5 Trick Pony Brand Guidelines v3

If the text will be read on the screen,
design it for that medium.
4.8
Types
& Faces
Like a forest or a garden or a field, an honest page of letters can absorb - and will repay
- as much attention as it is given.
Much type now, however, is composed not for the page but for the screen of a computer. That screen
can be alive with flowing color, but the computer monitors have dismal resolution (about 140 dpi: less
than a quarter the current norm for laser printers and less than 6% of the norm for professional digital
typesetting). When the text is crudely rendered, the eye goes looking for distraction, which the screen is
all too able to provide.
The screen mimics the sky, not the earth. It bombards the eye with light instead of waiting to repay the
gift of vision. It is not simultaneously restful and lively, like a field full of flowers, or the face of a thinking
human being, or a well-made typographic page. And we read the screen the way we read the sky: in quick
sweeps, guessing at the weather from the changing shapes of clouds, or like astronomers, in magnified
small bits, examining details. We look to it for clues and revelations more than wisdom. This makes it an
attractive place for the open storage of pulverized informa- tion - names, dates, library call numbers, for
instance - but not so good a place for thoughtful text.
At text size, subtle and delicate letterforms stand little chance as well. Superscripts and subscripts,
footnotes, endnotes, sidenotes disappear. In the harsh light and coarse resolution of the screen, such
literate accessories are difficult to see; what is worse, they dispel the essential illusion of speed. So the
links and jumps of hypertext replace them. All the subtexts then can be the same size, and readers are at
liberty to skip from text to text like children switching channels on TV. When reading takes this form, both
sentences and letterforms retreat to blunt simplicity. Forms bred on newsprint and signage are most likely
to survive.
Good text faces for the screen are there- fore as a rule faces with low contrast, a large torso, open
counters, sturdy terminals, and slab serifs or no serifs at all.
Consult the ancestors.
4.9
Types
& Faces
Typography is an ancient craft and an old profession as well as a constant
technological frontier.
It is also in some sense a trust. The lexicon of the tribe and the letters of the alphabet - which are the
chromosomes and genes of literate culture - are in the typographer’s care. Maintaining the system means
more than merely buying the newest fonts from digital foundries and the latest updates for typesetting
software.