Font Design, Page Layout, & Typography

A beta proof of Practical Font Design

david@bergsland.org (David Bergsland) — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 17:15:00 +0000

We just released the second beta proof of Practical Font Design. We priced it really low ($11.50 for perfect-bound print and $5 for downloadable) in hopes that you will buy a copy and help us proof it. All persons purchasing a beta proof and helping with typos and suggestions will get a free copy of the downloadable book when it is completed.

This will be a main resource book for our apprentices when it is complete. We now have one apprentice and two more making serious inquiries. We're expecting great things from our apprentices.

Carving letters in stone

david@bergsland.org (David Bergsland) — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 15:03:00 +0000

I saw a link to this little movie in Typetalk today. It's a little story about a master letter cutter and a word he carved into an entrance in colorado. It's an interesting look into that craft and the man, Douglas Coffin, is really good.

Koelbel Carved in Stone

Font. The Source Book is really good!

david@bergsland.org (David Bergsland) — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 21:31:00 +0000

When I got the email from Rosie at Black Dog Publishing in London my interest was surprising — but it was probably because one of my favorite restaurants in New Mexico was Martha's Black Dog Coffee House in Socorro (now lamentably gone). Be that as it may, she was asking if I wanted to look at any of their new releases. I finally agreed to look at a release from 2008, Font. The SourceBook
. Was that a good decision or what?

When it showed up I was really pleasantly surprised. First of all, it's really nice in the hand with dull varnish protecting the background and gloss varnish over the logostyle for the book (OK the cover art is not much). There's not a hint of the post-modern professionally ugly artwork I despise (though a couple of the short essays inside were afflicted with that disease). Black type on a gray background. The pages are so heavy I thought I was turning two pages at a time until I got used to it (must be 80# matte or better). The type throughout was clean, clear, and crisp. I loved it!

The typography of the book is very conservative and a bit boring, but clean and easy to read except I swear it was set in 9 point. Gad, that body copy is small but Joanna is a very comfortable font to read. I really dislike Akzidenz Grotesque and it was used for all the heads, but it's at least clean and legible. As the source for Helvetica it comes from that direction as did the entire book. The fonts were presented on the basis of popularity, and for a history that is appropriate.

The actual book is a collection of essays on type from the development of writing through the new millennium covering the field in remarkable detail. I was really pleased and actually read it straight through, enjoying every minute of the read. It is really traditional. They participate in the Swiss type -- Helvetica is the master font belief system. I really dislike many of the fonts discussed in the book. But the information on those fonts is marvelously complete, and the reasoning behind their design is clearly explained (even when I thought the reasoning flawed from my 21st century perspective).

I disagree with many of the positions taken. Their view of type and typography is far too tied up in the past, and that past is the assumption of modernism. I realize that's the dominant thread in our current culture, but I don't have to like it. I wish they'd discussed the move toward the beautiful fonts outside the bleak "modern" sans fonts covered. There was a genuine preference to Helvetica, Univers, Clarendon, Akzidenz Grotesque, and the like with little or no mention of fonts like Avenir, Corinthian, Skia, and the like. I was surprised that Colin at Letraset was never mentioned (but then that's just a personal favorite as I have mentioned here before). Certainly nothing like Hiroshige because it is too far outside the norm. This is a book that covers the mainstream popular fonts.

However, I agree that Johnston is far superior to Gill Sans and that got a page. Optima was presented briefly with a slight air of distain. 21st century work was basically disregarded and the new explosion of small independent foundries like mine was viewed with deep suspicion. They expect traditional academic training. But I discovered many fonts I had never seen before and really like such as Triplex and Fedra, for example.

The information was fantastic. I found out many things I'd never seen before. I learned that many of my sources when I wrote my books were simply wrong. The historical data was wonderful! I got a solid glimpse at European type (American type was sort of an after thought). For me, it came close to one of those "I couldn't put it down" books. It's not cheap, but if you love type, it is a reference you need in your library.

