Love type? Want to know more? Ilene Strizver conducts her acclaimed Gourmet Typography workshops internationally.
This quote, attributed to Fredrick Goudy, is set in ITC Goudy Sans Pro. But for the record, it has been said Goudy was not referring to lowercase, but to blackletter, and the verb he used was not “stealing” but a British slang term that would be in poor taste to repeat here. Blackletter, in typography, are the Old English type of faces you see used for newspaper names, and letterspacing is just stretching the word out so that there are gaps in between the letters. Ginger referenced the quote in the title of their clever typographic guidebook, Stop Stealing Sheep. The great type designer Frederic Goudy once said that anyone who would letterspace blackletter would steal sheep. “Anyone who would letterspace lower case would steal sheep.” This quote is attributed to Frederic Goudy, the well-known American type designer of the 20th century. Upper/lowercase settings with normal spacing (top example) are inherently more readable than all cap settings (lower example). We recognize words by the shapes that they make. In addition, all-cap settings have a certain geometry that’s not affected when spaced out. They’re less affected by readability issues because they’re less readable than upper and lowercase to begin with. It’s more acceptable to letterspace all-cap settings. This example, set in Adobe Caslon Pro, also shows reduced readability after letterspacing. (Many type traditionalists, myself included, also think letterspacing is plain ugly, but that in itself is not enough of an explanation.) When the overall letterspacing is increased beyond normal, the eye and brain take longer to recognize the word shape, thus reducing readability. When we read running text, we recognize a word by its shape, which to a large degree is created by the word’s ascenders and descenders. When letterspacing is applied to lowercase characters, it’s considered a poor typographic practice because it greatly reduces readability. The upper example is much more readable than the lower one, which has been letterspaced. Most people letterspace by using the tracking feature in design software. Letterspacing is the practice of adding additional space between a range of characters to produce a very open look (as opposed to adding space to compensate for tight spacing). I occasionally letterspace type, but some people tell me it’s a type crime. If Ilene answers your question in the blog, you’ll receive one Official T-Shirt! Post your questions and comments by clicking on the Comments icon above. TypeTalk is a regular blog on typography.
0 kommentar(er)
