16 ms·

Practical Typography

472 points by dchest 13y ago

martin-adams 13y ago
I've only had a brief scan and this looks excellent. It's the type of thing I'd love a printed copy on my desk for.
- MrGando 13y ago
  Would like a copy too.
jbaiter 13y ago
Great design and usability, and from briefly scanning through it, excellent advice to boot. I would love to have this in a nice hardcover edition!
ics 13y ago
Matthew Butterick is a pretty interesting guy, with an interesting background: http://typographyforlawyers.com/about.html http://typographyforlawyers.com/about.html This looks great, I'm anxious to give it a thorough going-through in the next couple days. There are some good tips outside of just type as well, including this bit from the resume sample: "Avoid dense text by using a second page. [...] Students, this advice doesn’t apply to you. You’ve only got one page of material. Really."
aidos 13y ago
I've jut spent 20 minutes or so flicking through this and I felt I've learnt a lot already. Will definitely be giving this my full attention.
scrrr 13y ago
I find this page hard to read: http://practicaltypography.com/summary-of-key-rules.html http://practicaltypography.com/summary-of-key-rules.html Perhaps it looks good on a tablet computer. But it feels odd to learn about typography from a page that feels difficult to read.
- zaguios 13y ago
  I completely agree, his excessive use of "Small Caps" is incredibly annoying since it just looks out of place with the rest of the text. I'm also not a fan of his font choice, rather than picking it to promote readability it looks like he just picked it so he could be snobby about using "professional looking fonts". I wouldn't be so up in arms about this if he hadn't labeled the entire site "practical typography" since I have more trouble reading this site than I do almost every other site I visit.
  - tikhonj 13y ago
    I think he picked them because he designed them. Feel free to draw your own conclusions from that :P. (I think they're fine but hardly awe-inspiring. Certainly better than the defaults though.)
- martin-adams 13y ago
  Interestingly there is something about that page (or my eyes are tired, in the wrong light etc) that makes that page hard to read for me. I don't know what it is, but feels like my eye sight is only able to comprehend the point focus of what I'm looking at.
  - DarqWebster 13y ago
    While I'm not a professional typographer, I currently work in user experience, so I might have an answer. From a cursory glance at the CSS, it's solid black text on a solid white background. This can have slightly too much contrast, which can become tiring to read. Off-black text on an off-white background tends to help I find. Apparently this effect is even worse for dyslexics, and "not-white" is specifically mentioned in: http://www.bdadyslexia.org.uk/about-dyslexia/further-information/dyslexia-style-guide.html http://www.bdadyslexia.org.uk/about-dyslexia/further-informa...
    - bestest 13y ago
      black on white, links not underlined, letter spacing and uppercase in links wrong, line-height / parapgraph spacing ratio wrong (this one's most important and making it all ugly IMO), two column index - that one's really cruel, uppercase / lowercase first letter mess all around. the page definitely looks a lot better with CSS disabled.
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bertzzie 13y ago
I've been reading the "How to pay for this book" page [1] and noticed that there the author said: > I programmed a new web-publishing system. I seem can't find any other reference to that, and still not sure about emailing the author directly yet. My google-fu failed me on this one. Anyone know if the author's system has been published or sold? Thanks before. [1}: http://practicaltypography.com/how-to-pay-for-this-book.html http://practicaltypography.com/how-to-pay-for-this-book.html
- dchest 13y ago
  I found out about this book because the author's tweet (saying he wrote it in Racket) was retweeted by @racketlang https://twitter.com/mbutterick/status/359768757733826560 https://twitter.com/mbutterick/status/359768757733826560
  - bertzzie 13y ago
    Thanks! Much appriciated!
- Macuyiko 13y ago
  See http://practicaltypography.com/end-credits.html#Colophon http://practicaltypography.com/end-credits.html#Colophon > The book was written and designed using Pollen, > a book-publishing system that I created for this > project. Pollen was built with Racket, a programming > language descended from Scheme & Lisp. So no, it doesn't seem to be published.
pron 13y ago
A very interesting read. I've always been interested in fonts, but I have a question regarding their price. Why are they so expensive? I don't know how long it takes to design a good font, but is it longer than writing a good smartphone app? Font pricing feels outdated. It feels from an era when publishing was done by large companies. If I could buy an excellent font for $10-$20 I would literally buy dozens. But font designers are making their work a serious expense, making me ask myself "is it worth it?" In most cases, the answer is no.
- dan1234 13y ago
  I guess value depends on how many time you're going to use a given font. You'll pay once but could use the same few fonts across many projects.
- ics 13y ago
  One thing is that traditionally users don't buy fonts. In the past, the only people you expected to get any money from were people who got paid to set the type. You might spend months to years working on a single typeface and in that time a considerable amount of work had to be done to market it (done usually by the foundry you were working with), because after that much time a real flop might mean the end. Over the last few decades the barriers for creating and distributing type have definitely shrunk significantly, but there's still an issue over how type should be licensed and exactly what it needs to compensate for. Many typefaces are created by people who are otherwise employed as graphic designers or illustrators, while the individuals who are solely type designers have to contend for their living with type only in what is now a sea of free or corporate subsidized fonts (i.e. what came on your system). --- If what I just typed makes no sense at all, I blame either my insomnia or the ambien which I refuse to take for it.
  - tptacek 13y ago
    This is, I think, the real reason: if you're going to make a living selling fonts, you're going to be selling them to agencies and publications. There aren't enough of those to make a living if your fonts cost $5 a piece. There are a lot of things priced this way. Obviously, the other issue is that a publication will pay a gigantic amount of money for a typeface, but HN readers will only reluctantly spend $21. Rather than trying to bridge the gap, it makes sense to sell to the party that values your work the most. Again, this is a very common and sensible pricing dynamic. Operators of $5/yr SAAS services take heed!
melloclello 13y ago
Oh man, he's hating all over Times New Roman. http://practicaltypography.com/times-new-roman.html http://practicaltypography.com/times-new-roman.html Times is great! I would say that any hate for Times is a repressed memory from the days when it was the default font in Microsoft Word. I mean, wow, remember this? http://i.imgur.com/6QV6Qvr.png http://i.imgur.com/6QV6Qvr.png
- gabemart 13y ago
  I feel like I'm missing the joke. The section "hating on" Times New Roman is displayed in the font-family Times New Roman. Is the author just having some fun?
  - jvzr 13y ago
    Trying to make a point, perhaps?
  - jfarmer 13y ago
