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22 the form of the book Reading and seeing 23 Stream of ideas: immersed in a text The basic design of the book has remained unchanged for centuries. The average novel or collection of essays looks almost identical to the books printed in late 15th century Venice or early 16th century Paris. The literary book has little use for a surprising form. In a novel or essay – not counting the odd illustrated novel – language needs to do all the work. The text is a stream of ideas with a linear structure, read from beginning to end. With mere letters, words and sentences, a completely different world is conjured up. The reader is Wanted: ‘invisible’ typography. The heritage of Beatrice Warde The Crystal Goblet, or Printing Should Be Invisible was the title of a lecture held by the American typography historian Beatrice Warde at the British Typogra- phers Guild in 1930. She argued that typography was at its best when it was subservient to the content, the text. Her metaphor is that of a crystal wine glass. The real wine connoisseur, she said, has no interest in a decorated chalice: good wine needs no ornament but comes into its own in a delicate, colourless glass. Just like a good wine glass, good typography is neutral and transparent, while obtrusive design gets in the way of reading and understanding. To many book designers Warde’s ideal of ‘invisible’ design is still a guiding princi- ple. But her argument only applies to immersive reading. In many other reading modes (see invited to dive deep into the text – the common English term is immersive reading. This usually works best when the type and layout do not call attention to themselves and approach the ideal of ‘invisible’ typography. The literary book is only one of many media in which typography plays a central part. As it has such a rich tradition and high prestige, it has long determined the discussion about typography and the design of texts. ← The book as a stream of ideas found its form in late fifteenth-century Italy. A book like De Aetna by Cardinal Pietro Bembo, printed at Aldus Manutius’ shop in 1495–96, is not significantly different from the literary paperback as it is produced today. Even the 500-year-old font is still relevant: the type, cut for Aldus by Francesco Griffo, was the model for the 1929 Bembo typeface, which is still used in today’s digital typography. p 22–23) diversity in typography can actually help in reading. Moreover, the concept of ‘neutrality’ can be interpreted in very different ways. While a typeface like Bembo was neutral to Warde, the modernists preferred the ‘objectivity’ of industrial sans-serifs. Even neutrality is a matter of taste. Showing the story Narrative typography This book, designed by French typographer Fanette Mellier, treats the body text in a very special way. The shape and colours of the text, reproduced as an image, were processed in Photoshop to reflect the events and emotions in the story. → → → Formulae of book design 48 Renaissance oldstyle 84 Typographic technology 164
24 contrast, rhythm, and the white of the page Reading and seeing 25 Navigation: guiding the reader We’ve seen how book typography attempts to make itself invisible in order to help the reader to sink into the text. For selective reading, the opposite is true: typography makes itself useful by standing out and by helping the reader to skim the text. As the term indicates, selective readers do not read everything. A reader who sets out to make a quick selection from the abundance of information in a textbook, magazine or website will profit from clear navigation. A wealth of resources are available to the designer and the editor to facilitate this. Besides language and type, these include images, lines, colour in different shapes, pictograms – and let’s not forget the ‘white of the page’. A judicious use of empty space is a first step towards clarity. Contrast and rhythm Text that was designed for selective reading has a special texture. Contrast, rhythm and hierarchy are key words. To begin with the latter: a clear hierarchy tells the reader, even before the actual reading begins, where the most important information is located and, more importantly, which means are used for navigating the layout. Without having to search, the reader will find his or her way to titles and headlines, summaries, introductions and captions. Contrast is an important tool for making this possible – contrast between different typefaces, between bold and lighter text, large and small, calm and busy, empty and full. Colours (including white, black and shades of grey) are means of establishing contrast. A talented designer who thoughtfully applies principles of contrast and hierarchy will be rewarded with a page that offers a balanced and natural-looking visual rhythm: a smooth alternation between fragments that call attention to themselves and those that do so less – a unity in diversity. Wanted: distinctive typography. There are standard solutions which usually work well for newspaper and magazine typography and may also be just right for websites and some types of non-fiction book (including guidebooks). Body copy in a clear, readable typeface, with headlines in a bold sans-serif, which in a smaller size also becomes a secondary font for boxes and introductions; the latter are set in a larger body size. If that all sounds predictable, then try producing a similar result with different means. Typejockeys from Vienna are a three- person collective that do both graphic design and type design. To show off their imaginative style – definitely more playful than much of the stern minimalism favoured by many design companies in the German-speaking world – as well as their type designing capabilities, navigation on their website uses a collection of different fonts. Organising information Chicago Reader: At a glance The Chicago Reader, a popular alterna- tive weekly for the windy city, had a somewhat incongruous layout before the revamp by Jardí+Utensil (a collabo- ration between the American designer Marcus Villaça and Enric Jardí from Barcelona). Their redesign made the magazine more lucid and uncluttered. The main interventions: a clearer hierarchy and improved navigation thanks to a simple grid and clear typographic contrast. ← → → The designer’s role 16 Text & display 62 Fine-tuning headlines 127
Page 1: There are millions of well-made and
Page 4 and 5: Everyone who picks up a newspaper,
Page 6 and 7: 6 Introduction 7 Culture, communica
Page 8 and 9: 10 11 Playing with scale: Freitag I
Page 10 and 11: 14 studying the reading process •
Page 12 and 13: 18 convincing an audience • visua

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