It will be required reading for my new apprentices. It really is a Sourcebook of traditional type as it has been given to us by our Western civilization. I highly recommend it. Font. The SourceBook

Two special font collections...

david@bergsland.org (David Bergsland) — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 20:33:00 +0000

In celebration of the new foundry, Hackberry is offering two new OpenType collections at huge discounts.

The first has the foundry's six most used font families for book design:

The professional book designers' collection

Aerle (5 fonts) Amitale (8 fonts) Artimas (8 fonts) Amico (8 fonts) Arturo (8 fonts) and NuevoLitho (3 fonts) for the spectacular price of $149.00. That's 38 fonts for under $4 each!

The second is for new designers building their collection. It is an expansion of my old student offering. Now it offers 32 fonts for only $49 — that's barely $1.50 per font!

Student Font Collection

I hope they'll be helpful to you. You'll need to be able to handle a 2-3 MB attachment.

More changes: New foundry name! Hackberry Fonts

david@bergsland.org (David Bergsland) — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 21:49:00 +0000

There will be many changes. I've only got three pages changed so far.

Why?

Because it is no longer just me. I have an apprentice, and another person planning on apprenticing in the near future. We will be offering fonts from various font designers.

Now that I'm a full-time font designer, I have no idea which direction things will be moving.

Most typographers don't get it!

david@bergsland.org (David Bergsland) — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 14:08:00 +0000

I'm in a small group in Linked-In for typography. It's rapidly proving to be a typical typography site in the world today. That's a disappointment. This is one of the graphics we were pointed to today. There were many more like it.

If you've studied under me, you know my basic definition and attitude about typographic design.

"If you notice the type you've failed as a typographer. The goal of type is clear, easy to grasp communication. The fonts chosen set the mood and can provide much of the graphic beauty, but if you look at the design and think, "That's a really neat design," you've wasted your client's time and money (UNLESS, of course, you are your own client).

The graphic at the top is proof of my theory. An amazing amount of effort was put into squeezing the type into shapes. This graphic had to take hours. I'm impressed with the amount of work that was done.

I have no idea what is being promoted here. Bad type? I think so.

A interesting font designer interview...

david@bergsland.org (David Bergsland) — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 14:35:00 +0000

There was a nice interview of Alice Savoie, a font designer with Monotype in England (I think) in the "I love Typography" blog this morning. I found it interesting simply to get an idea how academically trained font designers think. As most of you know, I am very leery of academic training even though I taught for many years.

It is very difficult to teach something like this without eliminating all the creativity and looseness that I find necessary to good design. Read the interview, I think you'll enjoy it also. There are some nice captures of her drawings also. Though, I am finding that many of us (font designers) rarely draw any more — simply working directly in FontLab seems to be more common (though logo designers like Cabarga seem to start in Illustrator).

Of course, I have very different taste in font design so I don't like her designs much. But that is to be expected. As I finished up the article I was struck by how gorgeous her personal design, Capucine, is. I love it!

A fun one this time: max x-height sans, Abrect

david@bergsland.org (David Bergsland) — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 21:21:00 +0000

With this release I've tried to push the envelope a little by making the x-height as large as I could while maintaining usability. It's built off NuevoLitho but radically revised with experimental ligatures and so on. It has my 2009 display feature set for OpenType. For the first time in years, I did not add small caps. They seems silly for a font like this.

I had to pull it back a little. I started out with a 90% x-height, but this release is cut back to 78% of font size or 70% of the point size. I did have to add some built-in leading or it just became ridiculous. But it's a fun font that seems to be useful (to me anyway).

It's on sale at my site at 64% off for a month or two: only $9. If you need a downloadable version, that should be available from MyFonts or fonts.com by some time next week for Myfonts and next month for Monotype (fonts.com).

Please let me know what you think.

Matthew Carter talks on Type revivals and font design

david@bergsland.org (David Bergsland) — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 14:53:00 +0000

There's a very nice article in "I love Typography" about a presentation Matthew Carter did in England a while back. It's rare to get a glimpse into the mind of a great type designer like this. I think you'll really enjoy the read. There are also some good graphics.

Interestingly, he says that he works much like I do (but much more accomplished than my meager efforts) -- in other words, he's not a great drawer so as soon as possible he draws directly on the screen. He says that the production drawings we see are almost entirely done after the fact, after the fonts are released. I do that also and always felt guilty about it. Now I have a reference that says it is OK.

