Typophile - Choosing a font for book design? - Comments

Hi Kent, thanks for the link

Stefan Seifert — Mon, 7 Apr 2008 01:57:37 -0700

Hi Kent,

thanks for the link to the very nice Whitman specimen!
Good typeface.

This FontShop stuff depresses me :-(
Ugly.

Stefan

Charles, Don’t worry,

vascoprt — Sun, 6 Apr 2008 15:47:56 -0700

Charles,

Don’t worry, thesis is already written :). Its just that I still have a couple of weeks until sending it for printing and I thought (besides the content) I could improve its design.

I’ll see what I can find then.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/

jupiterboy — Sat, 5 Apr 2008 19:20:54 -0700

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberation_fonts

You think Venetian fonts

charles_e — Sat, 5 Apr 2008 18:58:40 -0700

You think Venetian fonts aren’t suitable for chemistry design-wise. What kind would you suggest?

Ah. Not sure. The last time I had to deal with equations as an “author” was when I took (& passed!) my math-logic prelim in 1970. As a compositor, I’ve set a bunch of equations since then, usually in economics.

Book interior design is all about audience, and a little bit about the author. If I’m faced with designing a book where I don’t know the subject matter, I look to see what typefaces other designers have used, over a period of time. That “period of time” is the best way to avoid getting caught using a current fashion that will soon fade.

As a WAG, I doubt most chemists would find, say, Bembo a comfortable font for professional work. Something modern, but plain. In my grad student days that was Times Roman, but Times has become so much a design taboo that has probably changed.

I still remember one of my professors saying “Prelims are puberty rites,” and my dissertation director saying “just get it done.” Since he had taken ten years to write his on the early psychology of Agostino Nifo, I figured he was wrong. But it turned out he was right, & I never finished mine.

Moral: Steal a design from something the audience will be comfortable with, & get on with your life.

Charles, I’m trying to

vascoprt — Sat, 5 Apr 2008 18:15:22 -0700

Charles, I’m trying to stay away from TeX since I’m about to leave science and the time I’d loose in the learning process would be just..lost. And you were also right about physical chemistry...no reactions or any “hardcore chemistry”. Just a couple of subscripts and superscripts, as well as some Greek characters.

You think Venetian fonts aren’t suitable for chemistry design-wise. What kind would you suggest?

Thank you all for the replies on this!

vasco

OK, Charles, I will let mine

dezcom — Sat, 5 Apr 2008 17:57:57 -0700

OK, Charles, I will let mine stay put if you will :-)

Love this edit feature which shuffles everything like an iPod!

ChrisL

Thanks, Charles. I will take

dezcom — Sat, 5 Apr 2008 17:55:35 -0700

Thanks, Charles. I will take a closer look at Arno and check out your findings. I probably fall into the 3 strikes catagory when it comes to scientific work. I did work for an engineering firm in 1969 and did several books for them. Those were the old days and we used phototype so I specd the type but did not set it. There were plenty of math formulas which I pasted up but left the proof reading to the engineers. :-)

ChrisL

edited to fall below Charles’ comment

I’m not the best person to

charles_e — Sat, 5 Apr 2008 17:53:55 -0700

I’m not the best person to ask about scientific superscripts, but I do remember Arno well because it was just a couple weeks ago I went in and made the superscripts both smaller, and raised them up. Also put the superscripted numbers on a proportional body & kerned them. Also made sure the superscript alphas and numbers had a common “baseline.”

Actually, these were the “number.super” glyphs, switched by the superiors feature. Scientific notation should be called by the Unicode index for superiors (except as I remember, superscript alphas aren’t encoded? See, I told you I wasn’t the best person to ask). Adobe’s superiors feature doesn’t switch to these, and that gives improper syntax.

Additionally, scientific superiors should have a certain relationship with both cap & l.c. letters, and lining numbers. All of these should fit well with the tops of parens & brackets, too, which isn’t the case with Arno. Arno is a lovely font, but again, IMO, not for scientific work.