    Yes, I think he's just being clever. If you look at the source you can see the font choice is explicitly set inline, for this page only: <div style="font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:105%"> ... </div> So, it's definitely intentional. Moreover, because the rest of the book is typeset in Equity, a Times New Roman replacement the author designed, we have the opportunity to see and feel the difference. It's a kind of "show, don't tell" statement. I think it'd underscore the point better if the last paragraph pointed out that everything you just read was typeset in Times New Roman and then link to a page with the same article typeset in Equity. I went to another page of his and copied a paragraph, setting one paragraph to use Times New Roman and another to use Equity. Without saying which is which, I'll leave it to you to decide which is "better": http://cl.ly/image/0I333L3d0O2H http://cl.ly/image/0I333L3d0O2H I suggest not "cheating" by comparing the font shapes to the example Equity at the top of the page. :D
- arrrg 13y ago
  Did you read that? I seriously doubt your reading comprehension skills if you characterize what he wrote as "hating all over Times New Roman".
Ashuu 13y ago
I would love to a Kindle edition or a pdf. It would be great read on the move.
bambax 13y ago
This is a fantastic resource; it's unfortunate that the site is so slow (HN effect maybe?)
Brajeshwar 13y ago
Almost half-way through it and I'm learning quite a lot of new things. Btw, for those who deal with web typography, you should look at Typeplate[1]. That's an awesome typography starter kit for your project. http://typeplate.com/ http://typeplate.com/
cinger 13y ago
nice clean site, whenever i see talk of typography i always run to the thoughts on monospace fonts, perhaps lawyers lack the same needs from monospace fonts as programmers... both of his suggestions for courier alternatives: FB Alix... his own, Courier 10 ; lack even basic needs such as easily distinguishable 0 and O and 1 and l... of course i type this comment into a textarea using courier... that then prints Verdana... on a site arguably for people interested in programming and its tangential influence, so perhaps i am the only audience
- cinger 13y ago
  my bad, i was looking at his site typographyforlawyers.com page, on the page linked he has a few other suggestions: Pitch, Kettler, Nitti ; and Nitti seems to satisfy those simple needs, i think i will take a look
jschulenklopper 13y ago
Interesting compilation of sensible, actionable advise on typography... but there's one choice that IMO hinders usability for this site: the absence of an clear(er) indication of hyperlinked text. The small caps is too subtle (for me), and also against one of the rules mentioned: "Never use unlining, unless it is a hyperlink". That at least suggests to underline hyperlinks. This use is also in contrast with Nielsen's advise since 2004: "Textual links should be colored and underlined to achieve the best perceived affordance of clickability, though there are a few exceptions to these guidelines", on http://www.nngroup.com/articles/guidelines-for-visualizing-links/ http://www.nngroup.com/articles/guidelines-for-visualizing-l...
- lnanek2 13y ago
  Haha, yeah, took me a bit to figure out I could click. Combined with the bizarre print era font instead of something modern I just expected it to be scanned images or a PDF or something and not interactive at all. Maybe they need a new rule not to use old fuddy duddy fonts in modern media like web sites.
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jvzr 13y ago
The one thing that bothers me is the whole first chapter. The point of the book is to give advice on typography. And the point of the first chapter is to tell the reader that the writer has to get to the point or else it's a waste of the reader's time: > Writing as if you have unlimited reader attention is also dangerous, because running out of reader attention is fatal to your writing. The goal of most professional writing is persuasion, and attention is a prerequisite for persuasion. Once the reader’s attention expires, you have no chance to persuade. You’re just giving a monologue in an empty theater. Well, then... Don't write that chapter and let's get down to business! I guess I'll skip that chapter. Edit: Oh boy. I hadn't read about Violet's and Trixie's resumés. I like typography and give it a great deal of thought in every digital undertaking; but I will surely not hire Trixie because she used a better template: she gives less information and the whole resumé feels like it has as much negative space as content. When, and if, I hire someone, I want information, not thin air. Edit 2: Another thing, regarding the 1.25 to 1.45 line-height he recommends. I feel like it's a lawyer's thing. Anything smaller than 1.5 looks very clamped, and most times people use 1.5 to 1.75. Kudo for the font size though. My poor eyes are grateful.
- m-r-r 13y ago
  > Edit 2: Another thing, regarding the 1.25 to 1.45 line-height he recommends. I feel like it's a lawyer's thing. Anything smaller than 1.5 looks very clamped, and most times people use 1.5 to 1.75. It depends of the font and the font size: sometimes, 1.3 is too much.
- typografy 13y ago
  The second resume does not feel appropriately designed, it looks like a menu at an upscale restaurant, mixes too many emphasis styles and typefaces, does not create a hierarchy, and just does not look nearly as good as the author thinks it does.
Qtz 13y ago
This is exactly what I need. Since I am starting to make typography.
Qtz 13y ago
Awesome! This is valuable to me. Since I am starting to make typography.
mrottenkolber 13y ago
I just read to the 10 minute guide to verify my fears: While some points are correct, the 10 minute guide doesn't teach you anything. Ihmo every (web-)designer should read at least a few essays from Jan Tschichold: http://www.modernism101.com/tschichold_form_of_the_book.php http://www.modernism101.com/tschichold_form_of_the_book.php And I say that as a typography enthusiastic software engineer. The thing about typography is, when you do it right, it pretty much doesn't leave any room for creativity. There is one right way to print text in a given format. For the web I can only insist that the users choice of font and size should be respected. From there on you can only work in EMs. The first rule is that a line has to span 8-12 words. That leaves you a text width of about 66em. The line height should be 1.2 times the size of the font, e.g. 1.2em. Every element of the text (paragraphs, headings, listings, tables, images, ...) should be spaced by multiples of the line width to keep the text rythm (important). To get an idea what I am talking about you can visit my web site: http://mr.gy/services.html http://mr.gy/services.html PS: justified alignment is to be avoided since the browsers lack proper algorithms. bSad but true.
jimhefferon 13y ago
Does anyone know of a place where a person could get brief advice about suitability of various fonts? Something like, "A humanist font is characterized by .. and is most natural in a less-staid document, such as a work of fiction" (Please don't write me that it is wrong; I made that up as an example of the kind of thing a type-ignorant person like me might find useful.) I don't expect to become a brilliant designer, I am only hoping to avoid what an expert would regard as ghastly errors, or perhaps better said, to help me make some reasonable choices.
- grey-area 13y ago
  Typography is about more than just the choice of font, and in some ways the choice of fonts is less important than how you employ the fonts you do choose, how you combine them and which weights you choose to use where. I think reading books like this one would be a great first step. Some of the advice is a little opinionated, but most of it is sound, it reminds me of Strunk & White in that way. An example of misuse of typography; he advises you not to use various forms of emphasis at the same time (bold, italic and underline all at once), and to use a regular and limited progression of headings to indicate importance and hierarchy. I have seen clients attempting to design making all these mistakes without considering the result of those choices and ending up with an unsatisfactory result which fails in difficult to quantify ways. They sense it isn't quite right, but don't pin the blame in the right place (on the lack of coherence). The good news is you can learn by trying, none of this is particularly hard, it's like learning to write well - it comes with practice, really looking at what others do, and listening to criticism when it appears justified. Some of this is subjective of course, and dependent on the culture and sensibilities of the reader, so it's something you're going to acquire by osmosis rather than by reading a brief guide I'm afraid. For some subjects, there is no TL;DR.
