Re: Font Peeves

[Don Plummer <donp -at- BGNET -dot- BGSU -dot- EDU>]

>What I look for in a good body font:
>
>*       decent x-height
>*       non-narrow lettering
>*       not too decorative
>*       rounder bowls
>*       moderate serifs, but not square ones

These are all good things to look for in a font.  BTW, the fonts with
"square" serifs are often called "Egyptian" fonts, or slab-serif fonts.
Some of them have Egyptian names, like Memphis.  Another example would be
Lubalin.

>I try to avoid some of the older styles, such as Bookman and Century
>Schoolbook. A lot of people like Garamond. One of my favorite fonts in
>one I found called Caslon 540.

In truth, of the faces you mention here, Garamond is the oldest.  Its
design dates back to the 16th century.  Claude Garamond was one of the
early type designers.  I believe he was from Flanders.  Renaissance font
designs (aka "old style") date from the early days of movable-type
printing, and still hold their timeless designs well today.  If you look
carefully at copy set in Garamond, you will see a backward slant to the
letters, especially noticable in the round letters.  This is characteristic
of old style designs.  Also characteristic are "bracketed" serifs and
relatively even line weights.

Bookman is called a "transitional" style font--type designers began making
fonts in this style during the latter 18th century.  Caslon is also
considered a "transitional" style.  So is Times Roman, believe it or not.
Another good one in this style is Baskerville--a favorite of mine.  It has
a very elegant italic face.  Adobe markets a "New Baskerville" which is
very similar.  Transitional styles usually have bigger x-heights than old
style fonts, and the letters have less slant to them (but they still are
not completely vertical).

Century Schoolbook's basic design dates from the nineteenth century, when
the use of copperplate engraving became popular.  Fonts designed in this
style have crisp serifs, strong contrast in thickness between main strokes
and hairlines, and the letterforms are completely vertical.  Copy set in
Century Schoolbook has a very bland look to it, in my view.

--don


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Don Plummer  <donp -at- bgnet -dot- bgsu -dot- edu>
Bowling Green State University   Bowling Green, Ohio   USA

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