These serifs are also due to the scribes, and the way their pens would leave a tiny flourish when they finished a stroke. Rounded or bracketed serifs–Serifs are the little bits of strokes like the “legs” on an “i” or the ending strokes on letters that look strictly decorative.This is also due to the way a square-tipped pen creates a varying stroke as you create each character. In other words, the thick strokes are thick, but not hugely so. Moderate stroke variation–Look again and you’ll see that the thin and thick strokes, although noticeably different, do not vary all that much.This imitates the way the scribes would naturally write with a square-tipped pen. In oldstyle fonts, the axis of these letters is tilted, so that if you draw a line through the thinnest parts, it will be slightly off-center. Tilted axis–If you look closely at a round letter like an “O” or “C” you’ll notice there are thicker strokes and thinner ones.There are three identifying characteristics to oldstyle fonts: (For a more complete discussion, check this link to oldstyle fonts.) Oldstyle fonts have characteristics that show that origin, and which make them ideal for book composition. These fonts were based on the writing of calligraphers, the scribes who, before the invention of printing, were responsible for making copies of books by writing them out.
In fact, probably the best fonts for book design are from a family of type designs we call “oldstyle” so that will give you some idea what I’m talking about. Or, if not the oldest, the fonts based on the oldest designs for fonts, those that originated in the very beginning of book printing in the late 15th century. So it might surprise you to find out that by far the best fonts for use in books are the oldest. Luckily, as computers have become more powerful and users more sophisticated about typography (the art of designing with type) there has also been an explosion of new fonts from lots of new designers. But it’s not really intended for readers in the United States, who are unused to seeing entire books set in sans serif fonts. Its efficient set width and other internal properties of the design were intended to be readable in the narrow columns of a newspaper, not in the more ample environment of a book.Īrial is a copy of Helvetica, probably the most popular font in the recent history of typography (and the only typeface I know of to have an entire feature film made about it) is wonderful for many uses. Times New Roman, for instance, is a font originally designed under the supervision of Stanley Morrison in 1931 for use in the Times of London newspaper. After all, they wanted to make sure even a user who had no knowledge of or interest in fonts would still get a good, or at least an acceptable, result.īut there are problems with that approach, too. The Problem with DefaultsĬomputer engineers can be forgiven for putting these fonts in a premium position. Since the “default” font is usually set to Times New Roman or Arial, these fonts have spread far and wide, whether they were appropriate for the jobs they were asked to do, or not. This single fact is responsible for the overwhelming popularity of both Times New Roman and Arial, and that has had mixed blessings for creators and consumers alike. Since the beginning of the so-called desktop publishing era in the 1980s which was boosted by computers’ new ability to show accurate graphics in “what you see is what you get” displays, millions of computer users have become familiar with fonts.Įver since, computers have come bundled with fonts. One of the first and most basic questions you need to answer if you’re going to be creating your own book design is: What fonts should I use? Want to know more about formatting your book for print or eBook distribution?.
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