The Lost Art of Typography

In a recent survey, a magazine asked its readers and editorial staff to nominate the most important person of the Second Millennium. Nominations ranged from Galileo to Einstein, from Columbus to the Wright Brothers. Near the top was Johann Gutenberg, the man generally credited with inventing movable metal type in the mid-15^th century. This single act led to the popularization of printed documents, which previously were painstakingly hand-lettered, expensive and rare.

With Gutenberg's invention, it became possible for multiple copies of books and broadsheets to be printed at low cost. Over the centuries that followed, knowledge was spread at an accelerating rate. The ability to read became an important personal attribute. All other scientific and cultural accomplishments that followed relied in some way on the ability for knowledge to be passed on through writing and reading of the printed word.

An important part of this human progress, although some may deride it, was the development of commercial communication. Advertising, primarily printed advertising, became a major engine of economic growth for the next five centuries.

In recent decades, the art and science of print advertising has evolved and undergone refinement in many dimensions. One of the most fundamental is typography and typesetting, which Encarta Encyclopedia describes as, "the arrangement of individual characters of a particular typeface into words, sentences, paragraphs, and so on, for the purpose of printing and publishing."

My former colleague, Klaus F. Schmidt, director of typography at Young & Rubicam advertising agency in New York when I worked there, describes it this way, "The purpose of typography is to make ideas visible." He goes on to say that the effective positioning of copy elements, choice of typefaces, point sizes and other typographic means determines to a considerable degree whether the message is comprehended. "If, because of too many readability hurdles, the information is not noticed or read, its purpose is defeated."

Unfortunately, with the proliferation of today's equivalent of the first printing presses, the desktop publishing computer, much of the elegance, subtlety and power of effective

type design has disappeared. Rather than being a vehicle that enhances meaning and supports ideas, type selection has become a toy that an untrained "designer" can use without any thought about readability or emotional context.

Too often today we see a hodgepodge of type faces used together, reverse type that fills in, surprinted type that is lost in the background, typefaces that are inconsistent with the intent and feeling of the underlying ideas, and type that is boring or harder to read than it should be.

So, with apologies to Klaus Schmidt, I would like to share some of the things about typography that I learned when we worked together.

First of all, let's agree that the growing mass of information with which we are bombarded makes it critical that word/ideas are transmitted into the reader's mind quickly and easily. Typography that is legible, that pleases the eye and that captures the reader's attention is an important tool in achieving optimum recall and response.

Good typography can create a meaning beyond that of the pure letter-forms of the alphabet and, through its color, texture, mass and arrangement, it can take on a picture meaning of its own or it can be integrated into a picture. As Schmidt says, "Type can vibrate, bounce, move, be fractured."

Some typefaces tire the reader and become an annoyance. Others call attention to themselves and get between the idea and the reader. According to Schmidt, "Typefaces can bring dead words to life and can kill lively words." This is particularly true in headlines, which are expected to communicate quickly and with maximum impact. They must be legible, inviting and appropriate. The typeface should contribute to these goals, but not be so dominant that it becomes more important than the headline idea.

This is not to suggest that there are, or should be, formulas for typographic effectiveness. There can, however, and should be, standards.

Avoid Too Many Typefaces

For example, ads should not have several different typefaces crammed into them. Too many different faces make an ad difficult to read. The eye and brain must shift from one set of letter shape codes to another, while simultaneously trying to grasp the idea. And the type becomes the subject of the ad rather than the vehicle by which the subject is transmitted.

Tight Letter Spacing Is Good

Then there is the matter of the space between the letters, words and lines. Tight letter spacing (but not too tight) enhances readability. We learn to read words, not letters. Normally, we read 250 to 300 words per minute. Our eyes do not sweep steadily along the line of type. They jump from word, or group of words, to word. Each is perceived as a unit. Comprehension is based on what we learned that word unit or phrase to mean when we were first learning to read as children. Tighter letter spacing enhances the recognition of the word or phrase.

Avoid All Caps

For this reason, words in upper and lower case letters are more easily read than those made up of all capital letters. As youngsters, we learned to read words in upper and lower case alphabets first. It is what we are most comfortable with. Moreover, studies indicate that the eye goes to the top of a line of type first because it contains the greatest number of distinguishing features that allow us to identify a word. Caps, which are all of even height, tend to slow down the speed at which something can be read and comprehended.

Kerning Can Improve Readibility

Space relationships between caps also make it more difficult to equalize for easy reading. And kerning of caps is more difficult. Kerning of lower case letters provides the opportunity to make a word more instantly recognizable as a unit. All caps can retard reading speed by 10 to 20 percent, besides taking about 30 percent more space.

Don't Make Lines Too Long or Too Short

When reading English, the eye moves line by line from left to right, returning each time to the beginning of the next line at the left. Line length and line spacing therefore are important in the reading of text. I recommend that a line be somewhere between 1 1/2 or 2 1/2 alphabets in character count, or 40 to 60 characters. Anything longer usually makes it difficult to find the beginning of the next line. Any thing shorter can result in uneven word spacing and bad line breaks.

Ragged Type Is Easier to Read

Generally speaking, type that aligns on the left and is ragged on the right, with word breaks if necessary, is easier to read. The eye moves more effortlessly across the line and is not interrupted by uneven spaces between words. It also is easier to locate the beginning of the next line.

Use Appropriate Line Spacing

The amount of space between lines provides the most easily read text when it is about 10 to 20 percent of the point size of the type. In any event, it should always be larger optically than the wordspaces. Text for long copy should have more generous line spacing - also known as "leading" - than that for shorter copy. Ironically, longer copy almost always leads to the ad designer trying to jam more type into the same space. More leading also allows for longer line length, if that contributes to the effect the designer has in mind.

Serif Type Is Easier to Read Than Sans Serif

How about serif type versus sans serif type? Most of us learned to read on serif type. The serifs, therefore, help us discern the letters and words. Tests have established the serif faces are 5 to 10 percent more legible than sans serif. In particular, older people, whose vision has started to deteriorate, find it easier to read serif type. Even in a larger typeface, the serifs speed up understanding of the written words.

Avoid Reversing or Surprinting Serif Type

On the other hand, when setting type in reverse, or surprinting over a busy background, avoid serif faces. Unless they are very large, the serifs will tend to fill in with ink - especially when high-speed presses are involved - and make the words illegible. Sans serif faces with stronger, bolder lines usually reproduce better in reverse.

These basic guidelines will help the beginning admaker design type that is more effective and communicates more quickly. As with all guidelines, however, they were made to be broken. It is wise to learn and understand them first. Then, break them only after thoughtful consideration of what you want your typography to accomplish and to consciously to achieve that effect.

Ultimately, as Steven J. Martin, Creative Director and Head of the Art Department at Spiro & Waites says, "When I sit down to create a graphic design, be it in print or for the computer screen, type is often my first consideration. Typefaces are individual works of art, and words are individual icons that convey emotion, style and understanding. They are like the oils in a painting that give both meaning and feeling to an image."

William Ernest Waites is chairman and co-creative director of Spiro & Waites Advertising, Marketing and Public Relations. His experience includes extensive work at Proctor & Gamble, Young & Rubicam and Ogilvy & Mather advertising agencies.