Whitbread D. The Design Manual (анг.яз.)

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Traditional and modern layouts

Most text designs will fall into either the traditional (Italian

Renaissance) or modern categories. ‘Modern’ in this sense

is not ‘fashionable’, ‘trendy’ or even ‘contemporary’, but a

speciﬁc styling from the mid-20th century. Greatly inﬂu-

enced by the Russian Constructivist and the Dutch De Stijl

designers early in the century, Bauhaus teachers taught it

and it was reﬁned by the Swiss. It became the dominant

international corporate style.

For ‘traditional’, read ‘classical’, as it is the style based on

Italian book and type design from the Renaissance. It has

been the dominant styling used for books since and can

lend an olde worlde atmosphere to advertising and posters.

Both styles are used for annual reports because they

give particular visual clues to how an organisation wishes

to be seen.

The modern style says an organisation is forward

thinking, at the cutting edge, a bit of a risk-taker, even

casual or brash. But it can sometimes be stark and harsh.

Most manuals, magazines and reports, all forms and

nearly all corporate identity programs are based on the

modern format.

The traditional style, by contrast, implies the organ-

isation has roots and a solid foundation, it values where it

has been and can be trusted and respected. Be careful to

avoid being seen as pompous or, worse, backward. Most

books, some manuals and nearly all wedding invitations

are based on the traditional format.

Although it seems bizarre to say designs fall into these

two categories, you will ﬁnd that they are fairly easy to spot

once you know the styles. But to create a uniquely ﬂavoured

design, substitute ingredients: mix in serifs or scripts where

sans serifs are speciﬁed; or add more line rules and type-

faces to spice up the layout. Contemporary designers do not

follow these styles as rigid rules, more as guides. They

usually create a distinct hybrid.

READ MORE ABOUT IT

Suzanne West, Working with style, Watson-Guptill Publications, New York, 1990,

ISBN 0 8230 5872 7.

Layout 161

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Traditional layout

Create substantial margins that relate to each other, from smallest to largest:

the top, the inside, the outside and the bottom margin. The margins should look

generous. The page number should be centred on the text block and roughly

central in this bottom margin.

Choose a good, strong serif typeface (Bembo, Garamond, Times, Baskerville,

Palatino or another classic font), and prepare your text with italics for stress

when necessary. Loose-tracked small capitals can be used occasionally for stress

or headings within the text. Indent paragraphs by about 5 mm, with no extra

space between them.

Justify the type, leading it generously, and centre the capital letter

headings. Headings might need a little tracking as well.

Initial drop capitals on chapter opening pages and printer’s flowers or

dingbats centred at the end of the chapter will add a traditional feel. A few fine

line rules and lots of capital letters for headings and first lines will also help. If

you can get ligatured character pairs and swash characters, which are

sometimes available in a ‘specialist’ or ‘alternative’ font, it will add to the

traditional detailing.

Place the text in your page layout to fill each page to a constant page

depth—the bottom line as defined by your bottom margin. Put some extra space

around your headings. Remember that more space above a heading than below

it will keep the heading with its text.

Images, in the classic form, are on separate pages with centred captions in

tracked small capitals below the image.

Modern layout

Create light margins, keeping the top margin and side margins much the same.

The bottom margin should be slightly larger. Then divide the text block into two

or three even columns, each separated by a narrow gutter.

Prepare your text in a sans serif typeface with an extensive font family

(Helvetica, Univers, Frutiger, Gill Sans or Futura will have the range of light,

medium, bold, extrabold and italics that are required). Type should be formatted

flush left unjustified, avoiding hyphenation as far as possible, and leaded

generously to separate the sans serif lines for easy readability.

Use blocked paragraphs—not indented—and separate them with half to

one line space. (This is now usually reinterpreted to be 5 mm indented

paragraphs with no indent in the first line after a heading.)

Be creative with your headings, carefully avoiding the use of capitals, but

being generous with the use of different point sizes and weights. Headings

often hang from the top margin line and are separated from the text by a space,

which creates a text drop line further down the page. The headings will mostly

be bolder than the text and italics are usually avoided, except for stress within

text. Sometimes you might use the occasional line rule or bar in association

with a heading, often taking it to optical column measure and placing it above

the heading.

