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- From: walsh@cs.umass.edu (Norman Walsh)
- Newsgroups: comp.fonts,news.answers
- Subject: comp.fonts FAQ: part 2 of 5
- Summary: This posting answers frequently asked questions about fonts.
- It addresses both general font questions and questions that
- are specific to a particular platform.
- Message-ID: <WALSH.92Oct2140538@ibis.cs.umass.edu>
- Date: 2 Oct 92 18:05:38 GMT
- Expires: 6 Nov 92 00:00:00 GMT
- References: <9210021355.WW15298@cs.umass.EDU>
- Sender: news@dime.cs.umass.edu
- Reply-To: walsh@cs.umass.edu (Norm Walsh)
- Followup-To: poster
- Organization: Dept of Comp and Info Sci, Univ of Mass (Amherst)
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- Approved: news-answers-request@MIT.Edu
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- Archive-Name: fonts-faq/part2
- Version: 1.0.0
-
- --- [cut here] --- FAQ for comp.fonts: section 1, part 2 of 2 ---
- be some way to map characters into positions within the font. The
- symbol set serves this purpose. It identifies the ``map'' used to
- position characters within the font.
-
- typeface
-
- A typeface is a collection of symbols with a similar style. Times
- Roman and Helvetica are typefaces. Contrast with font.
-
- More technically:
-
- The features by which a character's design is recognized, hence the word
- face. Within the Latin language group of graphic shapes are the
- following forms: Uncial, Blackletter, Serif, Sans Serif, Scripts, and
- Decorative. Each form characterizes one or more designs. Example:
- Serif form contains four designs called Old Style, Transitional, Modern,
- and Slab Serif designs. The typeface called Bodoni is a Modern design,
- while Times Roman is a Transitional design.
-
- 7. Bibliography / Other Resources
-
- Editors note: the following books have been suggested by readers of
- comp.fonts. They are listed in no particular order. I have lost the
- citations for some of the submissions. If you wrote a review that
- appears below and you aren't credited, please let norm
- <walsh@cs.umass.edu> know.
-
- I have decided that this is the best section for pointers to other
- font resources (specs and other documents, for example). These appear
- after the traditional bibliographic entries. As usual I will happily
- accept entries for this section. As of 9/92, the only files listed
- are the TrueType font information files available from Microsoft
-
- 7.1. The Bibliography
-
- _The Mac is Not a Typewriter_, Robin Williams, Peachpit Press.
-
- A good, clear explanation of what typography is, and how to get it from
- your computer. Mac-specific, but full of excellent general advice. I
- think there's also a PC version. Available at most computer bookstores
-
- _Rhyme and Reason: A Typographic Novel_, Erik Spiekermann.
-
- _Typographical attitude!_, H. Berthold AG, ISBN 3-9800722-5-8.
-
- _Printing Types_ (2 vols), Daniel Berkely Updike, Dover Press.
-
- Affordable edition of the most readable history of type, lots of
- illustrations.
-
- _The Art of Hand Lettering_, Helm Wotzkow, Dover Press, reprint from 1952.
-
- _Looking Good In Print_, Roger C. Parker, Ventana Press,
- ISBN: 0-940087-32-4.
-
- Well, as a beginner's book, [it] isn't bad. I can't say that I agree
- with the author's tastes all the time, but he at least gives some good
- examples. Also there are some nice _Publish_-style makeovers.
- Don Hosek <dhosek@ymir.claremont.edu>
-
- _Book Design: A Practical Introduction_, Douglas Martin, Van Nostrand
- Reinhold, New York: 1989. 206pp.
-
- Along with Jan White's book (see below), this provides a fairly
- complete guide to book design. Martin's book is somewhat more
- conservative in outlook and also reflects his UK background.
- Don Hosek <dhosek@ymir.claremont.edu>
-
- _Digital Typography: An Introduction to Type and Composition for Computer
- System Design_, Richard Rubinstein, Addison-Wesley, Reading, Massachusetts:
- 1988. 340pp.