Adam doesn’t post much on the design forum, but I’d trust his judgment, or any of the programmer types with an engineering background (which gives two strikes against me).

Edited: S/B above Chris’ last post.

What about Cambria? Anyone

John Nolan — Sat, 5 Apr 2008 17:03:21 -0700

What about Cambria? Anyone know if it would have what’s necessary?

I am sure there is a TeX

dezcom — Sat, 5 Apr 2008 16:32:05 -0700

I am sure there is a TeX setup but he may not have access to it. I wasn’t getting in to style, I was just thinking Arno had a full range of Greek and sups to cover his needs. I didn’t know there were any placement issues in sups with Arno. What are exactly the problematic glyphs and what should be correct for scientific work?

ChrisL

Chris, I think the

charles_e — Sat, 5 Apr 2008 15:56:09 -0700

Chris, I think the superiors/inferiors in Arno are too big & too low for scientific work. Some applications programs would let you fiddle with this, but then you’re off the OT feature, aren’t you? Too, I’d classify it as a “sort-of-Venetian”; a touch off for chemistry. & While p-chem doesn’t need all the bonding symbols of organic, he probably needs a few. I would think there is a TeX setup that covers everything.

Arno has all the features

dezcom — Sat, 5 Apr 2008 14:31:31 -0700

Arno has all the features you need.

BTW, polytonic is not limited to ancient Greek texts. Much of It was used well into the 20th Century before the reform.

ChrisL

This is a pretty old thread.

charles_e — Sat, 5 Apr 2008 14:17:49 -0700

This is a pretty old thread. I imagine a number of us are finished with it — I can’t even say why I looked at this last post. With that in mind, you might do better starting a new one.

Off the top of my head, I don’t think of Minion as wrong for science, but I don’t think it is the best choice, either. I think Minion’s Greek characters are drawn primarily for classical Greek — note the Greek extended (aka polytonic) glyphs, used only with ancient Greek. You would know better than I whether or not Minion’s Greek glyphs are appropriate for science. I remember having to change something — either the theta or phi? — for some technical figures supplied to us by a designer using Minion — they used the wrong ones. The scientific ones are there, but not in the “regular” Unicode spot.

Beyond that, the font has none of the chemical bonding characters, and I believe it doesn’t have alphabetic superiors/inferiors. The superior/inferior numbers aren’t quite right for science either — nor are they quite right for footnote calls.

I imagine there are better fonts for your purpose, even though Minion is quite a nice font.

Hi everyone, I am just

vascoprt — Sat, 5 Apr 2008 08:24:58 -0700

Hi everyone,

I am just finishing writing my PhD thesis in Physical Chemistry... not much of a graphic designer! :) Since I have to use plenty of numbers and greek characters in equations and body text, I am thinking on going for the Minion Pro. What do you think? Any other fonts you’d recommend?

vasco

Oh noes! Hey Steve, thanks

pattyfab — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 08:27:01 -0700

Oh noes!

Hey Steve, thanks for the kudos. I just noticed that.

Choosing a font for book design?

gertie — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 20:52:01 -0800

I’m sure this has been a thread at some point, but doing a search didn’t show me what I was looking for, so if I just need to be redirected, go for it. :-)

The situation is this- I have a book I need to format for someone (my dad actually) and am already stuck- trying to decide what font to use!

The only info I’m beginning with is that I’d like to use serif, having heard more than once that sans serif is inadvisable for books.

I would like to give a better idea of what I’m looking for, but my ignorance has got the best of me here. The book is non-fiction, essentially about ethics, society, agnosticism, serious schtuff like that. :-)

So if anyone has suggestions of fonts I can try, I’m all ears. I’m also open to suggestions regarding books about fonts for books, but that is more long term, as I need to begin formatting this book yesterday.

Thanks for any advice you can give,
Gertie