Bembo, for instance, is a digital copy of a metal interpretation of an original typeface cut in 1495 – a copy of a copy. A digital typeface can be optimised for a few sizes, but hardly for all. Typefaces went from being cut in a multitude of sizes to a single, all-encompassing outline. The nature of digital fonts is to use one outline and scale as desired. Why is this relevant? Well, in the rush to adapt to digital typesetting technology, type foundries digitised classic typefaces. It is like mashing up Othello, King Lear, Hamlet and a touch of The Tempest and publishing it as ‘The Shakespeare’. This practice takes on new meaning when we consider that there can never be a definitive Bodoni, Garamond, Jenson, or Fleischmann typeface, as their oeuvres consist of a multitude of single, size-specific fonts. If the details are too fine then the metal will quickly wear or serifs will break off when pressed into paper. This is as much a technical consideration as an aesthetic one: the 9 point needs to be sturdier to withstand the printing process. The 36 point has much finer lines and the spacing is tighter. The 9 point has sturdier details: the serifs are thicker, the contrast is lower, and the spacing is more generous. If one were to blow up the printed impression of the 9 point to the same size as the 36, the differences would be readily apparent. The 9 point worked beautifully for text and 36 point worked for display. When he needed a larger size for headings, he cut another font at 36 point. For instance, when Bodoni needed a font for text size, he cut a font at 9 point. Each font of type was designed to work at a specific size. However, cutting a 7-point lowercase ‘g’ takes a lot more skill than making a smiley-face potato stamp! The old masters of typeface design spent decades perfecting their craft. Woodcuts and potato stamps use a similar method. As a printing process it is fairly basic. Single letters were placed by hand to create words, words were aligned into sentences, sentences were stacked to make paragraphs, and these were inked and pressed into paper. These size-specific fonts consisted of individual letters made from metal alloy. A typeface was composed of fonts, one font for each size. Let me begin with a brief history.īefore digital typesetting and offset printing, there was the letterpress. As more questions were asked than could be answered, I wrote this article to explain myself. At a recent panel discussion on New Zealand book design, I lambasted the overuse of Bembo in many New Zealand books.
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