  - jimhefferon 13y ago
    Forgive me, I cannot believe that even the most basic choices take a lifetime of training, reflection, and listening to criticism. For instance, in the linked-to document he advises not to use Papyrus in your PhD thesis. That advice doesn't take a lifetime. Hearing that advice isn't going to make me a threat to professional designers (who I work with and admire tremendously), but some very basic rules of thumb are all I am looking for.
plg 13y ago
their css file seems to have fonts defined in base64 byte strings?
chalst 13y ago
> One space between sentences: Always one — never two. Some topics in this book will offer you choices. Not this one ... Or more generally: put exactly one space after any punctuation. - http://practicaltypography.com/one-space-between-sentences.html http://practicaltypography.com/one-space-between-sentences.h... Sigh - another source for a rule that shows evidence of thinking like a writer, not as a typographer. We can forgive Bringhurst, but ... the single vs. double space choice is a false dichotomy in a world with proportional fonts, font expansion, stretchable space, and the like, since there is no such thing as the width of a space. TeX, for instance, allows the space after sentences to stretch more than interword space, and gives inter-sentence space that is 1/3 wider than interword space where there is no space (default for CMR).
- arrrg 13y ago
  That changes nothing at all. One space is correct and nothing else. This particular document doesn't even touch on more advanced tings like this so it makes sense to leave it out and keep it to the simplified but still correct statement: One space, nothing else. That's it. If you do something else you are wrong.
  - russellallen 13y ago
    What does "one space" even mean? Does it mean only one character's width? No, because that varies. Does it mean the same width as all other spaces? No, because as explained above typesetting systems often make the space longer, and many traditional typographers did likewise. Does it mean only pressing the spacebar once? No, because that won't make a difference in many systems like TeX, HTML. It's just a typographical shibboleth, nothing more.
    - rmk2 13y ago
      > Does it mean only pressing the spacebar once? No, because that won't make a difference in many systems like TeX, HTML. Seeing as the original article always tells you how to do things in Word, it means exactly that. Any system that is not not WYSIWYG will have no problems here, Word does. And since most people use Word, this is relevant. It doesn't matter that TeX doesn't take it into account, because this is not primarily written for TeX users. TeX does many of these things, but it is not what most people use, especially those who do not know anything at all about typography.
jongold 13y ago
Interesting book but confusing advice from someone who seemingly knows what he's talking about. The very first chapter starts with three hyphenated lines in a row! I’m imaging my typography professors facepalming right now… http://practicaltypography.com/typography-in-ten-minutes.html http://practicaltypography.com/typography-in-ten-minutes.htm...
- arrrg 13y ago
  That seems rather like a limitation of web tech than anything else. You do not get very much control over hyphenation on the web. (Also note that dynamic hyphenation is necessary here since the layout reacts to brwoser width changes.)
  - anvandare 13y ago
    Correct, although CSS 3 does offer something to that effect: http://dev.w3.org/csswg/css-text/#hyphenation http://dev.w3.org/csswg/css-text/#hyphenation
- lobster_johnson 13y ago
  Hyphenation depends on your screen and browser. (Try zooming in and out in a browser such as Chrome to see it change.) It's more the fault of the browser's flow algorithm than of the page itself.
codeoclock 13y ago
"Bad fonts"?
danso 13y ago
IANAL, but I'm purchasing the OP's other book, "Typography for Lawyers" ($10 on Kindle) http://www.amazon.com/Typography-for-Lawyers-ebook/dp/B005JVSH5K/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1314712748&sr=1-1 http://www.amazon.com/Typography-for-Lawyers-ebook/dp/B005JV... Partly to thank the author for writing the OP, but also because I find it just fascinating that he found a niche not just in typography, but the importance of typography in the legal arena. Seems like there should be an equally important niche for a book, "Programming for Lawyers", much of which would involve batch document scanning and analysis.
- karlb 13y ago
  Even if you're not a lawyer (I'm not), I'd highly recommend his book. From memory, its main shortcoming is that it doesn't go into depth about those aspects of typography that are specific to the web (e.g., web-safe fonts, font substitution, etc.).
  - TylerE 13y ago
    Isn't that a bit like complaining that a bookie on Vegitarian cuisine doesn't include any steak recipes?
    - pawn 13y ago
      Steak is my favorite vegetarian dish. What do you mean 'vegetarian' doesn't mean what I think it means?
    - karlb 13y ago
      No, it's not like that, because (a) I'm not complaining about the book. I'm highly recommending it, but with a qualification that's relevant to this audience, and (b) steak and vegetarian are mutually exclusive, whereas law and web aren't.
  - smalltalk 13y ago
    When and why would a lawyer be concerned with web-specific typography? I can't possibly imagine a lawyer ever needing to know about web-safe fonts or any other aspects of typography that are specific to the web.
WickyNilliams 13y ago
I feel bad just coming here to post a link, but another great resource is Mark Boulton's "Designing for the Web". It's been released as a free book online[1]. (I'm not affiliated with this in any way) It has lots of detail on typography, but focussed around the web. It also covers things like colour and layout amongst other topics (e.g. research and workflow, which I find less insightful). It's a great and fairly quick read :) [1]http://designingfortheweb.co.uk/book/index.php http://designingfortheweb.co.uk/book/index.php
MrGando 13y ago
I would love to know if there are some resources for typography on mobile (iOS). At WWDC 2013, it became very clear that iOS 7 will make a huge push in the use of typography as one of the main ways to give an app more personality. In the past the emphasis was put on world-like textures, graphics, etc. Any advice on this matter?
cpr 13y ago
The section on PostScript for printers is quite dated--most printer drivers now rely (at least in the Mac OS world) on the OS's PDF-style rendering, and just ship bits to the printer. PostScript itself (vs PDF) is pretty much a dead letter at this point.
typografy 13y ago
This is seriously awful. He's using some kind of condensed serif at an enormous size that makes it very uncomfortable for screen reading. His list numbers are illegible, misaligned, and extremely far away from the list items. He sprinkles SMALL CAPS everywhere FOR SOME REASON. The contents page is particularly bad, using a Futura-esque font against a serif at the same size, with bizarre spacing, failing to make a hierarchy or pleasing design. There are many great design documents. This is not one of them. If you want to improve your design skills, do yourself a favor and avoid this charlatan.
- sublimit 13y ago
  Yeah, what's up with the trend of maximum black-on-white contrast with a huge font? Do people out there think it looks good, or is it just a default layout they haven't bothered to change? It hurts my eyes, especially at night, and gives a sort of condescending vibe - "what I'm saying is really important so I'll spell this out like you were reading an alphabet book".
  - tedsanders 13y ago
    >Do people out there think it looks good...? Yes. I thought it looked good.
njharman 13y ago