Fill each column comfortably to a logical paragraph break, but don’t fill to

the bottom, just let the text hang.

Images should also hang from the text drop line. Images will probably

conform to one- or two-column standard scalings and might be positioned

according to a strict grid for placement. Captions are often in italics the same

size and leading as the text.

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There are times when your design—like your hair—simply

looks dull, boring and lifeless. On such design bad-hair-

days, don’t throw out all that work and start again. Do a bit

of judicious design teasing and moussing. Look at the

design with a new set of eyes. Imagine someone else did

the design and you have the job of ﬁxing it up.

There are four good techniques for ﬁxing an ailing

design, which are relatively quick and work wonders.

But note that if you are working on a publication and it’s

looking boring, you don’t have to enliven every page—

occasional breaks in a publication are sufﬁcient. Every page

does not have to be dynamic and new.

Increase tonal contrast

A design that looks grey can be very boring. Text blocks

reduce to grey tone if you squint at them. The ‘squint test’

is the clincher—if it is boring to squint at, then it’s boring

to look at. What the squint test shows you is the interaction

of the tones on the page.

Fix your tonal contrast. Get some dark and light areas

happening in that grey base. For dark, choose a darker

typeface for some headings (such as an extrabold). Perhaps

use a reverse—where the type is white on a black block.

Use a dark stripe somewhere (bleeding off the side of the

page or down the side of photographs). Then add some

light—some large white type can be reversed out of a

photograph, or a logo could be reversed out of a dark stripe,

or simply keep a larger area of white space below the main

heading or create bigger margins.

Redistribute space

Many people are scared of leaving a blank area in a design,

fearing that it makes them look inept because they couldn’t

ﬁll the page neatly and their layout looks like something’s

missing. On the contrary—this area is called space or white

space (even if it’s black) and can have a wonderful effect on

163

Four ways to save a

failing design

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the liveliness and vibrance of a layout, partly because space

has the effect of increasing the tonal variety, but also

because it becomes a layout element that interacts with

picture blocks and text blocks. So manipulate space.

Space can be added to a margin to increase the layout’s

feeling of space. This can be done by hanging type and

pictures from an invisible line across the top part of the

page and letting the columns fall to a natural length,

leaving the space at the foot of the page. Alternatively, you

can put a slab of horizontal space across the page by having

an area at the top where headings sit and then a drop before

text can start. In a multicolumn format, you might leave

one of the columns blank for vertical space.

If the page is full and it looks like there is no space to

redistribute, try altering the setting from justiﬁed to

unjustiﬁed—it will immediately open up the page. Also,

you can reduce the size of the pictures to get some space.

You can reduce a heading size but keep the space around it

the same, giving the illusion of more space.

Alter scale relationships

One of the best ﬁxes is to alter scale (the size relationships

within the layout). Basically, the contrast of little with big is

dynamic and visually interesting.

If there are three pictures in a layout, make one picture

big and the others very little. Not just little—very little. The

one that is big might be so big it bleeds off all four sides,

forcing you to place the little ones somewhere on top of it.

Don’t forget that type can work that way, too. What about

an enormous title that has little tiny pictures ﬂoating in it?

What about large body copy (the main body of text) with a

tiny heading? (It can work, but it’s tricky.)

Repeat something

You can enliven a layout simply by repeating some of its

existing elements—logos, images, even type. When you

repeat them, you can create a pattern. Or you can alter their

sizes and use scale variation. This works well with logos

and photographs, particularly if you use a technique called

ghosting where you fade the logo or image until it’s like a

shadow. It can then ﬂoat behind the text or the solid version

of itself. This effect of different layers gives dimension to

the design, which is why it works as a ﬁx.

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Typography

Handling type is the special skill of the typographer. It is

sensitivity to the forms of the alphabet and numerals that

other mortals use carelessly every day in handwritten

memos and even in electronic mail. It is a tradition that

goes back to the scribes who were the ofﬁcial carers for

our ﬂedgling letterforms.