-
- An interesting, technological approach to typography which is worth
- reading although not necessarily always worth believing. A not
- insubstantial portion of the text is dedicated to representing type on
- a CRT display and Rubinstein devotes some time to expressing
- characteristics of typography numerically.
- Don Hosek <dhosek@ymir.claremont.edu>
-
- _Graphic Design for the Electronic Age_, Jan V. White, Watson-Guptill
- Publications, New York: 1988. 212pp.
-
- A good handbook for document design. In a well-organized approach,
- White covers the principles for laying out most of the typographics
- features of a technical document. White is a bit overeager to embrace
- sans-serif types and in places his layout ideas seem a bit garish, but
- it's still a quite worthwhile book.
- Don Hosek <dhosek@ymir.claremont.edu>
-
- _Xerox Publishing Standards: A Manual of Style and Design_, Watson-Guptill
- Publications, New York: 1988. 400pp.
-
- Overall, a disappointing book. It is divided into four sections of
- widely varying intent: ``Publishing Process,'' ``Document
- Organization,'' ``Writing and Style'' and ``Visual Design.'' None of
- them is really adequate for the task and all are highly centered on the
- Xerox method for publishing. As a guide to Xerox' process, it succeeds,
- but as a manual for general use, it falls far short. In print.
- Don Hosek <dhosek@ymir.claremont.edu>
-
- _Methods of Book Design (3rd edition)_, Hugh Williamson, Yale University
- Press, New Haven: 1983. 408pp.
-
- It is a bit out-of-date as regards technology, but on issues relating
- purely to design it is comprehensive and definitive. Well, I suppose
- it could be argued that printing technology influences design -- e.g.
- some types look fine in metal but lousy in digital imagesetting -- and
- therefore a book that is out-of-date in technology can't really be
- "definitive" in matters of design either. In any event, _Methods_
- is more than adequate for a beginner's needs. My paper-bound copy
- (ISBN 0-300-03035-5) was $13.95; cheap at twice the price!
- Cameron Smith <cameron@symcom.math.uiuc.edu>
-
- _The Thames & Hudson Manual of typography_, Rauri McLean, Thames & Hudson
-
- An excellent book if you start getting more interested in type. Look
- for Rauri McLean's other books after this one...
- Liam R.E. Quim <lee@sq.sq.com>
-
-
- _Typography and Why it matters_, Fernand Baudin.
-
- There is no better introduction than [it]. It's not a primer on
- subjects such as "what does Avant Garde look like," or "This is a good
- font for books." It is a good primer on the things you need to know
- before the rest should be considered. He's a lovely writer, to boot.
-
- [My copy is at work, so I may have munged the title--look up Baudin
- in "Books in Print" and improvise :-)]
-
- Ari Davidow <ari@netcom.com>
-
- _Better Type_, Betty Binns
-
- It's definitely not a lightweight beginner's introduction, but I've
- found [it] to be indispensable. It's a large-format hardcover, but
- you can find it remaindered for cheap if you look around. The book
- goes into great detail about how factors like line spacing, line
- length, point size, and design of typeface (evenness of stroke
- weight, x-height, etc.) affect readability. When you've gotten the
- basics out of the way and want to learn more about the fine nuances
- of type color, this book is an absolute must.
- David Mandl <dmandl@bilbo.shearson.com>
-
- 7.2.1. Unicode
-
- _Unicode Consortium; The Unicode Standard, volumes 1 and 2, Worldwide
- Character Encoding_, Addison-Wesley Publishing Co., Xerox Corp.;
- Character Code Standard.
-
- 7.2.2. TrueType
-
- George Moore <georgem@microsoft.com> announces the following information
- regarding TrueType fonts:
-
- *-[Quote]-----------------------------------------------------------*
-
- I am pleased to announce that there is now one central location for all
- official Microsoft TrueType information available on the Internet.
