Letter spacing

Professional-looking type involves careful control of letter spacing. A good layout program will take out extra space between words and letters on a universal basis. This is called tracking.

Certain letter pairs, particularly between capital letters, appear to be improperly letter-spaced when typeset normally. By kerning letters — carefully adjusting the letter spacing between specific pairs of letters — type can be made a lot better looking.

Most desktop-publishing programs kern type automatically based on information contained in the font itself. This information can be altered from within some layout programs and with add-on programs. In some programs the user can manually kern letter pairs.

Many fonts also contain ligatures, combinations of certain letters that are designed as a single unit to take the place of two individual characters.

Next week: Adding emphasis

Avoid rough types

Properly done, rag-right typography follows all the normal procedures of hyphenation and wordbreaking used to justify copy, except that extra space isn’t added to fill out line lengths. Set well, it is called tight rag.

Loose rag-right typography, called rough rag, looks unkempt and slows reading.

If your rag-right lines consistently vary in length from line to line by two or more picas, check to see if possible hyphenation points were missed.

The justification of space

Justifying type involves calculating how much short of a full line measure each line will fall, then distributing that extra space between words — called word spacing — and even between letters — letter spacing — to fill the line out to full line width.

As a desktop publisher, you don’t have to worry about the math — the computer program will do it for you. However, most DTP software allows you to control both word and letter spacing to some degree if you don’t like the way it is doing it, or to make the type fit better into the space you have allotted.

Don’t space out

Watch out for overly wide word spacing. It makes type more difficult to read.

It’s like listening to an incredibly slow talker. You get edgy waiting for the next word to come out. The same thing happens when you read widely spaced copy.

Is your word spacing too wide? Turn your typeset page upside down. If word spaces are still clearly visible, chances are word spacing is too wide.

Next week: Letter spacing

Type alignment

Lines of type are categorized by their alignment to a margin. It’s either:

Flush, so the beginnings and/or the endings of lines align vertically with one another, or

Ragged, often called rag for short, where line beginnings and endings do not align.

This means we can set blocks of type in one of four ways:

Rag right, with type flush to the left margin but ragged at the right

Rag left, with type flush to the right margin but ragged at the left

Justified, with each line flush to both right and left margins, or

Centered, with the type balanced symmetrically, and the line endings ragged at both left and right.

Research shows that rag right is most legible in body copy. After reading one line of type, the eye jumps naturally back to the left margin to find the start of the next line.

Rag left type slows reading speed appreciably because the eye can’t automatically jump back to a fixed left margin. It has to hunt for the start of each succeeding line.

Centered text is used mostly in special applications, such as invitations or headlines, and usually in small amounts. Of the four, it is least easy to read.

When is it ragtime?

Justified type lends a more formal look to copy. Rag right adds a touch of informality. Most research shows that, for the average reader, justified and rag right type are equally legible.

However, slower readers find rag right text to be more legible. Why? Possibly because the spacing between words and letters in rag-right text remains more consistent from line to line, or perhaps because the eye tracks more easily from the end of differing length lines back to the beginning of the next line.

Rag-right style is best for sans-serif body typefaces. The squarish letters coupled with squared-off lines make justified sans serif doubly hard to read.

Next week: Avoid rough types, and The justification of space

Paragraph indents

While we’re talking about body copy, here’s another bit of free advice: Indent your paragraphs.

Some styles call for flush paragraphs — no indents. Some designers think it looks cleaner.

Maybe. But it does something else, too. It cuts reading speed by 7 percent.

Some designers argue that the first paragraph shouldn’t be indented because it aligns flush left with a headline above it.

We guess that’s OK. But then we see the technique done when the headline above it is centered. That’s really confusing.

Our counsel: Indent paragraphs roughly one pica. (For purists, indent paragraphs one em, which is the type size; e.g., 12 points for 12-point type, 10 points for 10-point type, etc.)

Saccadic rhythms: Line length

Research studies show that when we read our eyes move in what are called saccadic jumps, focusing on a small group of words for about a quarter of a second — until we understand — then moving to the next group. We continue this way until we’re done. Type set too wide forces the eye to work extra hard to track from the end of one line to the beginning of the next. Even when the eye can scan along the baseline of serif type, there’s a good chance the eye will get lost.

Type set too narrow forces the eye to spend almost as much time jumping from the end of one line to the beginning of the next as it does actually scanning typeset words. Too-narrow columns interrupt natural sentence flow, slowing reading speed and reducing comprehension.

Optimal line length depends upon type design and size. For example, one study of 10-point type conducted at University of Minnesota showed an 18.9-pica line to be optimal. Subjects read a 13.9-pica line about 7 percent more slowly, and they read a 43.9-pica line 11.4 percent more slowly.

