theTypeBook provides 6 basic page layouts that may be used individually or in combination to create a typeface reference specific to your needs and/or desires. Each layout is carefully designed to provide a maximum amount of useful information while maintaining a pleasing appearance that does affect the emphasis on the typeface specimens.
There are a number of options available that affect all layouts, and still more that apply to specific layouts, that provide additional control over the content and appearence. For example, the size and typefaces used to print the page titles and other static data are independently user selectable. The options you select are remembered between executions of theTypeBook to help maintain consistancy as your typeface reference grows.
The are two catagories of layouts: Those that concentrate on a single typeface specimen, and those that provide a number of typeface specimens per page. Single typeface specimens are titled automatically during printing using the "true" outline name, or currently assigned "AKA" if any. Multiple typeface specimen page titles are optionally changed through selections in the Layouts menu.
You can also control whether the specimens are printed in left-facing, right-facing, or centered format. Facing page options appear in the Print Dialog. The default setting is "Left Facing", when looking at the edge of a bound page it is printed on the left side.
The Sample Page
The Sample Page is the most comprehensive of all of the specimen layouts. It also has the greatest number of options between all other layouts. The copy text used in the sample paragraphs may be changed using a full featured text editing window, the size and leading of each individual paragraph may also be changed.
 
Basic Sample Page One Possible Option...
The main specimen page consists of seven distinct parts:
Title – This is the “True” outline name of the typeface. It is located at the top and usually right-justified on the page. All pages are in the same format which is designed for a 3-hole punch. This facilitates updating an existing book with new additions or reorganizing pages. The Facing Pages option in the print dialog moves the name to the left side of the page.
Strength – A series of one line showings of the typeface at various point sizes. Demonstrates how well a face holds-up at these sizes.
Letter Form – A 48 pt. display of selected characters available from the typeface. Sufficiently large enough to compare the various attributes of similar faces. If Extra Colors Samples is selected in the Layout menu the Letter Form display will be reduced to 36 pt. If you select either of the metric measurement modes a slightly different set of characters will be used and will include a few of the most popular European characters are added.
Type Color Samples – A series of sample paragraphs are printed to demonstrate how the typeface might work as body copy. Certain point size and leading combinations cause the paragraph as a whole to appear lighter or darker on a page. The point size and leading used to produce each of the sample paragraphs may be independently set through the Color Sample Specs dialog in the Layouts menu. The text used may be changed via the Edit Menu’s Color Sample Text command.
A special text wrapping algorithm is used which breaks words at the last character that will fit a the line. It does not hyphenate or search for a space to break a line of text. This inhibits “holes” from appearing in the samples and provides for a consistent color comparison. When printing to a legal-size page or when Extra Color Samples is selected, three additional color samples are provided.
(See below for more about the sample text.)
Chars/Pica [Chars/Cicero] – This is the average number of characters the will fit in one Pica of column width. It is computed from the fractional character widths of individual characters and based on the sample text in the Type Color section of the page. The fractional character width data is obtained directly from the current FOND resource for the selected character style.
Cap Height [Inches/Millimeters] – This table indicates the approximate point size required in this typeface to produce a capital letter of a desired size. This is an approximate number due to the fact that not all font designs fill to the top of their font rectangles. Quite often there is an extra white space at the top of the rectangle. When it is present, theTypeBook obtains the Font Ascent value from the FOND resource. Otherwise theTypeBook looks at the top 8 bits in the character bitmap font until it finds a black one. Whichever of these values is then scaled to the appropriate size which is subject to some minor deviations during calculation. This means that occasionally font sizes in the larger scales, the recommended sizes may be a point or two off.
If Extra Color Samples is selected in the Layout menu the Cap Height data will not be displayed. Since the emphasis of this layout is mainly on body copy, only the Char/Pica information is displayed.
No Measurements – If so desired, both copyfit measurements may be replaced by a additional display of the specimen typeface. The measurements tables are replaced with a 96pt display sample by selecting “No Measurements” from the Measurements menu. If Extra Color Samples is selected this will be a 48 pt. display of the characters Aa through Zz - whatever fits on one line.
More About the Sample Text.....
The Average Character Width and Cap Height data are computed from the “fractional” data contained in the FOND resource. The FOND contains character width tables for each style based on a size of 1pt. The width values of all the characters in the color sample are scaled to size and added together, that value is divided by the total number of characters used. This is similar to stringing all the letters together on a single line to obtain the total width. It does not take into account possible word-wrapping or hyphenization when copy is restricted to a specified column width. Therefore typespecing calculations are considered to be approximate values.
The Type Showings page
Named the “Six-up layout”, there are 6 type specimens in columnar form per page. Each of these consist of two sizes of the specimen font and a mini-size copyfitting table. When Use Font ID Info is enabled in the Page Comments dialog the ID number and Type of font are shown immediately below the typeface name. The FOND Name and style menu selections are shown at the bottom of each type specimen.
You can set the title used on the Type Showings pages through the “6-Up Showings Title” dialog in the Layouts menu. This is useful when categorizing your fonts. Some titles might be “Serif Fonts”, “Shareware Fonts”, “Cheltenham Family”, or “Package #198” for example.
The Type Showings page title will be overridden by the basename of a font family if “Family page breaks” is turned on in the Print Dialog. Family page breaks will start a new page of Type Showings when the base family name changes during the printing process. This option allows you to automatically group type showings into a family organization. If you do not edit the 6-Up Showing Title the default title “Type Showings” will be used.
The copy text may be changed using the text editing window. The size of the large sample and the size and leading, of the sample paragraph may also be changed. Measurements used in the tables may be in either Picas or Ciceros.
 