- The 9 files listed below are available for anonymous ftp access on
- ftp.uu.net (137.39.1.9) in the /vendor/microsoft/TrueType-Info
- directory. The most important of those files is the TrueType Font Files
- Specifications, a 400 page book which describes in excruciating detail
- how to build a TrueType font. Other information is also available in
- the same directory and other files will be added from time to time.
-
- For those people who do not have ftp access to the Internet can find the
- same information available for downloading on Compuserve in the
- Microsoft developer relations forum (GO MSDR) in the TrueType library.
-
- Please be aware that the TrueType specifications is a copyrighted work
- of Microsoft and Apple and can not be resold for profit.
-
- -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
- TrueType developer information files on ftp.uu.net:
-
- 1. ttspec1.zip
- ttspec2.zip
- ttspec3.zip
-
- The TrueType Specification:
-
- These three compressed files contain the "TrueType Font Files
- Specifications", a 400 page book complete with illustrations which
- details how to construct a TrueType font from scratch (or build a tool
- to do so), the TrueType programming language, and the complete format
- of each sub-table contained in the .TTF file. These documents are
- stored in Word for Windows 2.0 format and require Windows 3.1 for
- printing. See the "readme.doc" (in ttspec1.zip) for printing
- instructions. Requires 2.5MB of disk space after uncompression.
-
- This manual is a superset of the similar specifications from Apple and
- has added information specific to Windows that is not present in the
- Apple version.
-
- 2. ttfdump.zip
-
- An MS-DOS executable which will dump the contents of a TrueType font
- out in a human-readable fashion. It allows you to dump the entire
- font, or just specific sub-tables. This tool, combined with the
- specifications above, allows very effective debugging or exploration
- of any TrueType font. For example, to dump the contents of the 'cmap'
- (character code to glyph index mapping) table, enter:
-
- ttfdump fontname.ttf -tcmap -nx
-
- Entering "ttfdump" with no options will give you a help message.
-
- 3. ttfname.zip
-
- Example C source code on how to parse the contents of a TrueType font.
- Although this particular example will open up the file and locate the
- font name contained within the 'name' table, it could be readily
- adapted to parse any other structure in the file. This compressed zip
- file also contains many useful include files which have pre-defined
- structures set up for the internal tables of a TrueType font file.
- This code may be useful for developers who wish to parse the TrueType
- data stream returned by the GetFontData() API in Windows 3.1.
-
- 4. tt-win.zip
-
- A 31 page Word for Windows 2.0 document which is targeted for the
- Windows developer who is interested in learning about some of the
- capabilities TrueType adds to Windows 3.1. Contains many
- illustrations.
-
- 5. embeddin.zip
-
- A text file which describes all of the information necessary for a
- Windows developer to add TrueType font embedding capabilities to their
- application. Font embedding allows the application to bundle the
- TrueType fonts that were used in that document and transport it to
- another platform where the document can be viewed or printed
- correctly.
-
- 6. tt-talk.zip
-
- The TrueType Technical Talks 1 and 2. These text files describe some
- of the things that are happening with TrueType behind the scenes in
- Windows 3.1. The first document walks the reader through all of the
- steps that occur from when the user first presses the key on the
- keyboard until that character appears on the screen (scaling, hinting,
- drop out control, caching and blitting). The second talk describes
- one of the unique features of TrueType called non-linear scaling which
- allows the font vendor to overcome some of the physical limitations of
- low resolution output devices.
-
- 7. lucida.zip
-
- This text file contains useful typographic information on the 22
- Lucida fonts which are contained in the Microsoft TrueType Font Pack
- for Windows. It gives pointers on line-layout, mixing and matching
- fonts in the family and a little history on each typeface. This
- information was written by the font's designers, Chuck Bigelow & Kris
- Holmes.
-
- 8. Rules of Thumb
-
- It is difficult to set out guidelines for font usage, because almost
- any rule can be brilliantly broken under the right circumstances.
