
width and height, digital type has to conform to and white squares, and every
multiples of the smallest unit: the pixel. Every move has enormous consequences.
character has to be a certain number of pixels Rather than try and imitate
wide and high. This is not a problem when the Times New Roman or Helvetica
on a tiny chessboard, bitmap
letters are made up of  pixels per inch (or fonts have to make virtue out of
A font editor on a palmtop device
about  pixels per mm), as is necessity. It is amazing to see how
much one can push the critical
is the perfect tool to pass the the case with modern laser shape of each letter toward some
time on an airplane or in a waiting
room.Click away for a few hours,
printers – those pixels are not almost abstract black and white
graphic, and still make us think
and by the time you land in Rio or discernible to our eyes, and we
we’re reading roman characters.
get in to see your acupuncturist
you have your own exclusive font.
are happy to believe that we are
Joe Gillespie has designed a
It may not be as legible as the looking at smooth curves series of very small bitmap fonts
pre-installed one, but no-one
else will have the same font!
instead of little squares fitted for use on screens, appropriately
named Mini 7, which is the size
into tight grids. they are supposed to be set in.
On screens, however, only  pixels make up Another set of bitmap fonts for
tiny sizes (only three pixels tall!)
one inch (roughly three pixels per mm). We could comes from Eboys, who have turned
see each and every one of them if engineers hadn’t the bitmap look into an art form.
already found ways around that (read more on The makers of devices with small
page ). Computer screens, however, are not display screens would be well
advised to look at these examples
where we read all of our type these days – phones, and in the future keep their engi-
PDAs, even microwave ovens all have displays. neers from making bitmap fonts.
Most screen displays are small and simple, which
means black on greenish gray. And the type
unmistakably consists of bitmaps: this means Handgloves
that an -point letter is actually made up of eight Handgloves
Handgloves
pixels. If we allow six pixels above the baseline Handgloves
Handgloves
(see previous page spread), including accents, Handgloves
and two below for descenders, that leaves only Handgloves
Handgloves
three or four pixels for a lowercase character.
Despite these restrictions, there are hundreds The Mini series, all at 7pt. In the
first five lines, capital letters are
of bitmap fonts, each unique by a matter of a few five pixels tall, while the mixed
pixels, but enough to prove that typographic words have that many pixels for
a lowercase letter.
variety cannot be suppressed by technological
restraints.
Handgloves
Handgloves
What a difference a dot FF Xcreen only uses three pixels
makes: with only five for a lowercase character, but as
pixels for the x-height, a this is not a true bitmap but
designer of bitmap types actually an outline font, the pixels
has to be content moving can be scaled to any size, and range
one pixel at a time. from the sublime to the ridiculous.

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