A man in love with a font

david@bergsland.org (David Bergsland) — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 14:04:00 +0000

There is an excellent article on Creative pro today about a font found in SF.

Called a Love Letter to Letters, it a simple tale about a type nerd discovering a font he loves. But it's got some very nice stuff about how people react to fonts.

Also : from my point of view, it discusses some of the relevant stuff going on in sans serf design today. Whitney is a nice looking font. It is still a bit overly perfected for my taste, but the comments about adding personality to a sans need to be stressed.

I am finding that many, if not most, of the new designs I see for new fonts are so perfect that they feel mechanical. Of course, to a certain extent that is the nature of the beast. We can't step too far outside the the rather rigid norms before we start having problems with usability, readability, and so on. But somehow we need more than personality, we need access to a person. No, I'm not sure what that means, but I do know that this needs to be pursued.

Part 1 of "Practical Font Design" is ready for proofing

david@bergsland.org (David Bergsland) — Thu, 28 May 2009 12:18:00 +0000

I released Part #1 Proof this morning: $9.99 for the book & $2.99 for the PDF. My hope is that the new book will be finalized later this year. But one never knows about things like this.

If you are interested, and can help, I really need proofing help. I run a very small operation and need all the help I can get. I'm hoping for helpful, constructive criticism from some of you.

If you help proof, you'll get a free copy of the final downloadable version or a discounted printed version.

Surprised by my favorite fonts

david@bergsland.org (David Bergsland) — Tue, 19 May 2009 17:41:00 +0000

I've been writing my new set of booklets on font design. I started with the type classification section — it needs to be radically expanded to be of any use to my new apprentice.

Anyway, I decided to put some of my favorite fonts in the sidebar as I got started. What surprised me was that the first three I thought of as favorite fonts, Corinthian, Romic, and Italia, were all done by the same person. I wasn't really even aware of him, Colin Brignall, the type director for Letraset (the makers of all the presstype I used in the 1980s).

It was a pleasant surprise to put a name with the fonts that shaped my taste so many years ago. Now I know enough to see how similar they are. Back then, all I knew was that I liked them.

Adam Baney did an interview of me

david@bergsland.org (David Bergsland) — Tue, 19 May 2009 10:56:00 +0000

The interview shares some things I usually don't remember. I was fun to think back a little. Adam's a former student from Albuquerque who has kept in touch over the years. He's doing real well as far as I can tell.

My main blog is moving

david@bergsland.org (David Bergsland) — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 21:56:00 +0000

This blog is going to be purely type & fonts.

I will announce new font releases here.

I will make type postings here.

Everything else will be going to my main blog: The Skilled Workman

If you are interested in my normal ramblings, you should go there and get the RSS feed or link to it or bookmark it or whatever pleases you...

All the page layout stuff will go to the Skilled Workman also.

4 companion fonts for Aerle: 50% OFF or better

david@bergsland.org (David Bergsland) — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 16:42:00 +0000

Aerle did well. So well that it was featured on Monotypes monthly newsletter of new releases.

More than that, I found I was using it a lot with my new small x-height book family, Artimas. I kept wishing for a thin version at the least.

So, I whipped out FontLab and made up a 4-font Aerle Thin family with a thin, thin italic, bold, and bold italic. It's an interesting set with condensed CAPS and a rather wide lowercase that works because the x-height is so small (only 50% of the cap height). It has the full set from my 2009 openType pro features. It's been working well for me so far. Try it, you'll like it.

On the Aerle page of the Bergsland Typography site, individual fonts are on sale for $12.50 or half price. The four-font family is on sale for $44 or $11 a font, and the five font family with Aerle is on sale for $49 or less than $10 a font.

Apprenticeships are available on the site!

david@bergsland.org (David Bergsland) — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 16:20:00 +0000

The information on the apprenticeship program is now on the site.

As these things usually do, the structure and policies have changed quite a bit since I first mentioned them. We had to make a major distinction between the font designer apprenticeship and the digital publisher apprenticeship at Radiqx Press. The Radiqx apprenticeship policies have not been finalized yet [but that should happen soon].

