Font Peeves

[Bruce Byfield <bbyfield -at- AXIONET -dot- COM>]

Barry House <bhouse -at- CREATIVE-HOUSE -dot- COM> wrote:

>If Times is a bad font for business correspondence, what's a >preferred font?
>
>What about body copy for a manual--what fonts are preferred >there?

I think you have to consider two main things when choosing fonts:
readability and corporate image.

You want a font that is readable at the point size you've chosen. For
example, Palatino is a highly readable font at 12 points, but doesn't
work at 10 pts or less; Robert Bringhurst suggests using Aldus instead,
which was created exactly for that purpose.

On the other hand, if your company is interested in creating a unique
impression, any type of Garamond would be a poor choice. Not only Apple,
but about 40% of all manuals in North America use some variant of
Garamond, according to Adobe Press' "Branding with Type." It's also a
good idea to keep current on how certain fonts are used. Optima, for
example, is a very attractive font in the abstract, but you might want
to consider that it's heavily used by perfume companies, and might look
strange in a manual about hardware.

Ignoring different circumstances, some workhorses for body text are:

1.) Palatino
2.) Bookman
3.) Stone Serif
4.) Caslon
5.) Baskerville

I also hear of some of the more recent Multiple Masters fonts, such as
Jenson and Kepler, are being used. You could also get away with Gill
Sans for body text, if you wanted to be different.

Workhorses for headings include:

1.) Gill Sans
2.) Frutiger
3.) Futura (although the variant Avenir is more versatile)
4.) Myriad
5.) Univers

Finally, a word on selecting your body text and headings fonts: you are
less likely to be guilty of typographical atrocities if you use fonts by
the same designer or from the same era. I've heard of companies paying
for such atocities as combinations of Futura and Bembo, or Centaur and
Avant-Garde.

Two useful sources of quick information on the subject (which, after
all, takes a lifetime of concentration to learn really well - I know
just enough to know how little I know) are the Adobe Type on Call CD and
Robert Bringhurst's "The Elements of Typographic Style."

--
Bruce Byfield, Outlaw Communications
(bbyfield -at- axionet -dot- com)  (604) 421-7189  or 687-2133 X. 269
http://www.axionet.com/outlawcommunications

"Rain and hard religion, gifts of a northern youth
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