The Book of Sabon Prayer

The Book of Sabon Prayer & Typeface Anatomy According to the use of

Teri Lanier

The Jan Tschichold Creed I believe in a typeface, created for harmony and efficiency; And in a nostalgic return to 16th Century serif styling, inspired by Claude Garamond.

I believe in one font, that met the needs of three technologies; Having the same width and weight, be it roman or italic, roman or bold, or ligature.

I believe that Sabon honored the classic style of Garamond, while saving space and money for Linotype, Monotype, and Stempel foundries.

I believe in adapting a typeface to contemporary media, while honoring the beauty of the past.

I believe that Sabon Next, a 2002 revision by Jean Franรงois Porchez, will carry the elegance of Garamond and Sabon into the digital typesetting future. AMEN

History

A Vocation in Spiritual Texts After its 1967 release, Sabon was attractive to designers for providing style options without sacrificing space in settings with dense amounts of text.

Designer Bradbury Thompson advised on the 1973 Washburn College Bible. It featured Sabon as a coherent system, with left justification, use of italics, and a larger character size. He created a more accessible text that reads as if one is speaking in natural cadence.

Many of these innovations would be incorporated in the 1979 edition of Book of Common Prayer.† A review declared the advantages of setting The Book of Common Prayer in Sabon. “The type conveys [...] gracefulness, strength, and integrity. [...] You’ll see the type in six or eight different sizes, regular and bold and italic, but it’s all Sabon.”‡

Robert W. Prichard, Issues in Prayer Book Revision: Volume 1.

New York, NY: Church Publishing Incorporated, 2018. Ebook. †

‡ Isabel Baumgartner, “Proposed Prayer Book a Massive Print Job” Episcopal News Service.

Feb. 10, 1977 [77039] Online article.

History

Where There are Two, Let There be One In most roman and italic faces the letter f reaches into the space beyond it, not so with the narrow serif in Sabon.

Top: 50pt Sabon Italic 0 Tracking Bottom: 50pt Garamond Italic 0 Tracking

Sabon ligatures are seldom needed; though, ligatures may add a note of refinement to text. The bespoke narrowness of letter f allows close kerning without collisions.

Top: 50pt Sabon Roman Ligatures Bottom: 50pt Sabon Roman 0 Tracking

Ligatures

Concerning the Letter Structures On average, Tschichold’s Sabon letterforms have larger counters than those cut by Garamond.

They also feature a generous x-height, short descenders, and bracketed serifs.

01

02

03

07

04

08

Ascender Height X-Height

05

06 Descender Line

09 10 13

11

12

01. Bracketed Serif 02. Open Counter 03. Shoulder 04. Ascender 05. Closed Counter

Cap Height

14

06. Descender 07. Arc 08. Cross Bar 09. Loop 10. Tail

11. Stem 12. Bowl 13. Ear 14. Apex

Baseline

Anatomy of Type

Letter Styles and Structures Roman style

Italic style

Bold Roman style

Oldstyle numbers have varying heights, ascenders, and descenders

01

02

03

05

04

06

10

Roman style

Anatomy of Type Italic style

08

09

07

11

01. Overshoot 02. Open Counter 03. Tail 04. Bilateral Serif

05. Dot/Tittle 06. Serif 07. Axis 08. Eye

12

09. Terminal 10. Spine 11. Cross Stroke 12. Hairline

Letter Sizes and Structures King

10pt

King

12pt

King

18pt

King

24pt

King

36pt

02 01

50pt

03

05 Upper Case Text 04

06

07

08 Lower Case Text 09

01. Leg 02. Link 03. Loop

04. Hook 05. Vertex 06. Spine

07. Arm 08. Axis 09. Open Counter

Anatomy of Type

Sabon

GR   CE When we behold beauty, it creates a heightened attention to harmony, balance, symmetry, and fairness.

All these phenomena are offended by injustice in the world. —Paul Fromburg The Art of Transformation: Three Things Churches Do That Change Everything