The difference between a good piece of design and a

great one is often the level of expertise in the selection and

use of type. Type must be appropriate to its subject, its

message and the illustrations that surround it—and the

reader’s experience of type.

Typefaces can have many associations for a reader.

There are typefaces we read as a child; those that recall a

bygone era; those that feel traditional and others that feel

modern; type that says, ‘This is news’; type that is romantic;

faces that are quirky and others that are serious. The

‘personality’ of a typeface can be related to historical or

emotional associations, or simply a reﬂection of our

experience of type.

One of the exciting things about the personal computer

and desktop publishing (DTP) is the discovery that there is

a whole new world of ‘typography’ out there—something

experienced from our earliest years, so often taken for

granted, but also misunderstood. Although it is exciting, it

is also a concern because we soon ﬁnd that using type is

not as easy or as intuitive as we expect.

Using type on a personal computer is very different

from using a typewriter. Typesetting, or the simulation of

it we call DTP, uses different formatting techniques to

achieve similar but superior results. Even when an original

typed manuscript was re-keyed by a typesetter, typing for

publication has always had more reﬁnements than simply

keying-in the text, because typeface designers had many

more characters available to them in a type case or on a

computer than would ﬁt on the typewriter keyboard.

165

‘Type is about much more than

questions of legibility or readability.

Fashions and technological change

are just part of the backdrop. What

makes typography fascinating, and

an essential enquiry for anybody

involved in design, is that this activity

is a manifestation of our search for

greater efficiency and greater power

in the written word. It reveals

personalities, politics, and economic

factors, along with advances in

science. It is a celebration of

humanity, and a vital and subtle

indicator of values.’

Lewis Blackwell in

20th Century Type: Remix

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Typography immediately says that the information

presented is more important than handwriting or type-

writing because only something that needed to be seen as

complete was set in type. This is why people are so much

more critical of draft text and letters in a ‘typeset’ form—

an error becomes magniﬁed. If a politician handwrote, or

typed in the Courier typeface, a letter that had a spelling

mistake, no one would mind. In Times Roman, that same

mistake simply conﬁrms our suspicions and demonstrates

the sender’s incompetence. And if they’re this incompetent

just getting a letter right, how much more incompetence is

hidden from our view? Don’t throw away that Courier font

just yet—it can save you.

If the text has the appearance of typesetting, it should

exhibit all the other hallmarks of typesetting. If it doesn’t,

readers may perceive it as unprofessional and sloppy.

There are a number of areas where you can establish a

professional styling within text:

r punctuation styling is different between typing

and typesetting

r italics are used for stress within text instead of

underlining

r heading handling is different because with typesetting

and DTP there are options which were not available

in typing

r by using columns, rules, colour, boxes, variable spacing

and other graphic elements.

With the vast capabilities many word-processing and

DTP programs contain, many users are tempted to use a

number of techniques that were previously used sparingly.

Now it is so easy to click on the menu or key-in the

command that some users are no longer considering the

wisdom of using techniques such as drop-shadows, type set

around a circle, outlined type, contoured text, boxed text

and even justiﬁcation.

All these capabilities are needed on occasion, but

not as regularly as they are being used. It is just like the

smorgasbord of typefaces that are available which are

there to give variety and ﬂexibility to typography. They

were never intended to be used in the same document

at the same time.

166 Production

Mechanical

spacing &

constant

character

width

Typewriting

Mechanical spacing and constant

character width are aspects of

typewriter fonts like Courier.

DOING IT SMARTER

Spell-checks and

proofreading

Use spell-checks regularly,

particularly as you are typing and

before you transfer the text file into a

page layout program. But don’t

forget to fully proofread the final

text. A spell-check is better than

nothing, but it is not as accurate as a

good proofread.

DOING IT FASTER

Keyboard shortcuts

Use as many keyboard (and extended

keyboard) shortcuts as you can

remember. Selecting from a menu

every time is time-consuming. Using

rulers and toolboxes also helps, but

the keyboard shortcuts really

streamline document production.

