planning ahead

understand your tools 8

Appreciate all of the different options offered within a typeface, but don’t go overboard.

Within a single typeface, there can sometimes be tens of options to choose from. Italic, bold, semibold, medium, book, light, extrabold. Really, anything you could ever possibly want! However, with all of these elements at your disposal, you shouldn’t overload your design with every possible option. Stick to just a few different weights or styles that serve your design properly, that way your reader won’t be distracted by any extra flair.

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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 understand your tools

Just as you design pages for print with their physical form in mind, design type that will go on screen for that medium.

What works on paper is not going to work the same way online. Bringhurst tells us that the pixels on a screen can end up distorting the more intricate pieces of your chosen typeface, and this just gets worse at lower resolutions. For this reason, it is best to go with low-contrast faces for type that will be read digitally. Further suggestions for setting type digitally is to use narrower textblocks, ragged right alignment, and frequent but simple headings.

Be weary of printers that aren’t doing your design full justice.

Even though you are designing your work with print in mind, not every printer is fully equipped to present your design. Because of this, you may not be getting the full picture of what’s working and what isn’t if you aren’t properly viewing what you’ve done. If you’re using a font that’s high contrast, or perhaps more bold, a printer that is low on ink isn’t going to show you if your design is successful. Make sure that you are using the correct printer for the job, and the correct ink for the paper you are printing on, before you finalize your design.

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grooming the font 9

If you are going to make alterations to a font, make sure it’s not just time to move on.

Even the most well-designed fonts need fine-tuning when you’re typesetting. But, if you find yourself having to make so many changes that you’re basically redesigning the basics of the font, it’s best to just select another for your project.

The text that you’re working with should be the priority, always.

You’ve been working with the same text for awhile. You have this page design that you’ve been wanting to try for a while, and you think it could work here. After going through and typesetting with this design, it doesn’t serve the text as well

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