Franklin Gothic + Century

[ from left: Franklin Gothic Medium, Book + Century Regular ]
Yoko and John. John and Yoko. These names will be connected forever, whether you think she was responsible for breaking up the Beatles or not. They are a couple known for their passion, love and devotion to one another. To me, linking the two letter “O”s together not only seemed to bring to mind their amazing connection to each other, but kind of reminded me of a typographic counterpart to Annie Leibovitz’s famous photograph of John and Yoko.

Typographically, no one can question the passion, love and devotion that Morris Fuller Benton had for typography. Working for the American Type Foundry (which his father helped found), the legacy of the typefaces he designed from the early 1900s until his death in 1948 is unparalleled. He truly helped put American typeface design on the map with his refined, legible and versatile typefaces. How fitting, then, to combine arguably his most famous san serif, Franklin Gothic, with his most famous serif, Century. Franklin was designed first, in 1902, and has been a staple in design for more than a hundred years. The legible and humanistic forms took their cues from some of the san serifs of the 1800s. Century was designed from 1908 to 1909, based in part on the designs his father, Linn Boyd Benton, created for Century magazine, commissioned in the 1890s by Theodore Lowe DeVinne.

I guess the one irony of this type combination is that Yoko and John were controversial and flamboyant in the 1960s and early 1970s, (see this clip from the Dick Cavett show) and these typefaces are reserved and quiet. But maybe that creates a nice contrast.

Where can I purchase these typefaces?
Franklin Gothic: Adobe.com, fonts.com (The ITC version is a super family with 48 different weights and styles, designed specifically for the digital age), linotype.com.
Century: Can be found at Adobe.com, fonts.com, linotype.com

Any newer san serifs?
For a couple of more modern san serifs that are legible and have an element of humanism (as opposed to being geometric), try Gotham and Knockout both from Hoefler & Frere-Jones. Another is Benton Sans (designed as an extension of News Gothic) from fontbureau.com.

Any other legible serifs?
The New: Sentinel (another new typeface from H&FJ), Miller (designed in 1997 by Matthew Carter) and Georgia Pro (new weights and styles by Steve Matteson) from fontbureau.com
The Old: Clarendon (a 19th century pre-cursor to Century), Times New Roman (all over the internet, which unfortunately has taken a nice typeface from Stanley Morrison and made it too commonplace to use).

For more information about the poster: typographic matchmaking.com

From top:

Univers + Century Schoolbook + Goudy + Univers

[ Univers LT Std 57 Condensed + Century Schoolbook Bold + ITC Goudy Sans Std Black + Univers LT Std 67 Bold Condensed ]

From a cinematic perspective, Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Audrey Hepburn and Cary Grant form quite a unique, interesting and compatible foursome. Tracy and Hepburn’s affinity for each other began in the movie Woman of the Year. They starred in 8 more movies together, to go with a 25-year love affair. Hepburn and Grant also starred in many movies, notably Bringing Up Baby. Audrey Hepburn starred in only one film with Grant, but it was a doozy: Charade. The foursome also features some cross-pollinating of nationalities. Audrey was born in the Netherlands, Grant in the UK. The other two were from America. Similarly, Univers was designed in 1956 by fellow European Adrian Frutiger, a native of Switzerland. The versatility and wide range of the typeface is perhaps only matched by Spencer Tracy’s versatility on celluloid. The other two typefaces in question were designed by Americans. Morris Fuller Benton, after being approached by a publishing company to design a legible typeface for use in school textbooks, responded with Century Schoolbook, released in 1920. The version from Monotype is the one used here.

Frederic Goudy designed a few fonts that feature his name. Goudy sans was designed for Monotype from 1922 to 1929 (he created 3 styles during that time). It’s unique for a san serif typeface, slightly eccentric, and did not follow a trend toward geometric san serif type started by Futura. Kinda sounds like the unconventional pants-wearing actress of the 1930s, Katharine Hepburn, doesn’t it?

So why do the typefaces work well together? It’s an interesting mix of two faces that share a simplicity and straightforwardness (Univers and Century) and contrasting that with something a little more eccentric: Goudy.

Where can you find these fonts today?
ITC Goudy Sans, Univers LT Std: Adobe.com
Century Schoolbook: monotype.com

Any similar typefaces out there?
Another version of Goudy Sans is sold at linotype.com and is called LTC Goudy Sans (LTC = Lanston Type Company). I find it more eccentric than the ITC version. There are many versions of Century including: Century Expanded, Century Old Style, New Century Schoolbook, and on and on and on. For something similar to Univers, an obvious choice would be Helvetica Condensed or Compressed. A less obvious choice would be News Gothic or Franklin Gothic Condensed (both designed by Morris Fuller Benton, at least the regular styles of Franklin Gothic) and Trade Gothic (designed by Jackson Burke in 1948).