Typographers need to (some do) accept and distinguish between print and web typography. Too much is claimed with little justification other than "cause that's the way printers have been doing it for 200 years". The world changes, need to evaluate and adapt. Also, this mixed in writing / content advice. Would be stronger if it was just typography. btw as a user I fucking hate curly apostrophes and emdashes.
- adiM 13y ago
  Would you care to elaborate why you have curly apostrophes and em-dashes?
frogpelt 13y ago
The chapter about Times New Roman is written in Times New Roman. That's neat.
aw3c2 13y ago
Dismissing Courier as monospaced font and suggesting his own: http://www.fontbureau.com/fonts/AlixFB/characters/ http://www.fontbureau.com/fonts/AlixFB/characters/ Look at that, the lowercase L looks like a one.
- ygra 13y ago
  Not every monospaced font is intended for programming. I like the default old-style numerals in that one, though :-)
buttproblem 13y ago
I wonder if someone could shed some light on this (from type composition straight and curly quotes): > Computer scientists and documentation writers, take note: straight quotes and backticks in software code should never be converted to curly quotes. Those marks are, of course, part of the functional syntax of the code and must be reproduced literally. While fans of LaTeX have often written me to trumpet its typesetting superiority, I’ve never seen any LaTeX-created documentation that’s gotten this right. As a LaTeX user (and not a very good one) I'm not too sure what I've been doing wrong.
- mzs 13y ago
  If you have been doing this: \usepackage{listings} \usepackage{textcomp} ... upquote=true ... You have been doing nothing wrong.
- mariusae 13y ago
  Also make sure you read Eddie Kohler's LaTeX usage notes: http://www.read.seas.harvard.edu/~kohler/latex.html
- ygra 13y ago
  It's very common to see ”Hello World” in LaTeX-written documents. The problem in my eyes is often that well-meaning people tell others that LaTeX will automagically make your document look good and professional, yet neglect to point out that you still have to know the details to achieve that. Proper quotes, proper usage of non-breaking spaces, proper hyphenation when the default breaks down, etc. are all things you have to consider regardless of the application. LaTeX may have nicer default styles and a few superiour algorithms (e.g. line breaking for justified text), but overall result quality for people without any clue is in my experience not higher than with Word.
sengstrom 13y ago
If you are going to make the case for alternatives to Times New Roman (http://practicaltypography.com/times-new-roman-alternatives.html http://practicaltypography.com/times-new-roman-alternatives....), wouldn't it make sense to include TNR in the lineup?
- pdenya 13y ago
  That might make sense if it was meant as a comparison but I don't think it's necessary in this context. I generally don't find comparing fonts to be very useful when evaluating a font.
pasbesoin 13y ago
I owe a permanent and longstanding debt to Don Knuth for giving me a grounding in typography via his now renowned blue-covered TeX book. At the time, it was perhaps unique in its perspective. It was so well written that, regardless of how much computer technology has "advanced", I suspect it would still be a good, useful, and entertaining introduction. Unfortunately, my copy was the victim of some flooding and I don't currently have ready access to go back and revisit it. But if you have access or are particularly intrigued, it might be worth a look.
SCdF 13y ago
>If that’s impossible, you can still make good typography with system fonts. But choose wisely. And never choose times new roman nor Arial, as those fonts are favored only by the apathetic and sloppy. Not by typographers. Not by you. OK, I appreciate the advice, but why is Arial bad? I mean, I can't even tell the difference! Reading deeper: > My aversion to Comic Sans—king of the goofy fonts—probably comes as no surprise. But why Arial? Arial was created as a Helvetica substitute. To many, they’re indistinguishable. But to typographers... Right. So what I get from that is, if you care about making sure your content is fashionable to typographers, don't use Arial. Otherwise (i.e. nearly all the time) Arial is fine.
- msutherl 13y ago
  Arial actually looks much better onscreen at small sizes, since that's what it was designed for. It bothers me to no end when "designers" use Helvetica or Helvetica Neue on websites with small body copy. Guys: Arial is Helvetica, but optimized for the screen. Use it. As for why not Helvetica or Times New Roman, it's because they're boring. Using either of these typefaces is a non-choice. It's like not using any color in your design. If you do it right, your design can look timeless, transparent, minimal. If you do it wrong, you look lazy. Arial is a great choice for somebody like Google who wants to position their brand as if it's the very substance of the internet. Before the recent re-branding, they looked lazy (because they were). Now they look timeless. But if you want your brand to have a unique character, or you have interesting typographical problems to solve, you should look into other typefaces.
  - SCdF 13y ago
    So I want people to concentrating on what I write, not how the letters look. Am I missing the point though? Every time I've looked at custom fonts I haven't been able to find any that look more "readable" for large amounts of body text than what already ships on everyone's devices. They either look basically the same (so why bother) or they look gimmicky, and as I said, I want people to looking at my writing, not at my writing, if you get my drift.
    - 13y ago
induscreep 13y ago
The serif font looks real good...it's called Equity Text if anyone's interested.
prewett 13y ago
The author seems to have advice that sounds interesting, but from a casual reading he doesn't seem to say why his advice is correct. Why is single-spacing to short? Why is line spacing 120-145% of the point size? Why is Times New Roman bad (I personally think it is really bland, but what is his reasoning)?
- samweinberg 13y ago
  Agreed. His bio[1] suggests that he knows what he's talking about, but without any in-depth explanations the reader just has to take his word for it. Doing something without knowing why you are doing it, based on what you read in book called Practical Typography, is not very practical. [1]:http://practicaltypography.com/end-credits.html#bio http://practicaltypography.com/end-credits.html#bio
shmerl 13y ago
Page has a design flaw - links aren't stressed in any way except for capital letters. Only accidentally I figured that it was actually a link. Not intuitive. Other than that - a very interesting article.
adityaathalye 13y ago
Bookmarkn'd and entweetinated!
president 13y ago
Matthew Butterick is an entertaining character. Here's him at the Write the Docs conference 3 months ago: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8J6HuvosP0s http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8J6HuvosP0s. Great intro talk to typography for beginners.
samweinberg 13y ago
Hmm. The font used on this website, Equity Text B, was created by the author. http://www.identifont.com/show?2SN1 http://www.identifont.com/show?2SN1
0xdeadbeefbabe 13y ago
I love this font, and I'll probably buy it. I want the designer to get money for it. But, what is this about read only fonts? If the browser can see the font then the browser can steal the font (I mean the program and the user of the program respectively). If it were my font I'd aim for detecting cheaters instead of preventing cheaters. Maybe the font file can include an hmac? When I don't need money, either after death or maybe before, I want them to steal my font so it becomes popular (more popular than Arial so the world will improve). Until then I'll litigate, or publicly shame or whatever I want. Also this part of the license made me laugh (http://mbtype.com/license/ http://mbtype.com/license/): "If you have unusual or excessive technical support needs, I can terminate your license by refunding your license fee."