At present three people have indicated an interest, but no one has paid the registration fee. So, there is one position open.

Email me if you have an interest.

A new font family for book design: Artimas

david@bergsland.org (David Bergsland) — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 19:28:00 +0000

This is the new font family developed out of Aramus.

Only available on the Bergsland Typography site for now (Myfonts, Monotype, and Linotype shortly).

These new serif typefaces are readable & graceful — part of my development of a series of book families. Aramus was very popular for a single font release of a text font. As I recall, it made it nearly to top ten in new releases on Myfonts (or maybe it made it, I can't recall).

This new book font family retains the looseness of the original with radically different font metrics and many shape “corrections”.

In fact, Artimas continues a genuine new path for the foundry

This new font family for book design continues a turn toward more “traditional” x-heights

of around a third of the point size. The Artimas print production font family is

six new OpenType Pro fonts with Caps, lowercase, small caps, &

figures to go with each of those character sets.

There are many ligatures, a few swashes, fractions, numerators, denominators, and ordinals to infinity. This family of fonts is a joy to read and easy to use for text or display.

Artimas Regular, Italic, Bold, Bold Italic, Black, Black Italic

Only available on the website: $9 each or $49 for the entire family.

Here's the link to the family page: http://bergsland.org/font.artimas.html

Major Website Changes Up & Running

david@bergsland.org (David Bergsland) — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 18:47:00 +0000

I've talked a a few of you about how things are changing up here in Minnesota. But I thought I'd make a general announcement.

Bergsland Design is gone!

Your bookmarks to the old site will still work, but things have changed a lot. It really does not cover what I am doing now. There are now two websites where you can find my stuff. My facebook name is Chakham Lev, and you can follow what I do there. There's a link to it here on the blog. Also, please let me know if you find broken links and the like.

http://bergsland.org: Bergsland Typography

This is now completely Bergsland Typography: my font foundry. At present, most of my work and income comes from font designs. This is a growing area of my work and needs a separate site to handle all the goings on. This blog services that site.

Very shortly (actually starting now) we will be offering two apprenticeships for the foundry—minimal cost (just books & materials), paid for by doing work for the foundry, all online. There is a lot of work to do, an excellent opportunity to learn how to design, produce, release, and promote new fonts. Fonts done while working as an apprentice will share part of their royalties with BT to help cover the costs of training. The result will be a journeyman's certificate in font design and typography.

http://www.radiqx.com: Radiqx Press

This is my Messianic on-demand publishing house and gift shop. It is built off my history as a pastor, writer, teacher, and book designer. For years my heart's desire has been to have a publishing house to publish strongly Messianic stuff, with no punches pulled, and no ties to any organization. As our modern society has degenerated to the place where churches are merely a mission field, I really have a strong desire to speak on those issues and train graphic designers to function under the guidance of the Holy Spirit producing work that is genuinely useful, completely non-judgmental, accurate Biblically, and the whole nine yards. To that end we will be offering four apprenticeships for publishers.

We have started slowly and carefully. There is one major book published so far. It is called "The Letters", by Art Moreno, Jr. It is the letters of the New Testament published in the same order in which they were written. Using the Act of the apostles by Luke as a general framework, the letters grow out of their chronological context.

Another book in the works, is a piece by Dawn Devine (yes, that's her real name). Their son had major brain damage at birth, was never supposed to walk or talk, This was a boo she putt together to help the local schools and the children in his classes understand how to relate to Jonah. It's a wonderful inspiration to see how this family has rallied around Jonah and how he has become such a blessing to them. I'm hoping for a release this summer.

I am also working on a radical rewrite of my "Publishing With InDesign". It is being transformed in to advanced training in typography and page layout using InDesign CS4. I hope to have a release for this in April or May.

We have many other projects in development to use for the apprentices. If you are interested, email me. Again, it will be minimal tuition and cost (books, software, a basic font set, and the like), but a lot of work for the publishing house to build up your portfolio and generate income for Radiqx. We will also publish and promote apprentice's work for a portion of the royalties. The result will be a journeyman's certificate in on-demand publishing.

