Monday, September 28, 2020

A Brief Guide to Good Typography

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Good communication is clear. It’s more than that, but never less. To be clear, the language we use matters. All of us know that. 

But, if typography is what language looks like (according to Ellen Lupton), then the type we use also matters. Maybe you know that too, but you don’t know what to do about it. 

If so, you may be interested in my “Brief Guide to Good Typography.” It’s designed for busy students, so it’s brief. It’s not designed for professional designers, so it only covers the basics. I try to cover those elements of good typography that are the easiest to use and make the most improvement. If you find it helpful, I’m very happy for you to share it far and wide.

A brief guide to good typography


12 comments

  1. Thanks, helpful reading.
    "For a serif font, you might try Source Sans Pro which is also free online." - you mean of course "For a sans-serif font,...".

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    1. Thanks! Will fix later.

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    2. Peter, are you writing comments to yourself about typography using an "anonymous" name... 😀

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  2. Thanks for this resource! It covers a lot of the bases and is well-illustrated. I'm glad you pointed out that Word doesn't actually implement small caps using OpenType features; they always looked suspiciously thin to me. Do you know if Word uses shortcuts for proper subscripts and superscripts, as well?

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  3. How could you leave out Papyrus, the most imortant font for textual criticism?

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    1. For this audience I should have included a special warning about that.

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    2. I agree. And also "Comic Sans"

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  4. It is good to see you recommending Times New Roman.

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  5. "The easiest typographical principles with the biggest payoff" — I always thought that was the (apparent) cut-and-paste Ransom Note typeface.

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  6. If you are already explaining typography, I was hoping you could also discuss software. What word processor do Bible scholars use, especially for Hebrew verses, and do they type out Hebrew verses or do they copy and paste them from the word processor or from another software?

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    1. I use Word and it works fine. Others I know swear on Mac-only programs.

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