Type Tips

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Type is to a publication as a speaker is to an audience -- they both have to work coherently to capture and keep your attention. Type defines a publication's personality; since it's a common element on every page, it should work to achieve a visual unity throughout. Crisp, consistent, readable typography will help propel the reader through your pages.

To achieve a type consistency, you can develop a simple system of typographic rules; the ten type "do's" and "don'ts" that follow will give you a head start. Naturally, these rules can be broken but doing so calls for adjustments that compensate for the loss in legibility. When in doubt, common sense will solve nearly any type problem; just ask yourself whether you would want to ready the copy in question.

1. Don't crowd the page. Three pages of material that has been jammed into two looks threatening and messy; you're likely to overwhelm your readers. Exercise a little restraint, instead, and cut what you're trying to squeeze in so that some of it gets read. There's no specific formula for open, clear pages, but if it occurs to you that you might have too much on the page, it's time to stop and cut back.
2. Use typefaces consistently. Readers need an instantly recognizable system of typographic differentiation that separates kinds of information. Changing this system confuses the reader and makes for an unorganized page, and as a result, material may be left unread. Predigest the content for your readers and present it to them in an easily understood format.
3. Don't open line or paragraph spacing just to fill a column. Awkward gaps interrupt the flow of a page, just as a poor splice destroys the continuity of a movie. Is having even columns at the bottom of a page worth compromising your reader's attention? Hardly. You need not add unnecessary line spacing just to flesh out a column when the text doesn't do the job for you. The key is to have a flexible design element, such as an illustration, logo, clip-art image, or photograph that can be enlarged to occupy the extra space.
4. Line spacing in headlines should be proportionate. White space injected between typeset lines weakens a headline's impact, especially in an all-caps headline where the space usually occupied by descenders is vacant. Take outline spacing between lines of all cap headlines to increase the type's impact. Reduce line spacing on mixed upper- and lowercase headlines too, but don't let ascenders and descenders touch or overlap, as this creates unattractive, accidental focal points on the page.
5. Don't let the computer hyphenate your headlines. Headlines are important allies in luring readers into your stories, and it's especially counter productive to hyphenate the very type meant to attract readers. Indeed, arbitrary hyphenation can actually alter the meaning of your carefully worded hook, causing readers to pass it for more intriguing bait. Break your headline into logically segmented parts; even if it creates inconvenient shapes on the page, it helps the reader understand the idea more easily.
6. Keep the first paragraph of an article or chapter flush left. Normally paragraph indents suggest that anew idea is coming up, but at the very beginning of a text other signals are used: an initial cap, a greater point size or weight, or even a change in typeface. It's redundant to use a major typographic signal and indent. Besides, text looks smarter when it starts with a crisp upper left comer.
7. Keep separate type treatments to three or less. Varying the type style separates pieces of information and signals to the reader where an item begins and ends and therefore how much time it will take to read. But don't overwhelm your audience with what appears to be too many kinds of information.

   For best results, separate type elements into no more than three levels of importance, putting the most vital information in the largest type, the least important in the smallest, and everything else in a third size and weight. If you think you need more than three levels of importance in your typography, you're probably overdoing it.

8. Don't justify big type across little columns. If your columns are set justified, the word spacing becomes uneven from one line to the next; most likely you've seen unsightly examples of this in daily newspapers. When this occurs in text, it slows down the reader's eye and interrupts the flow of the copy.

   Generally, inconsistent word spacing is not critical in text sizes, but in display type the awkward spacing becomes distracting. To avoid this, make word spacing the same size by setting all display type either flush-left with a ragged right margin, or centered.

9. Don't superimpose laser-printed text on screen tints or pictures. When both are printed on a laser printer, the dots that comprise the text's letterforms are almost the same thickness as the dots in the background tint or illustration. As a result, foreground and background become muddled; serif typefaces over screen tints make especially strange bedfellows. It's more readable if you overprint text on a screen using a very high-resolution device, such as an imagesetter. If that's too expensive, place thick rules around the areas to be emphasized rather than adding a tint.
10. Use curving type only when it's effective. The binding feature in many desktop publishing software programs sets characters on a curved baseline. It's great fun to use, particularly with headlines, but since type set this way leads the reader on a joy ride, it should be used only when appropriate to the meaning of the headline. Curve a headline only when the subject has to do with curviness, as do waves, rollercoasters, the stock market, hills, or fog.

Remember that readers are busy people. If you want them to spend time reading your newsletter, report, or other printed material, you can't simply throw words onto a page haphazardly and hope for the best. Like a speaker who whispers or slurs throughout a speech, a presentation that is typographically inept will soon drive away your intended audience. So play by the rules, and your readers will stick with you.

Alex White teaches visual communication and graphic design at the University of Hartford and is author or How to Spec Type (Watson-Gauptill, 1987).