For more information about the poster: typographic matchmaking.com

From Top:

DIN + Memphis + Mrs Eaves

[ DIN 1451 Engschrift + Memphis Std Bold + Mrs. Eaves Bold ]

Those old arch enemies. Yes, the Montagues and the Capulets, but also in a typographic sense the Germans and the Brits. DIN is an abbreviation for Deutsche Industrie-Norm, a typeface used for road signs in Germany and designed in 1936. Mrs Eaves was inspired by John Baskerville’s English typeface from the 1700s. The tension between the two countries may not be palpable today like it was back in the 1930s, when Memphis was designed by Rudolf Wolf for German foundry D. Stempel AG, but there is a nice contrast between the two typefaces. DIN has a precise mechanical geometry, while there is a refined and elegant beauty evident in Mrs Eaves. Mrs Eaves, by the way, was designed by Zuzana Licko (co-founder of emgire and a native of Czechoslovakia) in 1996.

One other thing to note is the criblé inside the heart, which is the white dots that break up the otherwise solid red color. This was first used in the 16th century by Geoffroy Tory in some of the initial capital letters he designed for use in books.

Where to find the typefaces today:
DIN and Memphis = Adobe or Linotype
Mrs Eaves = emigre

Other similar combinations:
Condensed San Serifs: Trade Gothic, Univers Condensed Bold, Helvetica Neue Condensed Bold, Champion Gothic
Serifs, beautiful but reserved:Baskerville, Caslon 540, Adobe Garamond, Chronicle

For more information about the poster: typographic matchmaking.com

Part of a new poster Jim has designed called “Typographic Matchmaking.”

I have finished designing a new poster and just finalized preparations for letterpressing it in early January at Rowley Press. I thought I’d share a peek of it with you. I’ll post more info after Christmas. Happy Holidays.

:: The UVU Parking Classic (poking fun at how hard it is to park on campus)
:: Love Will Conquer the Rawest of Seafood

The latter won $10,000 as the top entry in the Comedy category. It is witty, clever and features some wonderful typography and motion. Judges including some Emmy and Academy award winners, as well as Rich Silverstein from Goodby Silverstein and Partners. Congrats to Will.

Click on the links above to watch the videos.

1 – Adjust the letterspacing: This is almost always the first thing I try. Small adjustments are less perceptible to the eye when the type is less than 14 points in size. So I might enter a -5 value in the Tracking field of InDesign (see Figures 1 and 2). If that doesn’t work, I try increments of -5 (-10, -15) until I get to -20. Then I stop. The human eye starts to notice type with letterspacing tighter than -20. By the way, InDesign measures tracking in 1,000ths of an em. So -5 = -5/1000 of an em. What’s an em? It is a relative unit equal to the current point size of the type (1 em of 12 point type = 12 points, 1 em of 8 point type = 8 points, etc.). If there is a line with some big rivers in it (space between the words), sometimes I’ll select the line and change the tracking to 20. This spreads the letterspacing, causing smaller wordspacing.

Figure 1: Adjust the tracking field in InDesign. Negative values decrease the space between letters, positive values increase it.

Figure 2: Entering a value of -20 in the tracking field in InDesign allows the word “only” to move up a line, eliminating the widow.

2 – Add a line break after a word: Sometimes, to get rid of a widow, I’ll look at the lines of type within a paragraph and see if I can add a line break by using a soft return (shift-return) to push one word to the next line. This can create a domino effect that pushes a word on each of the subsequent lines to the next line, giving the last line of the paragraph more than one word (see Figure 3).

Figure 3: Adding a soft return (holding down Shift when you press the Return key) re-flows the text and pushes part of “comparison” onto the last line, eliminating a widow. Perhaps not the most elegant solution; you could finesse the other lines of text. Also, InDesign has what’s called a Paragraph Composer which tries to optimize the length of each line within a paragraph. This works well sometimes, but if you start to add soft returns manually, I would turn this feature off (see Figure 4).

