September 2, 2008
Fonts and Faces
Posted by Savage Henry @ 2:05 PM
In case you weren't aware, a non-trivial portion of both the riders and the viewership here at the Mint spend their days in pursuits related to media, design, and communication.
It is for them that I point out this interesting review of a book that, until I read the review, I would not have considered reading: Fonts and Faces.
Now, if only seed would make the font for this site bigger.
Or red.
Or both!
Comments
*sigh...
I cannot make the font of this site bigger anymore than I can make the grey smaller.
Yeah, OK, I'll take the bait... Text comes in a typeface, then a family. Like this:
Garamond = typeface
Garamond Light = typeface + family
Type also comes in races. Garamond is a Roman face. Rockwell is an Egyptian face. Common folks will use only two distinctions of race: Serif and Sans Serif.
So, if I specified Officina Serif Light Italic, it would be something like this: typeface + race + family
The author of the article is correct. A Font is equal to the shelf that the 50-volume Britannica Encyclopedia set sits on. In no way can it define the style of text that it contains.
Just know that when you hear somebody, like your fucking boss who claims to know something about design, ask if the font can be made blue, they are really asking that the shelf in the library change color to affect all the books that rest on it.
And also know that when I hear it, it coincides with a high-tension ratcheting sound in my head, with each click tightening the spring.
Posted by: seed | September 3, 2008 9:10 AM