February 21 2007 • 2:12 AM
InDesignSecrets Podcast 043
Listen in your browser:
InDesignSecrets-043.mp3 (10.6 MB, 22:18 minutes)
or read the transcript of this podcast.
- InDesign Newsbits: Free Plug-in from Teacup, Upcoming InDesign Shows
- Winner of the contest from last episode: Least Useful InDesign Palette
- InDesign trainer extraordinaire Russell Viers explains how to draw a straight line
- What’s more readable: Serif or Sans Serif body text type?
- Obscure InDesign Feature of the Week: Metrics
Links mentioned in the podcast:
TypeFitter plug-in for InCopy (free) or InDesign ($59) (link leads to post with details)
Creative Suite Conference in Miami, Florida (Feb. 28–March 3, 2007)
InDesign Conference in New York, New York (June 4–6, 2007)
Russell Viers’ YabbAdobeDoo.com site
Literature Review of Serif vs. Sans Serif Legibility Studies
Typophile.com forum for typographers (especially this thread on optical vs. metrics)
InDesign CS2 Keyboard Shortcuts Poster (use FEATHER coupon code for a 25% discount)
Listener Comment Line: +1-206-888-INDY (-4639)
Talk to us, baby: Leave a message!
I am glad you reminded me of the word we will never forget: pilcrow.
You guys are Super!
Thanks! I’ve been wanting one of the shortcuts poster and my wish has been granted. I tried to find the coffee mugs a few weeks ago and couldn’t. Are they all gone?
Optical vs. Metric kerning: thanks for clarifying. I had thought that you should always use optical because it made the left edge look better like when quotes are used.
Request: I have been using a lot of Photoshop comps lately. The trouble is, every time I change something in Photoshop, all the comps revert the top comp. Frustrating. Any suggestions?
From my personal Style Guide (which consists of stuff gleaned from all kinds of sources) regarding legibility:
Our brains are really good at pattern recognition. In reading, serif fonts are easier to recognize than sans at body text sizes. To check this empirically, try this: place the edge of a piece of paper such that it covers the top or bottom HALF of a line of serif text. Most people can still read the text when either top or bottom is covered. This generally doesn’t work with sans fonts.
Also, for best legibility column widths should be from 25 to 50 characters, ideally 40. Longer lines must have added leading so the reader has an effortless return path to the left edge of the column for the next line. And italics are harder to read than roman, so only use briefly for emphasis.
One other use of the Paragraph panel that I didn’t hear mentioned and that is not available on the control panel:
With the selection tool (rather than the type tool) select a frame that contains text. Then click on one of the justification icons in the paragraph panel and ALL the paragraphs in the frame are changed to that justification without having to switch to the type tool nor selecting all the paragraphs.
If there is another way to do this after selecting a frame, I would sure love to know about it!
There may be no difference in readability between serif and san serif, but there may be a difference in the effectiveness of the two.
About 15 years ago I did some production work for a company that marketed investment newsletters (among other things). They had mailing lists of over 100,000 qualified names and they were always testing the effectiveness of the promo pieces they mailed. They would create three versions of a promo piece (often a 16-page magazine-like brochure) and mail them to subsets of their list. Then they would measure the response for each piece (i.e. how many subscriptions they got). Each piece was identical except for one thing. Perhaps the headline copy would be different, or the type style for the headline.
Well, they often tested the type styles used for heads, subheads, and body copy. What they found over and over again to be the most effective was very bold san serif heads, bold san serif subheads, and serif body copy.
Now, that was 15 years ago, and things could be different now. Plus, the audience (people who had money to invest) and the subject matter probably had a bearing on this. If you’re trying to appeal to a younger audience with a different product, san serif body copy may be more effective.
Thank you for letting me know I’m not the only one with the Gill Sans problem. What’s really ironic is this morning I was sitting in the local coffee shop looking at a brochure set in Gill Sans. Every time there was a period followed by a space, the space disappeared. I chuckled because I could identify with that.
Then on my way home, I’m listening to this podcast and I hear it’s a universal problem.
Thanks for the tip on how to fix it for good. I did notice I have to tighten up the tracking to keep the same fit.