Figure 4: Before you start adding your own hard returns, you may want to go to the Paragraph Panel. In the upper right hand corner click on the icon to see the pop-up menu and, if there is a check beside “Adobe Paragraph Composer,” select “Adobe Single-Line Composer” underneath it instead. This helps you to re-flow the text without having InDesign adjust the other lines in the paragraph for you.

3 – Hyphenate words: To create fewer lines of text in a paragraph (or to pull a widow up to the next line), hyphenating a word can buy you just enough space to eliminate the widow or a line of text.

4 – Edit the text: This can be particularly effective in making text fit into the space you’ve allotted IF you have a good-natured copywriter who doesn’t mind massaging his text. (I say massaging, a copywriter might say “taking a hatchet to my text.”)

5 – Modify the horizontal scale: If you’ve seen the Typographic Sin poster, you know this is a no-no. BUT if you condense the text 3% in either direction, it should go unnoticed. I usually do this to the entire paragraph, as opposed to one line of text or one word. By 3% either way, I mean you could horizontally scale the text 97%, 98%, 99% or 101%, 102%, 103% (see Figure 5).

Figure 5: Open the Character Panel and click in the upper right hand corner of the gray bar to see the pop-up menu, then select “Show Options.” The horizontal scale field has been set to 97%.

Figure 6: The text on the right has a horizontal scale of 97%, hardly distinguishable from the original text on the left.

6 – Make the column width wider: If you find that the text won’t fit, or that there are a lot of widows or hyphenated words in your paragraphs, you might try extending the width of the columns of text. Of course, you may need to do this for all of the columns, unless you’re widening it less than a sixteenth of an inch.

7 – Make the point size smaller: This can help a lot, but you’ll need to do it with all of the text so one paragraph doesn’t look out of place. And, of course, you’ll want to make sure the text is still readable.

8 – Change the alignment: If you have a lot of rivers in your justified text, you could just align all of the text flush left and ragged right. (Rivers are the large spaces in between words.)

9 – Change the typeface: Try a slightly condensed typeface to fit more words in a space. Or, if you are running short, try a typeface with a slightly wider em width. I once took a brochure that was set in Officina Sans and picked a new typeface for the body text. It took me forever to fit the copy because Officina Sans is a condensed typeface that allows many words per line.

There you have it, 9 things to try. Maybe you have some other secrets you use. If so, post a comment below and share. It could help save us all some time.

The annual typography issue (July issue) of HOW Magazine will feature an article I wrote based on the 34 Typographic Sins poster. It hits the newsstands on June 22nd. I’m excited to be a part of the issue and to have the sins reach a larger audience. The poster is still available for purchase on this site.

After a month-long wait, the second edition of the Typographic Sins poster is complete. Rowley Press finished letterpressing a second edition of 200 posters.

Size: 11 inches x 17 inches
Paper: Crane Lettra 110 lb. 100% Cotton Paper in Ecru color (fancy for cream)
Colors: Black + Pantone 234 (a red with a hint of purple)
Typefaces used: Primarily Cochin LT Std, Stuyvesant ICG and ITC New Baskerville Italic.
Price: $65/each plus shipping (and tax for Utah residents)
Total Production: 200 posters. Each poster is numbered and signed by Jim Godfrey.

I accept the cards shown below. The cost of shipping is $10 for the U.S. and $30 for anywhere outside of the U.S. Please allow 4-10 days for your poster to arrive if it is shipped in the U.S. Outside the U.S. takes 3 to 4 weeks. The posters are rolled and shipped in a heavy duty cardboard tube.

Here is a little background on the poster.
Before we all started using computers to do our typesetting, there were professional typesetters who knew a lot about type and some rules for setting it appropriately. Much of this information is taught in typography courses at colleges and universities. As I taught students in my own typography class, I felt the need to have some sort of concise resource that would remind them of some of these typesetting conventions. You know, something that would lead them in typographic righteousness and keep them out of sin.

Many of the sins have been mentioned in a canon of typography books such as Robin Williams’s The Mac Is Not A Typewriter and Ellen Lupton’s Thinking with Type, Robert Bringhursts The Elements of Typographic Style. I am sure they also exist in other texts as well (like the Chicago Manual of Style, which I also consulted). It is also important to note that some of the sins are based on typesetting practices in the United States. For instance, it is more common in the UK not to tuck periods inside quotation marks (although I still think they should avoid this sin). As with all “rules” there are some sins that are worth committing under certain circumstances and others that one should never commit. For example, I hate seeing dumbquotes anywhere. Conversely, sometimes large amounts of reversed body text work aesthetically and conceptually with the design of the entire piece. True to life, we all have little sins we commit, I guess.

