The magazine of the Melbourne PC User Group
Typography, the Forgotten DTP Skill
Stephen Davey

When we gaze at a page of a magazine, book or other document, there is (hopefully) one feature that we don't notice. As an active sporting umpire, I compare good typography with good umpiring - typography like umpiring is only noticed when it is not good.

Unfortunately, in many of the pages that we read we do notice the typography - generally because it's glaringly poor!

Typography is best described as the art (or craft) of arranging, manipulating and placing of printed 'type' on a page. Because of the complex nature of our eyes, many of the subtle features of this 'art' are not immediately noticed. Good typography should assist the eye glide over the type, instantly allowing the brain to comprehend the meaning.

It is only when something goes wrong, and the eye's important flow across the text is interrupted, that we may become away of something being astray. Sometimes we may not even be aware of our eye being interrupted, instead we just do not properly comprehend what we have just read.

Like it or not, if you are using Desktop Publishing (DTP) systems then you should also be aware of typographical techniques and their effect on the material you are producing.

Typography consists of several features. First, there is the actual design of the particular typeface we are intending to use. Because most of us do not have the facilities or time to design our own typeface, I will not go into great detail about type design here. Later, however, I will spend a little time discussing type 'selection'.

The other main features of typography are:
  • Character spacing and Kerning
  • Word spacing
  • Line breaks or endings
  • Line spacing
  • Column width (Line length)
  • Paragraph spacing
  • Column and page breaks or endings
Depending on what software/hardware is being used, most of these features can be easily adjusted so that we get the best out of our publication. Let us consider each feature in turn, examining what we can do to help our eyes take in the text we are putting on the page.

Character Spacing
Most typewriters (and some computer line printers) operate on a fixed horizontal space for each character. For instance the typewriter allows the same space for the capital letter 'M' as it does for a lower case 'i'. Other systems (such as DTP and Typesetting) operate on 'proportional spacing' where the space for each character varies-eg the capital 'M' will be given much more space than the 'i'. (See Figure 1)

Proportional spaced text will take up less overall space than the same text typed on a typewriter. A more important result, however, is that the spaces between each character are much more even than typewritten text. The evenness of this inter-character spacing is important if our eye is not to 'jerk' from character to character.

Normally our eyes are not 'reading' character by character but word by word or even groups of words. Our eye recognizes a group of characters as a certain word in one glance. Because the eye tries to recognize groups of characters, it is important that the spacing between each character allows for this 'group recognition'.

If the space is irregular, as in typewritten text, or too much as in poorly spaced typeset text, then the eye will have more difficulty in group recognition.

For good comprehension of text, the space between each character should only be large enough so that each character is just separated from each other. Inexperienced typographers are sometimes tempted to have the letter space too great. While the characters should not be placed so close that characters touch each other, this in fact does not hamper readability as much as loose spacing.

With many DTP programs (eg Ventura), and with typeset text (supplied by typesetters or printers) it is possible to alter the standard spacing between characters. This spacing may be referred to as 'tracking' or 'ACS' (Automatic Character Spacing) depending on the system you are using. (See Figure 2)


(There are some other considerations with regard to this standard character spacing which will de discussed in the 'Line Ending' section.)

Kerning

Having fixed the 'standard' character space, there are some characters that may need special adjustment to this spacing. For instance the capital letters 'A' and 'Y' when placed together with the standard spacing will appear to be spaced too widely. If however this pair of characters are 'keened' together the effect is far more pleasing. (See Figure 3)

With most typesetting systems all the operator needs to do is switch the kerning facility on. The actual amount of kerning and the character pairs it is applied too are already set in the typeface width tables that the system is using. Some systems will allow (experienced) operators to decide for themselves which character pairs are to be kerned and by what amount thus altering the width tables accordingly.

Word Spacing
The space between each word on a line has an important relationship to the ease in which our eye is able to recognize certain groups of words. If the space is too small then there is difficulty in separating single words when required, and if too large then the speed of reading is reduced because the eye is forced to read one word at a time. As a guide, the ideal space between words should be the thickness the lower case letter 'i'.