In general, choose a maximum line width for body copy that, when measured in picas, will be no more than twice the size of the type when measured in points.

In short: Twice the point size in picas.

Typographers usually combine point size, line spacing and line length of type into one specification.

Example: ”Set 10 on 11 by 20 picas” means use 10-point type with one additional point of line spacing set on a 20-pica line length. It’s often written in shorthand form as: 10 /11 x 20.

Next week: Type alignment

The Professional Look, The Complete Guide to Desktop Publishing, is a book I co-authored with Scott Tilden in 1991. Each Thursday I post an excerpt from the chapter I wrote about typography. Many of you dye-subbers also design some of the graphics you print, which includes setting type. Hopefully these posts will give you new insights into typography. Click here for my previous post.

The color of type

Without white space between lines, type can appear heavy and gray. This density of black type is called the color of type, and can psychologically deter people from reading it.

If the type you choose has a large x-height, consider increasing line spacing; with a small x-height, you might get away with no extra leading at all. Second, look at your selected font’s stroke variation. Some typefaces — Bodoni, for one — show a wide variation between the thickest and thinnest strokes in characters. The thinnest lines, often the serifs, can virtually disappear when such faces are set smaller than about 10 points.

The design of the letters, too, can affect legibility. Some typefaces, Bookman, for example, have wide open counters, the circular parts of the letters, which make them more legible.

Generally, most readers find it easy enough to read a 10-point serif typeface set with at least one extra point of line spacing: 10 on 11 in typesetting shorthand. One and one-half or two extra points of line spacing would be better: 10 on 11½ or even 10 on 12. To be sure you’re picking a reader-friendly body type style and size, test it out! Show it to some typical readers and ask their opinion.

Next week: Paragraph indents, and Saccadic rhythms: Line length

When you can’t — or won’t — body serif

Sometimes you will have to use sans-serif body type (the boss says you must, or it’s called for in a corporate style book). Or you might simply choose to. Some designers (we told you they’re a freespirited bunch) argue that Helvetica provides a “clean, modern look” to typeset copy and insist on its use. If you do use Helvetica or another sans-serif face, make it work best by setting it with:

• At least two points of line spacing

• A line length of 14 picas or less

• Ragged right line endings, as discussed below.

Body type: Bigger is better

You can do everything else right, but make your body type too small, and your publication will be doomed to failure. The size of your type can determine whether people will read your publication. Millions of people suffer from presbyopia, a form of farsightedness that occurs as the eye’s aging lens becomes less elastic. Today, more than 80 million have presbyopia.

There are also millions of Americans, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, who have trouble reading newspapers, even aided by glasses or contact lenses.

Even if they can see it, many people find reading small type a chore. Unless people have to read it (things like contracts, phone books, or college catalogs), most won’t.

Too-small type can even affect performance. Groups of Army recruits taking standardized vocational aptitude tests a few years ago began recording significantly lower average test scores even though the test questions were basically the same.

The cause? Printers had reduced the type size used in the test; the smaller point size took longer to read and candidates flunked the timed portion of the test. So, what size is best? A lot of typographic characteristics come into play. First, there is the font’s x-height. While typefaces with smaller x-heights “appear” smaller, size for size, they do allow more white space between lines than “larger” cousins.

Next week: The color of type

So we figured out how to make mural transfers using Photoshop, the software we were using for almost everything else we do. ImageSnap has been making mural transfers this way ever since.

Here’s how we do it:

After you’ve decided the tile size, multiply the number of horizontal and vertical tiles by your normal tile-transfer size. For example, if you’re making a 3-foot by 4-foot mural out of 12-inch by 12-inch tiles, multiply 11.9 inches (transfer size) by 3 for one side, and then by 4 for the other side. This mural would measure 35.7 inches by 47.6 inches.

In Photoshop, open the mural image and make its size 35.7 inches by 47.6 inches. You may have to crop the image to achieve the proper size.

Now choose Guides, Grid & Slices in the Preferences menu. In the Grid box, choose a color that will easily be visible on your mural image. You can choose a color from the Color pull-down menu, or make a custom color using the Color Box at the right side of the menu.

Guides, Grid and Slices.

Enter the dimension of the tile transfer in the Gridline every ____ inches box. In the case of my example above, you would enter 11.9. Leave the Style as lines and the Subdivisions as 1. Make sure you select Show/Grid in the View menu so the grid you just created will be visible on the image. And choose Snap in the View menu so you can select your transfers accurately in the next step.