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READ MORE ABOUT IT

Christopher Perfect, The complete typographer: A manual for designing with

type, Quarto Publishing, London, 1992, ISBN 0 316 90326 4.

Gordon Rookledge and Christopher Perfect (rev. Phil Baines), Rookledge’s

international typefinder: The essential handbook of typeface recognition

and selection, 2nd edn, PBC International, Glen Cove, New York, 1998,

ISBN 1 870758 03 X.

Philip B. Meggs and Roy McKelvey, Revival of the fittest: Digital versions of

classic typefaces, RC Publications, New York, 2000, ISBN 1 883915 08 2.

Ken Garland, Illustrated graphics glossary: Of terms used in printing, publishing,

photography and other fields of interest to graphic designers, their clients

and their suppliers, Barrie and Jenkins, London, 1980, ISBN 0 09 141511 X.

Stanley Morison, A tally of types, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1973,

ISBN 0 521 20043 1.

Eric Gill, An essay on typography, 5th edn, Lund Humphries, London, 1988,

ISBN 085331 509 4.

Jan Tschichold (trans. Ruari McLean), The new typography: The first English

translation of the revolutionary 1928 document, University of California

Press, Los Angeles, 1998, ISBN 0 520 07147 6.

Alexander Lawson, Anatomy of a typeface, Hamish Hamilton, London, 1990,

ISBN 0 241 13267 3.

Hermann Zapf, About alphabets: some marginal notes on type design, The MIT

Press, Cambridge, Mass., 1970, ISBN 0 262 24010 6.

Allan Haley, Alphabet: The history, evolution and design of the letters we use

today, Thames & Hudson, London, 1995, ISBN 0 500 27835 0.

Allan Haley, Typographic milestones, Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York, 1992,

ISBN 0 442 23642 5.

Friedrich Friedl, Nicolaus Ott and Bernard Stein, Typography: When, who, how,

Könemann Verlagsgesellschaft mbH, Cologne, 1998, ISBN 3 89508 473 5.

Allan Haley, Type: Hot designers make cool fonts, Rockport, Gloucester, Mass.,

1998, ISBN 1 56496 317 9.

Sebastian Carter, Twentieth century type designers, Trefoil, London, 1987,

ISBN 0 86294 076 1.

Lewis Blackwell, 20th century type: Remix, Laurence King Publishing, London,

1998, ISBN 1 85669 116 0.

Spencer Drate and Jütka Salavetz, Extreme fonts: Digital faces of the future,

Madison Square Press, New York, 1999, ISBN 0 942604 74 1.

Rob Carter, American typography today, Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York,

1989, ISBN 0 442 22106 1.

Steven Heller and Louise Fili, Typology: Type design from the Victorian era to the

digital age, Chronicle Books, San Francisco, 1999, ISBN 0 8118 2308 3.

Wolfgang Weingart, My way to typography: Retrospective in ten sections, Lars

Müller Publishers, Baden, 2000, ISBN 3 907044 86 X.

168 Production

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Serif typefaces

Serif type has ‘little feet’, like the type you’re reading at the

moment. If you were drawing the letters by hand, the

individual movements of a calligraphy pen that make up a

letterform are called strokes. Serifs are the ﬂicks—mostly

small horizontal strokes—at the start or the end of each

character stroke.

Serif type is believed to be the most readable type for

continuous text, which is why many magazines, books and

newspapers use serif type for body copy. For extended

reading, it is more comfortable which explains why ﬁction

paperbacks—motivated, narrative reading with few

headings or other interruptions—are always in a serif

typeface.

Serif typefaces are often associated with tradition and

can lend an air of authority to text. Many of the ‘big name’

classical serifs like Bembo, Times, Baskerville and

Garamond have been around for centuries and immediately

conjure up a feeling of tradition, which is exactly what

many companies want to project, particularly at annual

report time in a recession.

Serif types usually have strokes of different widths.

Look at a capital A—the left stroke is thin, the right stroke

is thick and the crossbar is thin. This is because typeface

designs were based on the writing of scribes which was

produced with nibbed pens.