472 points by dchest 13y ago

martin-adams 13y ago

I've only had a brief scan and this looks excellent. It's the type of thing I'd love a printed copy on my desk for.

MrGando 13y ago
Would like a copy too.

jbaiter 13y ago

Great design and usability, and from briefly scanning through it, excellent advice to boot. I would love to have this in a nice hardcover edition!

ics 13y ago

Matthew Butterick is a pretty interesting guy, with an interesting background: http://typographyforlawyers.com/about.html http://typographyforlawyers.com/about.html This looks great, I'm anxious to give it a thorough going-through in the next couple days. There are some good tips outside of just type as well, including this bit from the resume sample: "Avoid dense text by using a second page. [...] Students, this advice doesn’t apply to you. You’ve only got one page of material. Really."

aidos 13y ago

I've jut spent 20 minutes or so flicking through this and I felt I've learnt a lot already. Will definitely be giving this my full attention.

scrrr 13y ago

I find this page hard to read: http://practicaltypography.com/summary-of-key-rules.html http://practicaltypography.com/summary-of-key-rules.html Perhaps it looks good on a tablet computer. But it feels odd to learn about typography from a page that feels difficult to read.

zaguios 13y ago
I completely agree, his excessive use of "Small Caps" is incredibly annoying since it just looks out of place with the rest of the text. I'm also not a fan of his font choice, rather than picking it to promote readability it looks like he just picked it so he could be snobby about using "professional looking fonts". I wouldn't be so up in arms about this if he hadn't labeled the entire site "practical typography" since I have more trouble reading this site than I do almost every other site I visit.
- tikhonj 13y ago
  I think he picked them because he designed them. Feel free to draw your own conclusions from that :P. (I think they're fine but hardly awe-inspiring. Certainly better than the defaults though.)
martin-adams 13y ago
Interestingly there is something about that page (or my eyes are tired, in the wrong light etc) that makes that page hard to read for me. I don't know what it is, but feels like my eye sight is only able to comprehend the point focus of what I'm looking at.
- DarqWebster 13y ago
  While I'm not a professional typographer, I currently work in user experience, so I might have an answer. From a cursory glance at the CSS, it's solid black text on a solid white background. This can have slightly too much contrast, which can become tiring to read. Off-black text on an off-white background tends to help I find. Apparently this effect is even worse for dyslexics, and "not-white" is specifically mentioned in: http://www.bdadyslexia.org.uk/about-dyslexia/further-information/dyslexia-style-guide.html http://www.bdadyslexia.org.uk/about-dyslexia/further-informa...
  - bestest 13y ago
    black on white, links not underlined, letter spacing and uppercase in links wrong, line-height / parapgraph spacing ratio wrong (this one's most important and making it all ugly IMO), two column index - that one's really cruel, uppercase / lowercase first letter mess all around. the page definitely looks a lot better with CSS disabled.

deleted 13y ago

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bertzzie 13y ago

I've been reading the "How to pay for this book" page [1] and noticed that there the author said: > I programmed a new web-publishing system. I seem can't find any other reference to that, and still not sure about emailing the author directly yet. My google-fu failed me on this one. Anyone know if the author's system has been published or sold? Thanks before. [1}: http://practicaltypography.com/how-to-pay-for-this-book.html http://practicaltypography.com/how-to-pay-for-this-book.html

dchest 13y ago
I found out about this book because the author's tweet (saying he wrote it in Racket) was retweeted by @racketlang https://twitter.com/mbutterick/status/359768757733826560 https://twitter.com/mbutterick/status/359768757733826560
- bertzzie 13y ago
  Thanks! Much appriciated!
Macuyiko 13y ago
See http://practicaltypography.com/end-credits.html#Colophon http://practicaltypography.com/end-credits.html#Colophon > The book was written and designed using Pollen, > a book-publishing system that I created for this > project. Pollen was built with Racket, a programming > language descended from Scheme & Lisp. So no, it doesn't seem to be published.

pron 13y ago

A very interesting read. I've always been interested in fonts, but I have a question regarding their price. Why are they so expensive? I don't know how long it takes to design a good font, but is it longer than writing a good smartphone app? Font pricing feels outdated. It feels from an era when publishing was done by large companies. If I could buy an excellent font for $10-$20 I would literally buy dozens. But font designers are making their work a serious expense, making me ask myself "is it worth it?" In most cases, the answer is no.

dan1234 13y ago
I guess value depends on how many time you're going to use a given font. You'll pay once but could use the same few fonts across many projects.
ics 13y ago
One thing is that traditionally users don't buy fonts. In the past, the only people you expected to get any money from were people who got paid to set the type. You might spend months to years working on a single typeface and in that time a considerable amount of work had to be done to market it (done usually by the foundry you were working with), because after that much time a real flop might mean the end. Over the last few decades the barriers for creating and distributing type have definitely shrunk significantly, but there's still an issue over how type should be licensed and exactly what it needs to compensate for. Many typefaces are created by people who are otherwise employed as graphic designers or illustrators, while the individuals who are solely type designers have to contend for their living with type only in what is now a sea of free or corporate subsidized fonts (i.e. what came on your system). --- If what I just typed makes no sense at all, I blame either my insomnia or the ambien which I refuse to take for it.
- tptacek 13y ago
  This is, I think, the real reason: if you're going to make a living selling fonts, you're going to be selling them to agencies and publications. There aren't enough of those to make a living if your fonts cost $5 a piece. There are a lot of things priced this way. Obviously, the other issue is that a publication will pay a gigantic amount of money for a typeface, but HN readers will only reluctantly spend $21. Rather than trying to bridge the gap, it makes sense to sell to the party that values your work the most. Again, this is a very common and sensible pricing dynamic. Operators of $5/yr SAAS services take heed!

melloclello 13y ago

Oh man, he's hating all over Times New Roman. http://practicaltypography.com/times-new-roman.html http://practicaltypography.com/times-new-roman.html Times is great! I would say that any hate for Times is a repressed memory from the days when it was the default font in Microsoft Word. I mean, wow, remember this? http://i.imgur.com/6QV6Qvr.png http://i.imgur.com/6QV6Qvr.png

gabemart 13y ago
I feel like I'm missing the joke. The section "hating on" Times New Roman is displayed in the font-family Times New Roman. Is the author just having some fun?
- jvzr 13y ago
  Trying to make a point, perhaps?
- jfarmer 13y ago
  Yes, I think he's just being clever. If you look at the source you can see the font choice is explicitly set inline, for this page only: <div style="font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:105%"> ... </div> So, it's definitely intentional. Moreover, because the rest of the book is typeset in Equity, a Times New Roman replacement the author designed, we have the opportunity to see and feel the difference. It's a kind of "show, don't tell" statement. I think it'd underscore the point better if the last paragraph pointed out that everything you just read was typeset in Times New Roman and then link to a page with the same article typeset in Equity. I went to another page of his and copied a paragraph, setting one paragraph to use Times New Roman and another to use Equity. Without saying which is which, I'll leave it to you to decide which is "better": http://cl.ly/image/0I333L3d0O2H http://cl.ly/image/0I333L3d0O2H I suggest not "cheating" by comparing the font shapes to the example Equity at the top of the page. :D
arrrg 13y ago
Did you read that? I seriously doubt your reading comprehension skills if you characterize what he wrote as "hating all over Times New Roman".

