Hi illicium, thank you,
i tried Din before i tried FF Unit, but something did not feel right to me, and i have never used Clarendon before. thank you very much for the example, that helps!

sorry for not mentioning this before but it is a book on laundromats which is going to be a combination of a story about a red shirt with information graphics and statistics, so i was looking for something like Clarendon for the headlines, and something for the body text which would also be used for information graphics and numbers. i also thought something like Din would help make it fun [in context to my subject]. i don't know if that makes sense, but that was my thought process...
i will try and see if i can make only Clarendon work
thank you very much for your help.

i wasn't aware of that, thank you!

I have CT's Clarendon Text; love it. Match it with one of the heavier weights of Akzidenz Grotesk, OR you could simply use Clarendon's Small Caps for your titling and headers.

Thank you ryanholmes, unfortunately i do not have Clarendon Text yet, but as soon as i get it, will try yours and boardman's suggestions

Just a general observation: Most book (interior) designers pick the text font first, and get that to look right.

This is not simple. Usually, the designer is given the trim size (must be 6-1/8 x 9-1/4 inches, for example). Frequently, they are given a characters-per-page specification. With a 6x9 trim, you are likely to see the 2,800 character number, but sometimes it is 2,900, and I've seen as high as 3,200 or as few as 2,000.

And you must have margins. You are designing a page -- actually, a pair of pages, with the mechanical intervention of the binding. While old-school, a 26 pica measure with a 42-pica depth (for 6x9) is both traditional, and follows the old golden ratio to 1 to .618. Shorter measures are OK, but remember that regular, even wordspacing is by in large determined by the number of words on a line. The number of words determines how many wordspaces, and wordspaces are the best place to vary for justification.

One thing I still do is to print out the pages on the laser printer, cut them to final size, and slip them into a book to see how it is all working. You would be surprised to see how much the extra white space on an 8.5x11 sheet (or worse, the computer monitor) throws off your eye.

Obviously you have some idea of the display face when you pick the text, but usually the text font is the most important design choice. Once the text is working, it is time to finalize & maybe change your thinking about the display face.

Why all this? Books are meant to be read; the audience will spend many more hours with the text type than with the display type. This is different from book JACKET design, poster design, or advertising design.

Which may explain why there are so few good designers of book interiors -- it isn't terribly exciting, just a lot of work requiring a good eye.

This book is not very text heavy at all, the body text is simply for introductions and the proportion of photography and comparisons of data visually is much more than the actual text. i do totally understand your comments charles_e, i will definitely keep in mind what you just wrote, that makes me think about a lot of things we learn at school. I might have gotten excited with Clarendon a little too soon :) thank you.

Just a general observation: Most book (interior) designers pick the text font first, and get that to look right.

Not so. I design illustrated books, mostly art books and cookbooks and am often required to do the cover before I design the interior. So frequently I know my display or headline font before I have settled on a text face. I am also often using more than one font: one for body copy, another for captions, sidebar elements, etc. It sounds like Sumila's project is more in this vein.

For trade book design, the interior and cover are often designed separately and there I agree with Charles that the text face is the most important choice.

Frequently, they are given a characters-per-page specification

I more often deal with words/page. Although that number isn't given to me, it's something I need to figure out based on word count, page count, number of pix and approx. sizes.

I agree that you MUST print the pages out and cut them down before you have committed to your font choices, you really can't judge by the computer screen. For example, I have to view a page at 137% in order to see the text at actual size. You probably do too if you have a newish computer.

I work at a Dot Com. We use some Clarendon in our Communication Design Department, and our corporate typeface is Gotham. Not sure how well they actually work together, and not sure about Gotham as a text face but we use it that way! Cheers.

If you want a kind of funky, "everything-old-is-new-again" feeling, I've had fun before pairing Clarendon heads (well, okay it was FB Belizio, but whatever) with Linotype Excelsior, an old newspaper face, for text.

-- K.

*checks calcuator*

doh! i should have known that.