Typography Manifesto
Good news about typography in books. It's obvious that the book designers are trying. They're generally using better typefaces, and some even mention the typeface name.
The next step is that designers and publishers should learn what's important.
Generally, more space between letters, and less space between words. The reason that's important is that it makes text easier to read. Reading is what books are about. That being the case, please choose typefaces because they are easy to read, not because they are difficult to read.
Go look at some pages of a Gutenberg Bible. The first white-guy to use a printing press, and his type is orders of magnitude better than most books we see today. Because he knew what he was doing, and most people don't, up until now.
We are about to see the most exciting boom in typography since JG. I promise you. If you are going to do type, please learn to be worthy of this extraordinary, once-a-millenium ecstacy.
More space between letters. Less space between words. The right amount of space between lines to suit the length of the line. Line-lengths to suit the reading eye. A typeface that is both beautiful and easy to read. For justified text, allow imperceptible variations in letterspacing to make the wordspacing even.
If you need me to say this again, call me and I'll say it again. If you need to pay huge amounts of money before you believe this, I'll tell you again and take your money.
You alone can't stop global warming or terrorism or fascism, but you have a choice when you make a line of text: you can humiliate yourself and the reader, and contribute to all that is wretched, or you can do something uplifting.
If you need me to tell you again....
Copyright © 1998-2002 J. R. Boynton