Line Endings And Breaks
How each line is finished will have a bearing on our ability to control the character and word spacing. Basically text lines are commonly either 'Flush Left' or 'Justified' although 'Flush Right' and 'Centred' can also be used.

Flush Left text (also called Quad Left, Range Left etc) is when each line starts at a fixed left hand margin. Each line will finish at different points on the line near the right hand margin. With this type of setting the character and word spacing can be totally fixed. That is, that with the exception of any kerning used, each space between the characters will be even, and each space between the words is even. As a result the readability of this text is very good.

Justified text is where all the lines start at a fixed left margin and finish at a fixed right margin. Obviously not every line we type will have just the right amount of characters to end the line evenly. To make each line end at the same point the system must make certain automatic adjustments.

Generally there are three areas in which adjustment can be made. Firstly the system will try to hyphenate the last word that does not fully fit on the line, next the space between each word will be stretched or squeezed, and finally the space between each character will also be stretched or squeezed until the line fits. Just how good the hyphenation is will depend on the particular system and most will either allow you to override or switch it off altogether. However it should be remembered that, in justified text, if the hyphenation is off then the adjustment to character and word spacing will have to be greater.

How much character and word spacing will be stretched or squeezed will depend on the limits to this you set in you DTP setup parameters.

Good DTP software should allow you to set realistic limits to these features. In other words, when trying to justify the line, the system will first try to use your 'ideal' word spacing and if this is not possible it will then stretch or squeeze this ideal up to the limit you have set. If it is still not possible to justify the line then the same procedure will be used on the character spacing. Obviously if you set the limits too wide, then justification will be easy but may result in some very poor spacing. Particularly as one line may be stretched to the limit and the next line may be squeezed to the other limit (See Figure 4). 

If the limits are set too tightly, then in some cases it will not be possible to justify that line. Just how the system copes with this situation will depend on the program you are using - most will just default to the machine's original settings.

Line Spacing

The space between line should be in keeping with the word and character spacing used for the line itself. Text that is set tightly with smaller spaces should be set with a minimum of space, and text set with larger spaces should have more generous line spacing.

Line space (or 'leading'-the old printing term originating from placing thin strips of lead between lines to space them out) is generally referred to as the number of 'points' between the base of one line and the base of the next line (72 points = 1 inch). For example 10 point type might be set on a line space of 10 points - ie no extra space between lines. This type of setting, where the line space is the same as the type size, is also called 'set solid' or 'solid setting'. To give the type a little more space it could also be set with a line space of 12 points - ie 2 points extra space between lines.

Judging the correct amount of line spacing, like many typographical features, is a matter of preference and experience. However as a guide, when a page of text is held at arm's length the overall appearance should be a even grey where the typed lines dominate. If the spaces between lines dominate, then the line spacing is too great. Also, long lines of type will need greater line space than shorter lines.

Column Width (Line Length)

Within this area of typography most DTP systems allow us enormous flexibility. It is also the area in which some of the worst mistakes are made - some of them by people who should know a lot better!

Many of us would have seen the very narrow 2 or 3 cm wide columns some suburban newspapers try to squeeze a few words into. The result is that on some lines only 2 words are able to fit (with a massive gap between). Other lines might then have 3 or 4 words tightly set together. The opposite extreme (fortunately not as common) is to set one line of text across the full page. With long lines of small text the eye sometimes has difficulty in keeping on the line and may accidentally stray to the line above or below.

The 'Golden rule' of column width or type line length, is that any line of type should ideally have ten words-ie lines ranging from 7 to 12 words are good. Fewer than this ideal will mean the system will have difficulty justifying, and more words per line will reduce readability.

Using this rule means that as you reduce the point size of the text you can also reduce the width of the column. As a guide, an A4 page set in 8 or 9 point type would probably be best set in three columns, while 10 or 11 point type would be best in 2 columns.

Most 'paper back' novels etc that are set in one column still only have about ten words per line. Some lengthy books crib up to about 13 words per line, but this is probably an economic rather than typographical consideration. (3 extra words per line could reduce a 1300 page book to 1000 pages!).

