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No
other design discipline requires so much
learning and training as fontography, and by no
other aspect can amateurs be so easily
distinguished from professionals. To be font
literate, a designer has to study the history
and the principles of font design
The article is not, of course, nearly as
comprehensive as a good textbook on the
subject. There are lots of books about the
design and use of fonts, probably not much
less than about design proper; the field is,
so to say, very densely populated because of
its practical importance and rich historic
traditions. So I feel justified in dropping
many of the finer points that you can relatively
easily find in other sources.
Instead, as it was with color, my goal now
is to show you the anatomy of font
perception, to help you feel the soul of a
font. I'm discouraged by the great many
designers writing on the subject only to
come up with some very partial, and very
peremptory, rules-of-thumb instead of just
sharing their feelings about fonts---which
could really be much more instructive.
In my opinion, one thing absolutely
necessary for working with fonts is knowing
their history---what came after what and,
more importantly, why. Actually, you may be
surprised to learn which of the typefaces
installed on your computer are old and which
are relatively new. The helix of font
history has already made more than one full
convolution, and many fonts that seemed
almost forgotten were then successfully
revived.
The appearance of these fonts for modern
perception is almost ideally neutral. The
shapes and proportions of letters, the
relative prominence of strokes and serifs,
the contrast level---all these features are
nearly transparent for the eye, adding
minimum, if any, distinctive or "personal"
features to a font. In short, transitional
design could be a good candidate for a
"generic serif font."
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