Ashuu 13y ago

I would love to a Kindle edition or a pdf. It would be great read on the move.

bambax 13y ago

This is a fantastic resource; it's unfortunate that the site is so slow (HN effect maybe?)

Brajeshwar 13y ago

Almost half-way through it and I'm learning quite a lot of new things. Btw, for those who deal with web typography, you should look at Typeplate[1]. That's an awesome typography starter kit for your project. http://typeplate.com/ http://typeplate.com/

cinger 13y ago

nice clean site, whenever i see talk of typography i always run to the thoughts on monospace fonts, perhaps lawyers lack the same needs from monospace fonts as programmers... both of his suggestions for courier alternatives: FB Alix... his own, Courier 10 ; lack even basic needs such as easily distinguishable 0 and O and 1 and l... of course i type this comment into a textarea using courier... that then prints Verdana... on a site arguably for people interested in programming and its tangential influence, so perhaps i am the only audience

cinger 13y ago
my bad, i was looking at his site typographyforlawyers.com page, on the page linked he has a few other suggestions: Pitch, Kettler, Nitti ; and Nitti seems to satisfy those simple needs, i think i will take a look

jschulenklopper 13y ago

Interesting compilation of sensible, actionable advise on typography... but there's one choice that IMO hinders usability for this site: the absence of an clear(er) indication of hyperlinked text. The small caps is too subtle (for me), and also against one of the rules mentioned: "Never use unlining, unless it is a hyperlink". That at least suggests to underline hyperlinks. This use is also in contrast with Nielsen's advise since 2004: "Textual links should be colored and underlined to achieve the best perceived affordance of clickability, though there are a few exceptions to these guidelines", on http://www.nngroup.com/articles/guidelines-for-visualizing-links/ http://www.nngroup.com/articles/guidelines-for-visualizing-l...

lnanek2 13y ago
Haha, yeah, took me a bit to figure out I could click. Combined with the bizarre print era font instead of something modern I just expected it to be scanned images or a PDF or something and not interactive at all. Maybe they need a new rule not to use old fuddy duddy fonts in modern media like web sites.

deleted 13y ago

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jvzr 13y ago

The one thing that bothers me is the whole first chapter. The point of the book is to give advice on typography. And the point of the first chapter is to tell the reader that the writer has to get to the point or else it's a waste of the reader's time: > Writing as if you have unlimited reader attention is also dangerous, because running out of reader attention is fatal to your writing. The goal of most professional writing is persuasion, and attention is a prerequisite for persuasion. Once the reader’s attention expires, you have no chance to persuade. You’re just giving a monologue in an empty theater. Well, then... Don't write that chapter and let's get down to business! I guess I'll skip that chapter. Edit: Oh boy. I hadn't read about Violet's and Trixie's resumés. I like typography and give it a great deal of thought in every digital undertaking; but I will surely not hire Trixie because she used a better template: she gives less information and the whole resumé feels like it has as much negative space as content. When, and if, I hire someone, I want information, not thin air. Edit 2: Another thing, regarding the 1.25 to 1.45 line-height he recommends. I feel like it's a lawyer's thing. Anything smaller than 1.5 looks very clamped, and most times people use 1.5 to 1.75. Kudo for the font size though. My poor eyes are grateful.

m-r-r 13y ago
> Edit 2: Another thing, regarding the 1.25 to 1.45 line-height he recommends. I feel like it's a lawyer's thing. Anything smaller than 1.5 looks very clamped, and most times people use 1.5 to 1.75. It depends of the font and the font size: sometimes, 1.3 is too much.
typografy 13y ago
The second resume does not feel appropriately designed, it looks like a menu at an upscale restaurant, mixes too many emphasis styles and typefaces, does not create a hierarchy, and just does not look nearly as good as the author thinks it does.

Qtz 13y ago

This is exactly what I need. Since I am starting to make typography.

Qtz 13y ago

Awesome! This is valuable to me. Since I am starting to make typography.

mrottenkolber 13y ago

I just read to the 10 minute guide to verify my fears: While some points are correct, the 10 minute guide doesn't teach you anything. Ihmo every (web-)designer should read at least a few essays from Jan Tschichold: http://www.modernism101.com/tschichold_form_of_the_book.php http://www.modernism101.com/tschichold_form_of_the_book.php And I say that as a typography enthusiastic software engineer. The thing about typography is, when you do it right, it pretty much doesn't leave any room for creativity. There is one right way to print text in a given format. For the web I can only insist that the users choice of font and size should be respected. From there on you can only work in EMs. The first rule is that a line has to span 8-12 words. That leaves you a text width of about 66em. The line height should be 1.2 times the size of the font, e.g. 1.2em. Every element of the text (paragraphs, headings, listings, tables, images, ...) should be spaced by multiples of the line width to keep the text rythm (important). To get an idea what I am talking about you can visit my web site: http://mr.gy/services.html http://mr.gy/services.html PS: justified alignment is to be avoided since the browsers lack proper algorithms. bSad but true.

jimhefferon 13y ago

Does anyone know of a place where a person could get brief advice about suitability of various fonts? Something like, "A humanist font is characterized by .. and is most natural in a less-staid document, such as a work of fiction" (Please don't write me that it is wrong; I made that up as an example of the kind of thing a type-ignorant person like me might find useful.) I don't expect to become a brilliant designer, I am only hoping to avoid what an expert would regard as ghastly errors, or perhaps better said, to help me make some reasonable choices.

grey-area 13y ago
Typography is about more than just the choice of font, and in some ways the choice of fonts is less important than how you employ the fonts you do choose, how you combine them and which weights you choose to use where. I think reading books like this one would be a great first step. Some of the advice is a little opinionated, but most of it is sound, it reminds me of Strunk & White in that way. An example of misuse of typography; he advises you not to use various forms of emphasis at the same time (bold, italic and underline all at once), and to use a regular and limited progression of headings to indicate importance and hierarchy. I have seen clients attempting to design making all these mistakes without considering the result of those choices and ending up with an unsatisfactory result which fails in difficult to quantify ways. They sense it isn't quite right, but don't pin the blame in the right place (on the lack of coherence). The good news is you can learn by trying, none of this is particularly hard, it's like learning to write well - it comes with practice, really looking at what others do, and listening to criticism when it appears justified. Some of this is subjective of course, and dependent on the culture and sensibilities of the reader, so it's something you're going to acquire by osmosis rather than by reading a brief guide I'm afraid. For some subjects, there is no TL;DR.
- jimhefferon 13y ago
  Forgive me, I cannot believe that even the most basic choices take a lifetime of training, reflection, and listening to criticism. For instance, in the linked-to document he advises not to use Papyrus in your PhD thesis. That advice doesn't take a lifetime. Hearing that advice isn't going to make me a threat to professional designers (who I work with and admire tremendously), but some very basic rules of thumb are all I am looking for.