Here is a list of the 34 sins.

34 Typographic Sins

Two spaces between sentences.
Repent of this sin by using only one space.

Dumb quotes instead of smart quotes.
Evil: “Thou shalt not misuse type”
Good: “Thou shalt not misuse type”

Dumb apostrophe instead of a smart apostrophe.
Profane: Don’t use prime marks
Sacred: Don’t use prime marks
By the way, apostrophes always face this way: Pot o’ gold.
They never face this way: Pot ‘o gold.

Failing to tuck periods/commas inside quotes marks.
Immoral: “I love type so much”, she confessed.
Chaste: “I love type so much,” she testified.

Failing to kern display type.
Unseemly gaps can impede readability and be distracting to the reader.
Adjusting the spacing between letters will assuage your guilt.

Using a hyphen instead of an en dash.
Use an en dash to indicate a duration of time instead of the word “to”:
the 8–10 commandments, not 8-10 commandments.

Using two hyphens instead of an em dash.
An em dash signifies a change in thought—or a parenthetical phrase—within a sentence.

Too many consecutive hyphens.
It is sinful to have more than two hyphens on consecutive lines of type,
and even that should be avoided.

Large amounts of bodytext in uppercase letters.
IT BECOMES REALLY DIFFICULT TO READ.

Large amounts of reversed type
ARE HARDER TO READ. Type on a busy background is also unreadable.

Using process colors for body text.
It is harder to read, but more importantly, it is hell to register on press.

Underlining titles instead of italicizing them.
Thou Shalt Not: The Holy Bible Thou Shalt: The Korán

Failing to eliminate widows.
A widow is a word that sits on a line by itself at the end of a paragraph.
Avoid this or risk being cast into a lake of fire and brimstone.

Failing to eliminate orphans.
An orphan is the last line of a paragraph that sits alone at the top of a
column or page. Type does not like to be alone.

Rivers in justified text.
Unsightly large spaces between words occur if the line length is too short or the point size of the text too large.

Inconsistent leading.
Paragraphs should have the same leading for each line.

Indenting the first paragraph.
The first paragraph is never indented, subsequent paragraphs are.

Indenting a paragraph too far.
The standard indent for a paragraph is 1 em, not ½ inch. Most software has default tabs set for ½ inch, so adjust the tabs.

Failing to hang punctuation into the margin.
Punctuation has less visual weight than letters or numbers.
Compensate for this in display text by hanging the punctuation into the margin.

Failing to use or create fractions.
Wicked: 1/2
Righteous: ½

Incorrectly abbreviating AM and PM.
Unclean: am, AM, A.M.
Relatively Clean: a.m. (this is in small caps on the poster)
Clean: a.m. or AM

Failing to provide margins for type in a box.
ugly (poster has a keyline around the word with no margin)
beautiful (poster has a keyline around the word with a margin)

Faux italic/oblique, bold and small cap type.
Impure: Italic (faux italic on poster) | Pure: Italic
Sinful: Bold (faux bold on poster) | Virtuous: Bold
Unkosher: SMALLCAPS (faux smallcaps on poster) | Kosher: Smallcaps (smallcaps text on poster)

Strokes that encroach upon letterforms.
Hellacious (heavily stroked word on poster) | Heavenly

Horizontally scaled type.
Unrepentant: Scaled (stretched text on poster) | Penitent: A condensed typeface

Vertically scaled type.
Purgatory: Scaled (squished text on poster) | Heaven: An extended typeface

Negative letterspacing.
Not very readable.

Bad line breaks in headlines and body text.
If you don’t break lines for
sense, they can be harder to read.

Stacking lowercase letters.
eyesore (each letter is stacked on top of another on poster) Vertical baselines are celestial. (basline for this text is rotated 90 degrees)

Failing to indent bulleted lists.

• Bulleted lists look better when the second line aligns flush
  with the first letter of the line above it, instead of with the bullet.

Failing to use accent marks.
Sinner: No esta aqui | Saint: No está aquí.

Failing to align baselines of type in adjacent columns of body text.
Baselines of all columns of text on a page should align. This creates a pleasing margin of pure white space.

Failing to correct bad rags.
For centered or non-justified text, avoid obvious shapes (like pyramids,
steps, wedges, angles and overly short or long lines).

Failing to use ligatures.
unholy: finish (f and i aren’t connected by a ligature) | holy: finish

Here is a pdf of the poster that you are welcome to download.