Paragraph Spacing

The reader needs to be able to separate each paragraph easily. If the first line of the paragraph is indented from the margin, then the space between each paragraph can be less. Normally 10 point text without an indent would have an extra 4 points inserted between each paragraph. With a paragraph indent this space could be reduced to say 2 points. It should be noted that this space is additional to the line spacing throughout the paragraph.

Column and Page Breaks

Having given due consideration to all the other features, hopefully holding the reader's attention, we need to encourage the reader to go to the next column or turn the page.

There are two things we should try very hard to avoid. Firstly, do not place a large heading near the bottom of a page with only one or two lines of text underneath. This would mean that the reader would only just be 'getting into the story' before being interrupted. Secondly, do not start a new paragraph as the last line of a column or page and do not end a paragraph as the first line of a column or page. This results in a single, often short line sitting by itself. (These 'lone' lines are referred to widows or orphans - see Figure 5)

Another good aid to improved readability is to try to let the reader know what is happening by the way the line ends.

If possible avoid ending a page with a line that finishes with a full stop unless it is also the end of a paragraph or item. If the last line on a page ends in the middle of a sentence the reader is very likely to want to turn the page to finish the sentence. If however the sentence finishes exactly at the end of the page, then the reader may think that the article had ended without bothering to turn the page to check.

On of the most irritating design habits is to start an article on one page then at the bottom of the column or page tell the reader to go to some page up the back of the publication to finish the article. There is really no good reason to use this technique when with a little imagination there are plenty of better alternatives. The disadvantages of this habit are several.

Firstly many readers will just not bother to advance to page xxx etc and will not finish reading the article. Other readers who may be encouraged to go to the completion of the article may forget to go back and read the pages they have jumped over.

Secondly, from a technical point of view, the chances of something going wrong are high. If an editor rearranges the order of pages at a late stage, it is easy to forget that an article broken in two had a 'go to page xx' reference which would need to changed to 'go to page zz' etc. Also while you may intend to continue the article from say page 2 on page 100, when you finally get around to making up page 100 (perhaps a day or so later) you may forget to carry on the earlier article. I subscribe(d) to an advertising magazine which used the 'continued on xxx' habit so much that on a regular basis I was unable to find the balance of the article on the page indicated.

If the remainder on an article is so unimportant that it can be separated from the rest, then leave it out all together!

The Choice of Typeface

While the number of typefaces available in DTP systems is a little limited, there are thousands of faces available through traditional typesetting systems.

With such a wide range available, choosing the wrong one is easy! To discuss which typefaces are the most readable and suitable for every application would take far more space and there are a number of excellent books on the subject available (see Bibliography).

However here are a few basic suggestions that are supported by ample research and evidence.

Large areas of text are more readable if set in a reasonable weight Serifed face such as English Times. (Note that almost all the major newspapers use Times or a similar face for their editorial text.)

Headlines and long lines of large text are best set in capital and lowercase-not all capitals. Bold San Serifed faces are excellent for headlines (see Figure 6.)

Figure 7 shows a range of different typefaces with their individual readability scores. You will see that English Times capital and lowercase letter scores very well while Script faces set in all capitals scores very poorly.

This is not to say that there are not valid applications for these lower scoring faces. Used in conjunction with other faces they can be very effective.

Copy the Successful

One of the easiest way for budding typographers to pick up type layout techniques is to carefully examine successful publications (eg National Geographic, Vogue, Time, etc).

Also next time you find yourself completely engrossed in a publication, have a good look at the typography - perhaps it helped maintain your interest.

Bibliography 

Cal Swan, Techniques of Typography
Colin Wheildon, Communication or Making Pretty Shapes 
Oliver Simon, Introduction to Typography 
Research from the Newspaper Advertising Bureau of Australia.

About the Author
Stephen Davey has worked in the publishing/printing industry for more than 16 years. 

Reprinted from the August 1989 issue of PC Update, the magazine of Melbourne PC User Group, Australia