The problem with variable stroke thickness is that it

can make small type and reversed type a problem. The ﬁne

lines might drop away when they are printed. Avoid using

serif typefaces on gloss paper, in reverse, or at very small

sizes because their serifs and thin strokes can disappear.

Note: Slab serif typefaces can usually be used in a

manner similar to the use of sans serif typefaces, because of

their apparently even stroke thickness—even their serifs are

as thick as the strokes.

Typography 169

Variable stroke thickness

Times new roman

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Optical correction of a font

means that capital letters are

different measured heights even

though they appear the same height.

An O or a W are actually taller by

measuring than an H. An A is

somewhere between the two.

This is to do with the alignment of

characters on the baseline where,

for example the points of a W

actually sit below the line to ensure

that the letterform appears to sit

comfortably. Similarly the curve of

the O sits below the line. The H,

having no curves or points, sits on

the exact baseline.

Incidentally, this is why, when

people use Letraset or other rubdown

lettering systems, they often end up

with wobbly lines—unless they use

the Esselte Letraset alignment system

that takes account of it.

But in font design, there is

also optical correction of stroke

thicknesses. Particularly in S, but

also surprisingly in I, and any straight

strokes, the actual shape of the

stroke is full of nuance. Rarely, even

in the most deceptively geometrically

constructed sans serif font, is there

a straight line, due to optical cor-

rection. Most straights are, in fact,

subtle curves that come in at the

waist of the straight stroke and fan

out at the top and bottom.

The mistake made by many font

redrawers was to trust their eyes!

So you will miss the nuance, but

who cares as long as it looks okay?

And it probably will look okay at text

sizes up to about 12 point. But when

won’t it look okay?

This is where the digital font

revolution has really made an impact.

All those original nuances become

obvious in enlargement. But so do

any of the font redrawers’ short cuts.

If you’ve tried to enlarge a poor font,

you will know the problem—it looks

ugly, ungainly and lumpy. Points are

often not sharp and smooth curves

can have an unsightly kink in them.

Original fonts

Why spend money on original fonts?

Why not use the many lookalike font

clones that are available in cheap

font sets? This is not font piracy

(where you copy a font that someone

else has paid for). This is where a

new font is released and becomes so

popular that other font companies

create lookalike fonts in order to

keep their customers from changing

to a new supplier. But they don’t pay

the original font designer or buy the

original drawings from the original

font producer—they redraw their

own version. It happened with

Helvetica, which is available as

Megaron, Helvetia and Geneva.

It happened with Palatino, which

is available as Palatio, Palladium

and Andover.

It’s happening still, although

there is a new twist in the legal

definition. In a 1998 US case, it was

upheld that although the designer

still can’t copyright the font design

itself, the software program that

defines the font can be copyrighted.

But what’s wrong with it, aside

from dubious ethics and dodgy

principles? Why is it worth the

money to get the original?

Most designers would

acknowledge that the original font

contains nuances that most redraw

copyists appear to have been

unaware of or ignore. This nuance

is most often found in optical

correction. The designer of a font

will often draw a geometrically and

measurement-correct letterform only

to find through tests and close

observation that, when our eyes

see that character, we perceive it

incorrectly. We may thicken one part

of it or see an oval where a circle

is desired.

170 Production

This is often an indicator that they

were scanned and redrawn from a

printed character that had gained

thickness due to inking in the printing

process. It also means that the

originally finely tuned contrast

between the medium and bold

versions of a face can also be lost.

The other testing that an

original font designer will do is to do

with how particular character pairs

set and the overall texture of the

new font in text setting. This is all to

do with interletter spacing and

character kerning.

The redrawer will not have

spent the same amount of time as

the originator in the detailing of

those combinations and the testing

of the setting, so often uneven

setting results with a redrawn font.

This is okay if you are prepared to do

the kerning and letterspacing

yourself, but how much actually

gets done that should?

Originators of a font will

also spend more time creating the

full font requirements for high-end

publishing—they will often create an

expert set and sometimes foreign

language font sets to match.

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