plg 13y ago

their css file seems to have fonts defined in base64 byte strings?

chalst 13y ago

> One space between sentences: Always one — never two. Some topics in this book will offer you choices. Not this one ... Or more generally: put exactly one space after any punctuation. - http://practicaltypography.com/one-space-between-sentences.html http://practicaltypography.com/one-space-between-sentences.h... Sigh - another source for a rule that shows evidence of thinking like a writer, not as a typographer. We can forgive Bringhurst, but ... the single vs. double space choice is a false dichotomy in a world with proportional fonts, font expansion, stretchable space, and the like, since there is no such thing as the width of a space. TeX, for instance, allows the space after sentences to stretch more than interword space, and gives inter-sentence space that is 1/3 wider than interword space where there is no space (default for CMR).

arrrg 13y ago
That changes nothing at all. One space is correct and nothing else. This particular document doesn't even touch on more advanced tings like this so it makes sense to leave it out and keep it to the simplified but still correct statement: One space, nothing else. That's it. If you do something else you are wrong.
- russellallen 13y ago
  What does "one space" even mean? Does it mean only one character's width? No, because that varies. Does it mean the same width as all other spaces? No, because as explained above typesetting systems often make the space longer, and many traditional typographers did likewise. Does it mean only pressing the spacebar once? No, because that won't make a difference in many systems like TeX, HTML. It's just a typographical shibboleth, nothing more.
  - rmk2 13y ago
    > Does it mean only pressing the spacebar once? No, because that won't make a difference in many systems like TeX, HTML. Seeing as the original article always tells you how to do things in Word, it means exactly that. Any system that is not not WYSIWYG will have no problems here, Word does. And since most people use Word, this is relevant. It doesn't matter that TeX doesn't take it into account, because this is not primarily written for TeX users. TeX does many of these things, but it is not what most people use, especially those who do not know anything at all about typography.

jongold 13y ago

Interesting book but confusing advice from someone who seemingly knows what he's talking about. The very first chapter starts with three hyphenated lines in a row! I’m imaging my typography professors facepalming right now… http://practicaltypography.com/typography-in-ten-minutes.html http://practicaltypography.com/typography-in-ten-minutes.htm...

arrrg 13y ago
That seems rather like a limitation of web tech than anything else. You do not get very much control over hyphenation on the web. (Also note that dynamic hyphenation is necessary here since the layout reacts to brwoser width changes.)
- anvandare 13y ago
  Correct, although CSS 3 does offer something to that effect: http://dev.w3.org/csswg/css-text/#hyphenation http://dev.w3.org/csswg/css-text/#hyphenation
lobster_johnson 13y ago
Hyphenation depends on your screen and browser. (Try zooming in and out in a browser such as Chrome to see it change.) It's more the fault of the browser's flow algorithm than of the page itself.

codeoclock 13y ago

"Bad fonts"?

danso 13y ago

IANAL, but I'm purchasing the OP's other book, "Typography for Lawyers" ($10 on Kindle) http://www.amazon.com/Typography-for-Lawyers-ebook/dp/B005JVSH5K/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1314712748&sr=1-1 http://www.amazon.com/Typography-for-Lawyers-ebook/dp/B005JV... Partly to thank the author for writing the OP, but also because I find it just fascinating that he found a niche not just in typography, but the importance of typography in the legal arena. Seems like there should be an equally important niche for a book, "Programming for Lawyers", much of which would involve batch document scanning and analysis.

karlb 13y ago
Even if you're not a lawyer (I'm not), I'd highly recommend his book. From memory, its main shortcoming is that it doesn't go into depth about those aspects of typography that are specific to the web (e.g., web-safe fonts, font substitution, etc.).
- TylerE 13y ago
  Isn't that a bit like complaining that a bookie on Vegitarian cuisine doesn't include any steak recipes?
  - pawn 13y ago
    Steak is my favorite vegetarian dish. What do you mean 'vegetarian' doesn't mean what I think it means?
  - karlb 13y ago
    No, it's not like that, because (a) I'm not complaining about the book. I'm highly recommending it, but with a qualification that's relevant to this audience, and (b) steak and vegetarian are mutually exclusive, whereas law and web aren't.
- smalltalk 13y ago
  When and why would a lawyer be concerned with web-specific typography? I can't possibly imagine a lawyer ever needing to know about web-safe fonts or any other aspects of typography that are specific to the web.

WickyNilliams 13y ago

I feel bad just coming here to post a link, but another great resource is Mark Boulton's "Designing for the Web". It's been released as a free book online[1]. (I'm not affiliated with this in any way) It has lots of detail on typography, but focussed around the web. It also covers things like colour and layout amongst other topics (e.g. research and workflow, which I find less insightful). It's a great and fairly quick read :) [1]http://designingfortheweb.co.uk/book/index.php http://designingfortheweb.co.uk/book/index.php

MrGando 13y ago

I would love to know if there are some resources for typography on mobile (iOS). At WWDC 2013, it became very clear that iOS 7 will make a huge push in the use of typography as one of the main ways to give an app more personality. In the past the emphasis was put on world-like textures, graphics, etc. Any advice on this matter?

cpr 13y ago

The section on PostScript for printers is quite dated--most printer drivers now rely (at least in the Mac OS world) on the OS's PDF-style rendering, and just ship bits to the printer. PostScript itself (vs PDF) is pretty much a dead letter at this point.

typografy 13y ago

This is seriously awful. He's using some kind of condensed serif at an enormous size that makes it very uncomfortable for screen reading. His list numbers are illegible, misaligned, and extremely far away from the list items. He sprinkles SMALL CAPS everywhere FOR SOME REASON. The contents page is particularly bad, using a Futura-esque font against a serif at the same size, with bizarre spacing, failing to make a hierarchy or pleasing design. There are many great design documents. This is not one of them. If you want to improve your design skills, do yourself a favor and avoid this charlatan.

sublimit 13y ago
Yeah, what's up with the trend of maximum black-on-white contrast with a huge font? Do people out there think it looks good, or is it just a default layout they haven't bothered to change? It hurts my eyes, especially at night, and gives a sort of condescending vibe - "what I'm saying is really important so I'll spell this out like you were reading an alphabet book".
- tedsanders 13y ago
  >Do people out there think it looks good...? Yes. I thought it looked good.