-
- 8.1. General guidelines:
-
- Never lose track of the kind of work you're doing. An effect that
- would ruin a newsletter might be just the thing for a record cover.
- Know when you can safely sacrifice legibility for artistic effect.
-
- Keep in mind the final reproduction process you'll be using. Some
- effects (like reversed type, white on black) can be hard to read off
- an ordinary 300-dpi laser, but will work if finals are done on a
- high-resolution printer, such as a Linotronic. Will the pages be
- photocopied? Offset? Onto rough paper, shiny paper? All these factors
- can and should influence your choice of fonts and how you use them.
-
- Running some comparative tests is a good idea. Better to blow off a
- few sheets of laser paper now than to see a problem after thousands of
- copies are made.
-
- No one can teach you font aesthetics; it must be learned by example.
- Look at beautiful magazines, posters, books with wide eyes, so that
- you can see how it's done. Examine ugly printed matter critically and
- consider why it's hard to read.
-
- 8.2. Good rules of thumb:
-
- If you need a condensed font, find one that was designed that way,
- rather than scaling an existing font down to a percentage. Any
- scaling distorts a font's design; excessive scaling interferes with
- legibility - this goes for widening as well as narrowing. Extended
- faces do exist, although they aren't as common as condensed ones.
-
- Many people feel that bold or italic type, or type in ALL CAPS, is
- more legible: "This is the most important part of the newsletter,
- let's put it in bold." In fact, legibility studies show that such type
- is actually harder to read in bulk. Keep the text in a normal style
- and weight, and find another way to emphasize it - box it, illustrate
- it, run it in color, position it focally.
-
- Too much reverse type - white on black - is hard on the eyes. It can
- be a nice effect if used sparingly. Don't reverse a serif font, though
- - its details will tend to fill in. Stick to reversing bold
- sans-serifs, and remember to space them out a bit more than usual.
-
- It is always safest to use a plain serif font for large amounts of
- text. Because Times is widely used, it doesn't mean it should be
- avoided. Fonts like Palatino, Times, Century Old Style are deservedly
- popular because people can read a lot of text set in such faces
- without strain.
-
- Don't expect anyone to read extensive text set in a condensed font.
-
- As point size gets bigger, track tighter, and (if the software allows)
- reduce the spacebands as well. A spaceband in a headline size
- (anything over 14 point) should be about as wide as a letter "i".
-
- If you only have a few large headlines, hand-kerning the type, pair by
- pair, can make the end result much more pleasing. Besides, working
- with fonts this closely makes them familiar.
-
- Column width and justification are major elements in design. The
- narrower the column, the smaller the type can be; wide rows of small
- type are very hard to read. Often it's a better idea to set narrow
- columns flush left rather than justified, otherwise large gaps can
- fall where hyphenation isn't possible.
-
- Use curly quotes.
-
- Don't put two spaces at the end of a line (. ) instead of (. ) when
- using a proportionally spaced font.
-
- 9. Acknowledgements
-
- The moderators would like to express their gratitude to the whole
- community for providing insightful answers to innumerable questions. In
- particular, the following people (listed alphabetically) have contributed
- directly to this FAQ (apologies, in advance if anyone has been
- forgotten):
-
- Masumi Abe <abe@adobe.com>
- Tim Bradshaw <tim.bradshaw@edinburgh.ac.UK>
- Terry Carroll <tjc50@juts.ccc.amdahl.com>
- Ari Davidow <ari@netcom.com>
- Pat Farrell <pfarrell@cs.gmu.edu>
- Rick Heli <?>
- Gary <Gocek.Henr801C@Xerox.COM>
- Berthold K.P. Horn <bkph@ai.mit.edu>
- Don Hosek <dhosek@ymir.claremont.edu>
- Yossi Gil <yogi@cs.ubc.ca>
- David Mandl <dmandl@bilbo.shearson.com>
- Kate McDonnell <?>
- George Moore <georgem@microsoft.com>
- Robert Morris <ram@claude.cs.umb.EDU>
- Stephen Peters <speters@us.oracle.COM>
- Jim Reese <Jim.Rees@umich.edu>
- Liam R.E. Quim <lee@sq.com>
- Henry Schneiker <?>
- Cameron Smith <cameron@symcom.math.uiuc.edu>
- Amanda Walker <amanda@visix.com>
-
- 10. A Brief Introduction to Typography
-
- Space, time, and bandwidth are too limiting to provide a complete
- introduction to typography in this space. I'd be very willing to make
- one available for anonymous ftp, if you want to write one, but I'm not
- going to write it--I have neither the time nor the expertise. However,
- the following description of Times, Helvetica, and Courier will suffice
- for a start. For more information, several books on typography are
- listed in the bibliography.