We're really looking forward to it.

30 tips for a better portfolio

david@bergsland.org (David Bergsland) — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 19:25:00 +0000

I found this from Computer Arts out of England today. There are some excellent suggestions. Including one who foregoes portfolios entirely as too unwieldy and ineffective.

The Skilled Workman: Scientific study on the effects of good font use

david@bergsland.org (David Bergsland) — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 16:25:00 +0000

The Skilled Workman: Scientific study on the effects of good font use

I posted this on my new blog. I thought you might be interested.

Mailer design by Bevi Chagnon (from Blueworld InDesign list)

david@bergsland.org (David Bergsland) — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 20:11:00 +0000

Bevi is always one of the better sources of info on this excellent list. I thought I'd share it with those of you who don't use the list.

........................................................................

Bevi Chagnon | Adobe ACE: InDesign CS2 | www.PubCom.com

PubCom | Trainers, Consultants, Designers for Web, Print & Acrobat

Bevi's online tutorials | http://www.CommunityMX.com/author.cfm?cid=5931

...........................................................................

(The Original Question) John Posada wrote:

Hi, guys...In my newsletter, on the last page, I want to put a panel

that meets the USPS requirements for mailer layout.

(Bevi's Answer)

Although I used to be a certified mail piece consultant, my training in mail

piece design was about 10 years ago so my info might be a bit out of date.

However, I haven't heard that the PO has changed their regulations on

mailing panels.

AFAIK, there are few regulations about mailing panel design (there are a

slew, however, about envelopes, postcards, business reply mail BRM, etc.).

You can consult with an USPS Mailpiece Design Analyst through the Post

Office:

http://www.usps.com/replymail/mailpiece.htm

Info about bulk mail is here:

http://pe.usps.com/businessmail101/getstarted/bulkMail.htm

The PO's Domestic Mail Manuel is here:

http://pe.usps.gov/text/dmm300/dmm300_landing.htm

The National Postal Forum (industry non-profit) might have some info for

you:

http://www.npf.org/index.html

Here's a summary of key points (and yes, this is the "short" version):

-------------------------------

Size and position of the panel:

The Post Office doesn't give a hoot how big the panel is, where it's

located, whether it's right-side-up or sideways or upside down.

It doesn't care about the panel's size, as long as:

-- it has the preprinted indicia or live stamp in the upper right portion,

-- it has a return address in the upper left,

-- they can clearly read the delivery address, and

-- there's 5/8" white space below the last line of the address where an

address barcode can be imprinted.

A bigger concern is what your mailing house wants.

Depending upon the size of your mailing labels and the equipment the

mail house uses, you'll be instructed by them where to position the panel:

for example, along the lower left folded edge.

Mail houses that inkjet the addresses rather than apply sticky or Cheshire

labels will have their requirements, too.

Keep in mind that a bulk mail piece will be fed through at least 2 sets of

equipment during its lifetime:

Once at the mailhouse when it is labeled and sorted, the other at the Post

Office when it is re-sorted and routed to its destination.

Most of my mail houses recommend that the label's bottom be along a folded

edge to prevent jams in mailing equipment. Sometimes that forces me to

design the mailing panel upside down on the last page of a 4-page

newsletter.

So talk to the mail house. Send them a mock-up. Every mail house is

different, so don't assume what you design for one project will work on

another. I've had mail houses ask me to move a mailing panel down 1/4" so

that it fit their equipment better, or flip the panel sideways so that it

had fewer jams on their equipment.

OK, so all this hasn't yet answered your question.

Here's the PO's official poop on this:

http://pe.usps.gov/text/dmm300/102.htm

And here's the "Cliff Notes" version:

http://pe.usps.gov/text/dmm300/002_OCRreadarea_t.htm

It boils down to this:

1) Start with the size of actual mailing label or the blank area your mail

house needs to inkjet the address.

2) Add 1/2" clear space to both the left and right of that label area.

3) Add 5/8" clear space below the label area for the Post Office's

OCR/barcode.