njharman 13y ago

Typographers need to (some do) accept and distinguish between print and web typography. Too much is claimed with little justification other than "cause that's the way printers have been doing it for 200 years". The world changes, need to evaluate and adapt. Also, this mixed in writing / content advice. Would be stronger if it was just typography. btw as a user I fucking hate curly apostrophes and emdashes.

adiM 13y ago
Would you care to elaborate why you have curly apostrophes and em-dashes?

frogpelt 13y ago

The chapter about Times New Roman is written in Times New Roman. That's neat.

aw3c2 13y ago

Dismissing Courier as monospaced font and suggesting his own: http://www.fontbureau.com/fonts/AlixFB/characters/ http://www.fontbureau.com/fonts/AlixFB/characters/ Look at that, the lowercase L looks like a one.

ygra 13y ago
Not every monospaced font is intended for programming. I like the default old-style numerals in that one, though :-)

buttproblem 13y ago

I wonder if someone could shed some light on this (from type composition straight and curly quotes): > Computer scientists and documentation writers, take note: straight quotes and backticks in software code should never be converted to curly quotes. Those marks are, of course, part of the functional syntax of the code and must be reproduced literally. While fans of LaTeX have often written me to trumpet its typesetting superiority, I’ve never seen any LaTeX-created documentation that’s gotten this right. As a LaTeX user (and not a very good one) I'm not too sure what I've been doing wrong.

mzs 13y ago
If you have been doing this: \usepackage{listings} \usepackage{textcomp} ... upquote=true ... You have been doing nothing wrong.
mariusae 13y ago
Also make sure you read Eddie Kohler's LaTeX usage notes: http://www.read.seas.harvard.edu/~kohler/latex.html
ygra 13y ago
It's very common to see ”Hello World” in LaTeX-written documents. The problem in my eyes is often that well-meaning people tell others that LaTeX will automagically make your document look good and professional, yet neglect to point out that you still have to know the details to achieve that. Proper quotes, proper usage of non-breaking spaces, proper hyphenation when the default breaks down, etc. are all things you have to consider regardless of the application. LaTeX may have nicer default styles and a few superiour algorithms (e.g. line breaking for justified text), but overall result quality for people without any clue is in my experience not higher than with Word.

sengstrom 13y ago

If you are going to make the case for alternatives to Times New Roman (http://practicaltypography.com/times-new-roman-alternatives.html http://practicaltypography.com/times-new-roman-alternatives....), wouldn't it make sense to include TNR in the lineup?

pdenya 13y ago
That might make sense if it was meant as a comparison but I don't think it's necessary in this context. I generally don't find comparing fonts to be very useful when evaluating a font.

pasbesoin 13y ago

I owe a permanent and longstanding debt to Don Knuth for giving me a grounding in typography via his now renowned blue-covered TeX book. At the time, it was perhaps unique in its perspective. It was so well written that, regardless of how much computer technology has "advanced", I suspect it would still be a good, useful, and entertaining introduction. Unfortunately, my copy was the victim of some flooding and I don't currently have ready access to go back and revisit it. But if you have access or are particularly intrigued, it might be worth a look.

SCdF 13y ago

>If that’s impossible, you can still make good typography with system fonts. But choose wisely. And never choose times new roman nor Arial, as those fonts are favored only by the apathetic and sloppy. Not by typographers. Not by you. OK, I appreciate the advice, but why is Arial bad? I mean, I can't even tell the difference! Reading deeper: > My aversion to Comic Sans—king of the goofy fonts—probably comes as no surprise. But why Arial? Arial was created as a Helvetica substitute. To many, they’re indistinguishable. But to typographers... Right. So what I get from that is, if you care about making sure your content is fashionable to typographers, don't use Arial. Otherwise (i.e. nearly all the time) Arial is fine.

msutherl 13y ago
Arial actually looks much better onscreen at small sizes, since that's what it was designed for. It bothers me to no end when "designers" use Helvetica or Helvetica Neue on websites with small body copy. Guys: Arial is Helvetica, but optimized for the screen. Use it. As for why not Helvetica or Times New Roman, it's because they're boring. Using either of these typefaces is a non-choice. It's like not using any color in your design. If you do it right, your design can look timeless, transparent, minimal. If you do it wrong, you look lazy. Arial is a great choice for somebody like Google who wants to position their brand as if it's the very substance of the internet. Before the recent re-branding, they looked lazy (because they were). Now they look timeless. But if you want your brand to have a unique character, or you have interesting typographical problems to solve, you should look into other typefaces.
- SCdF 13y ago
  So I want people to concentrating on what I write, not how the letters look. Am I missing the point though? Every time I've looked at custom fonts I haven't been able to find any that look more "readable" for large amounts of body text than what already ships on everyone's devices. They either look basically the same (so why bother) or they look gimmicky, and as I said, I want people to looking at my writing, not at my writing, if you get my drift.
  - 13y ago

induscreep 13y ago

The serif font looks real good...it's called Equity Text if anyone's interested.

prewett 13y ago

The author seems to have advice that sounds interesting, but from a casual reading he doesn't seem to say why his advice is correct. Why is single-spacing to short? Why is line spacing 120-145% of the point size? Why is Times New Roman bad (I personally think it is really bland, but what is his reasoning)?

samweinberg 13y ago
Agreed. His bio[1] suggests that he knows what he's talking about, but without any in-depth explanations the reader just has to take his word for it. Doing something without knowing why you are doing it, based on what you read in book called Practical Typography, is not very practical. [1]:http://practicaltypography.com/end-credits.html#bio http://practicaltypography.com/end-credits.html#bio

shmerl 13y ago

Page has a design flaw - links aren't stressed in any way except for capital letters. Only accidentally I figured that it was actually a link. Not intuitive. Other than that - a very interesting article.

adityaathalye 13y ago

Bookmarkn'd and entweetinated!

president 13y ago

Matthew Butterick is an entertaining character. Here's him at the Write the Docs conference 3 months ago: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8J6HuvosP0s http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8J6HuvosP0s. Great intro talk to typography for beginners.

samweinberg 13y ago

Hmm. The font used on this website, Equity Text B, was created by the author. http://www.identifont.com/show?2SN1 http://www.identifont.com/show?2SN1

0xdeadbeefbabe 13y ago

I love this font, and I'll probably buy it. I want the designer to get money for it. But, what is this about read only fonts? If the browser can see the font then the browser can steal the font (I mean the program and the user of the program respectively). If it were my font I'd aim for detecting cheaters instead of preventing cheaters. Maybe the font file can include an hmac? When I don't need money, either after death or maybe before, I want them to steal my font so it becomes popular (more popular than Arial so the world will improve). Until then I'll litigate, or publicly shame or whatever I want. Also this part of the license made me laugh (http://mbtype.com/license/ http://mbtype.com/license/): "If you have unusual or excessive technical support needs, I can terminate your license by refunding your license fee."