-
- Laurence Penney <L.O.R.Penney@cm.cf.ac.uk> offers the following
- description of Times, Helvetica, and Courier:
-
- Times is a typeface designed in the 1930s for the Times newspaper in
- London and is now used widely in books, magazines and DTP. Its design
- is based on the typographical principles evolved since Roman times
- (upper case) and the 16th century (lower case). It is called a
- TRANSITIONAL typeface, after the typefaces of the 17th century which it
- resembles. Like all typefaces designed for typesetting large
- quantities of text, it is proportionally spaced: the i takes about a
- third the width of an M. Personally I don't like Times too much and
- prefer the more elegant Garamond and Baskerville, but these will
- probably cost you money... Note: The Transitionals came after the Old
- Styles (like Garamond) and before the Moderns (like Bodoni).
-
- Helvetica is an example of a SANS-SERIF typeface. These first appeared
- in the late 19th century in Germany and flourished in the 1920s and
- 30s, when they were regarded as the future of typography. It's more a
- geometric design than the humanist design of Gill Sans, but less
- geometric than Avant Garde and Futura. To my mind it lacks elegance,
- and Adrian Frutiger's Univers shows how this kind of typeface should be
- done. (Just compare the B, R, Q, a, g of Univers and Helvetica to see
- what I mean -- and don't you just love Univers's superbly interpreted
- ampersand ?!) Helvetica is one of the few fonts that is improved by its
- BOLD version.
-
- Another interesting approach to sans-serif is Optima, by Hermann Zapf,
- which keeps the stroke-weight variations which sans-serifs usually
- reject. Use sans-serif fonts for the same applications as Times, above,
- but where you're less concerned with elegance, and more with a
- functional appearance - they're generally reckoned to be slightly less
- legible than good serifed fonts. They're also very suitable for
- display work.
-
- Courier is a typeface derived from typewriter styles. It should ONLY be
- used when you want to simulate this effect (e.g. when writing letters
- Courier usually appears "friendlier" than Times). Like all typewriter
- fonts, it is MONOSPACED (characters all have the same width) and is
- thus suitable for typesetting computer programs. However there are
- nicer looking monospace fonts than Courier (which has oversize serifs),
- that still remain distinct from the text fonts like Times and
- Helvetica. A good one is OCR-B, designed by Frutiger. Note that
- monospaced fonts are less economical on space than proportional fonts.
-
- [ed: Following the original posting of this message, Laurence Penny and
- Jason Kim <kim3@husc.harvard.edu> discussed the issue privately. The
- following summary of their discussion may serve to clarify some of the
- more subtle points. My thanks to Laurence and Jason for allowing me to
- include this in the FAQ.]
-
- ===
-
- LP-1> The Transitionals came after the Old Styles (like Garamond) and
- before the Moderns (like Bodoni).
-
- JK> Not necessarily true! Ideologically, yes, but not chronologically.
- I believe, for example, that Bodoni predates New Century Schoolbook or
- some such typeface.
-
- LP-2> What I meant by "X came after Y" was "the first examples of X
- appeared after the first examples of Y" -- it's called precis. Some
- people still make steam trains, but you can still say "Steam engines
- came before diesels." This is chronological, not ideological in my
- book.