Make this OCR/barcode area at least as wide as the label itself, but

if you can make it an inch or two wider, it'll help make sure the PO's

barcode can be imprinted correctly and your mail piece get delivered on time

to your audience.

When we designers skimp on this blank OCR/barcode area, we hinder

the PO's ability to deliver the piece to our readers.

4) Add the postal indicia to the upper right of the label area. (I like to

leave 1/4" clear space between them to help the sorting machines hone in and

read the address correctly.)

5) Add the return address to the upper left of the label area. (I like to

leave 1/2" clear space between them to help the sorting machines hone in and

read the address correctly. I also make the type very small to again force

the machine readers to read the delivery address, rather than the return

address.)

6) Leave the background of the entire panel white. Don't tint it with a 10%

screen tint, or make it a solid color box. You want clean, unprinted paper

behind all this so that the machine readers and barcode printers can do

their job.

--------------------------------

Those little sealing dots

For thick pieces or multi-page items (booklets, newsletters), the PO

generally requires that the open edge be sealed with those little round

adhesive dots to prevent jamming (they're called "tabs" or "wafer seals").

Sometimes they don't require them. Depends upon the design of the

piece and what mood the PO clerk was in when your bulk mail was dropped off

at the PO.

Design your piece to accommodate these sealing dots: last week I

received a gorgeous newsletter...but I had to ruin it in order to unseal the

sealing dots. Tore off some of the body text of a great article.

USPS info about tabs/wafer seals:

http://pe.usps.com/text/QSG300/Q201b.htm

--------------------------------

Preprinted mailing indicia

Size doesn't matter, as long as it's readable. 8 pt type is fine.

Just make sure the wording in correct (there are different types of

indicias), that the permit number is correct, and that it's positioned to

the upper right of the address.

Your indicia will most likely be a simple square/rectangular box

with text inside it. You can use caps or UC/lc: your choice. It won't be

pretty, but it doesn't have to be ugly, either.

USPS website:

http://www.usps.com/send/postagepermitimprintsandmeters/howtodesignapermitim

printindicia.htm

--------------------------------

Return address

Size doesn't matter, as long as it's readable and to the upper left

of the address. 8 pt type is fine.

Hope this helps.

The smallest panel I've designed is 3-5/8" wide x 2.5" tall, give/take 1/8"

or so. But the mail house didn't like it: their "landing area" was pretty

tight!

--Bevi Chagnon

........................................................................

Bevi Chagnon | Adobe ACE: InDesign CS2 | www.PubCom.com

PubCom | Trainers, Consultants, Designers for Web, Print & Acrobat

Bevi's online tutorials | http://www.CommunityMX.com/author.cfm?cid=5931

........................................................................

A new font release! Aerle

david@bergsland.org (David Bergsland) — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 23:21:00 +0000

It's on sale for $12.50 on either of my sites.

bergsland.org or radiqx.com

Auntie Pat wins font of the year!

david@bergsland.org (David Bergsland) — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 18:46:00 +0000

Today Fred of DT&G typography came out with yearly awards. For the first time, he honored a font and that font was Auntie Pat.

If you do not use Fred's site, shame on you. It has more good info collected in one easily accessible location than I've found anywhere else. Over the years, I've written several articles from him, but this award was out of the blue, and blew me away.

I've set up a special to thank him for the honor. Auntie Pat for only $9

Special Christmas Font CD

david@bergsland.org (David Bergsland) — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 20:42:00 +0000

I went nuts this year. This CD contains all the fonts I released this year at a ridiculous price: $77 for all 25 fonts.

This offer is only available for readers of this blog and only available until Christmas Eve @ midnight.

It contains the Amico, Amitale, and Arturo families plus Aramus. These normally sell at $24.95 each, $99 for the family. So this is over 2/3 off no matter how you look at it.

Merry Christmas!

Arturo: a new display font family

david@bergsland.org (David Bergsland) — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 17:23:00 +0000

This font family is designed for display use. Many of you will recognize its roots in Altra & Altra2, but these are brand-new drawings to finalize this concept. This is a very useful set of fonts and it works extremely well for headers with Amitale for the body styles.