Floating Paragraph Length Fixed Paragraph Length
Other Specimen Pages
The remaining basic layouts may used to create a more specialized typeface reference or as suppliments to the previously described layouts.
 
Variable Number of specimens Auto or Fixed sizing to 300 pts.
 
Index page for quick reference Handy Keycaps chart
Line Showings Page – This feature will combine the selected typefaces on a page (or pages) into a collection of two-line showings. Its main purpose is creating an overview of your font collection. For each selected typeface two line a printed display upper and lower case characters, numerals, and popular punctuation at a fixed point size.
The number of samples per page is controlled by the page size selected and the Line Showings Specs dialog in the Layouts menu. Sample sizes from 10 to 51 pts may be used. The size affects the number of samples that will fit on a page. The number of samples must be from 4 to 15. If an improper combination is entered a beep will sound when you click OK. When possible the closest allowable value will replace the improper one automatically.
The “Comment Text” feature also applies to the Line Showing pages allowing you to further categorize. ie. “Adobe Type-1”, “Monotype”, “Postscript”, “TrueType”, “Based on the original design”, etc. When Include Font ID info is enabled through the Page Comments dialog Fond ID information is printed right-justified opposite the corresponding outline name for each font on each page.
The Keycaps Page – Simply prints a keycaps chart which indicates the necessary key combinations needed to generate a particular character. Keycaps charts are extremely helpful when working with Dingbats type fonts.
All Characters Page – This feature displays the printable Character set at the largest possible point size using a full-page format. Typefaces which are condensed or have a smaller cap height will be printed at larger sizes than normal. Typefaces which are extended will be printed at smaller sizes. The sample size is initially set at 60pts. The sum of all the character widths is computed and the point size is adjusted downward until all lines needed fit on a single page.
Index Page – The Index page provides a brief overview of your fonts by providing a small sample of up 90 fonts per letter size page. The Index page is currently the only layout that supports the Tabloid (11"x16") page size.
When printing to a tabloid page size the Index layout is modified to 4 columns providing up to 200 fonts per page. If the Facing Pages "Center" option is turned on in the print dialog the page title will be centered on the page making it suitable for a wall chart.