-
- ===
-
- LP-1> Another interesting approach to sans-serif is Optima, by Hermann
- Zapf, which keeps the stroke-weight variations which sans-serifs
- usually reject. Use sans-serif fonts for the same applications as
- Times, above, but where you're less concerned with elegance, and more
- with a functional appearance - they're generally reckoned to be
- slightly less legible than good seriffed fonts. They're also very
- suitable for display work.
-
- JK> Slightly? I have several textbooks typeset by utter fools and they
- are a pain in the ass (and eyes) to read! Please don't encourage anyone
- to use Optima (or any sans serif fonts for that matter) "for the same
- applications as Times," which, need I remind you, was designed for
- *newspaper* work!!
-
- LP-2> OK, maybe I was a little over-generous to Univers, Helvetica,
- etc., but I think variation is extremely important in typography. Have
- you ever read the British magazine "CAR" ? That uses Helvetica light (I
- think) in a very legible and attractive way, IMO. I agree, though,
- Optima is crappy for text, but it's a very valuable experiment and
- looks beautiful when printed in high quality for titling, etc. And yes,
- *books* in Helvtica are generally awful.
-
- ===
-
- JK> Serifs have been scientifically shown to be a *lot* easier on the
- reader, as they guide the eyes along the lines.
-
- LP-2> In all tests I've seen the serifs have always won the day, but
- only with certain seriffed fonts, and fonts like Univers aren't far
- behind. The "tracking" advantage for serif fonts is reduced when you're
- talking about narrow newspaper/magazine columns.
-
- ===
-
- JK> You wrote a pretty short and partial history of type. Why ignore
- the roots of type (blackletter) as well as the climax (moderns--give an
- explanation) and subsequent 'post-modern' revivals?
-
- LP-2> I was just talking about the place the 3 most common DTP types
- hold in the history of typography, and a few associated pitfalls. It
- wasn't meant as a "history of typography" at all. Please feel free to
- provide such a history yourself.
-
- JK> I think any short list of specific faces is incomplete without
- mention of Palatino, the most popular Old Style revival in existence.
-
- LP-2> Do you? To my mind Palatino is grossly overused. You must agree
- it looks bad for dense text. It isn't a proper "oldstyle revival" at
- all, more of a "calligraphic interpretation" of it. Zapf designed it as
- a display face, and wasn't too concerned about lining up the serifs
- (check out the "t"). And it just *has* to be printed on 1200dpi devices
- (at least) to look good in small sizes. OK then, maybe a short list is
- incomplete without a caution NOT to use Palatino...
-
- JK> Also, if this is meant to be a "quick history/user guide for those
- fairly new to using fonts on desktop publishing systems," then I would
- recommend more directions about the proper uses of certain faces (e.g.,
- Goudy for shaped text, Peignot for display *only*) and styles (e.g.,
- italics for editorial comments, all-caps for basically nothing).
-
- LP-2> Okay, okay. I was only sharing a few ideas, not trying to write a
- book. Surely you agree that the 3 typefaces I chose are by far the most
- commonly used and abused these days? I don't think a discussion of
- Goudy or Peignot fits in very well here, unless we're hoping to make a
- very wide-ranging FAQL. Regarding styles: first, italics are used
- principally for *emphasis* (rather than bold in running text); second,
- all good books have a few small caps here and there, don't they? - all
- mine do...
-
- JK> Sorry if I come across as critical. I think the idea of making a
- FAQL is a good one, as is your effort. We just have to make sure it
- doesn't give any newbies the wrong impressions and further perpetuate
- the typographical morass we're facing today.
-
- LP-2> Sorry if I come across as defensive, but I stand by what I said
- and object to the suggestion that I am "perpetuating the typographical
- morass". (I don't know if you really intended this - apologies if you
- didn't.)
-
- -- END OF PART I --
- --- [cut here] --- FAQ for comp.fonts: section 1, part 2 of 2 ---
-