With your mural image open in Photoshop, and with the grid showing, use your Selection Tool to select the first tile of your mural. In my example, the selection would be 11.9 inches by 11.9 inches. Now copy your selection to the Clipboard, and then open a new file. Photoshop will automatically make the dimensions of the new file equal to the piece you just copied to the Clipboard.

Paste the copied image into the new file, and save the new file with an identifiable name. Follow the cut-and-paste-and-save procedure with each of the mural pieces.

Open the saved files, print your transfers and make your tiles. You’re done!

A big tip: It’s important that you make your transfer size as close to the tile size as possible. You’re going to lose a little bit of the image in order to make a full bleed on your tile, but the lost edge of the image is where the grout or seam goes, so the image will flow correctly from tile to tile.

ImageSnap has made hundreds of mural over the years using this procedure. No need for fancy mural programs, just use the tools you already have.

Leading: Controlling inner space

The spacing between lines of type is called leading by typographers. The term remains from earlier times when typographers literally inserted thin strips of metal between lines of type. With the advent of computerized typesetting, leading is often called line spacing. We control line spacing with substantially more accuracy than we do in typewriting, often to to 1 point or less. Some DTP software packages, such as Quark Xpress, control line spacing to .001 of an inch. Line spacing can be more than, equal to, or even less than the point size of the type, depending upon how closely together the lines of type are set.

Anatomy of type: The head and the body

Most of your typesetting will fall into two categories: the larger words that attract attention and summarize the content, called headlines, or heads for short, or paragraphs of copy that compose your material, called text or body type.

Headlines: Making a big point

Generally you’ll want to go with sans-serif typefaces for headlines because in the normally larger sizes used — 14 points and up — sans-serif styles stand out well and make a fast read.

Many of the most-successful roadside billboards, where passing readers typically have six to eight seconds to get the message, use sans-serif type. In newspapers, or on any page made up of several blocks of copy, the headline size tells readers the relative importance of the story. Larger heads attract more readers. Up to a point — 36 points, to be exact (about half an inch) according to research. Use type larger than 36 points for design reasons only; you won’t attract proportionally more readers. Another study shows no difference in legibility in type sizes from 14 to 30 points.

Body type

Research results are clear: When the time comes to choose text copy, go with serif type. When the eye has finished reading one line of type, it more easily tracks back to the beginning of the next line when it can follow along an imaginary line formed by the serifs along the baseline of the type. Other studies say that, since nearly all the reading textbooks we studied in grammar school used serif typefaces for body copy, we feel most comfortable reading serif typefaces. A study of newspaper front pages by Sandra Utt and Steve Pasternak, published in Journalism Quarterly, confirms it; 95.6 percent of newspapers use serif type.

Next week: When you can’t — or won’t — body serif, and Body type: Bigger is better

Our choice is Weldbond, a product made by Speedy Products Company, Jacksonville, TX. Weldbond glue goes on white, but turns clear after a few hours. The glue holds fast in just a few minutes. The only way to remove a tile after the Weldbond has dried, is to break it out of its setting with a hammer.

Here’s how Weldbond describes its glue:

• Non-flammable, non-toxic & dries clear
• Unmatched as a primer for porous surfaces
• Highly water-resistant and impervious to petroleum, oil, grease, salt, moulds and fungi, alkali’s and weak acids.
• Withstands all climatic conditions after curing
• Non-staining and will not become brittle with age
• Highly concentrated, can be mixed with water and used a a sealer for many surfaces.
• Tested and approved by CMHC for use in National Housing Act Construction
• Used by NASA for Escape Suites on space shuttle flights

That last item about NASA gives Weldbond the right to call itself the Universal Space Age Adhesive.

ImageSnap buys WeldBond at local Ace Hardware stores. An 8-ounce bottle of WeldBond is about $5; a 21-ounce bottle is $8.49.

Measuring type

We measure the size of a typeface in points from the bottom of a letter that goes below the baseline (called a descender) to the top of the tallest letter (either an ascender or capital letter).

The baseline is the invisible line on which all the capital letters and characters without descenders sit. Pick a good adverb to measure your ascenders and descenders; the ly has an ascender and descender conveniently side by side.

You’ll find that all 10-point type does not look to be the same size. Ten-point Bookman font type, for instance, is not the same size as 10-point Times. Why?

Because the x-height or waist line of Bookman’s letters is much bigger than Times’s letters. The x-height is the size of a font’s lowercase letters. The height of a capital letter in any font is called its cap height or appearing size. The cap height is generally two-thirds to three-quarters of the total height of a character.

For example, the cap height of a 72-point letter is usually 48 to 54 points. The cap height of a 36-point letter is 24 to 27 points. The balance of the letter’s height is measured from the baseline to the bottom of a descender.

Next week: Leading: Controlling inner space, and Anatomy of type: The head and the body