Category Archives: Book Production

Caslon & Baskerville

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English Old Style: Caslon MyFonts puts it this way: “William Caslon released his first typefaces in 1722. Caslon’s types were based on seventeenth-century Dutch old style designs, which were then used extensively in England. Because of their remarkable practicality, Caslon’s designs met with instant success. Caslon’s types became popular throughout Europe and the American colonies; printer Benjamin Franklin hardly used any other typeface. “The first printings of the American Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were set … Continue reading →

Writers designing their own books in InDesign? Of course!

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I posted last week about the dangers of allowing your ebook to degenerate into a Website. After all, “An ebook is just encapsulated HTML & CSS.” It was basically a plea to design your ebooks in InDesign. I missed making my core point. I wasn’t saying that code geeks cannot design ebooks. I was saying that most coders are not designers, but technicians. One of my commenters (Tom) suggested that writers are just as bad as coding … Continue reading →

Dutch Old Style: Janson

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By the 1600s, French oppression had caused the center of typography to shift to Antwerp primarily through Plantin who was based there. This style commercialized the French designs that were so heavily promoted by Plantin. The Dutch influence made the French work more printable, taking out some of the subtleties of Garamond and Granjon. Their main influence was in England where there was no real typefounding industry until Caslon in the 1700s. These styles were a abandonment … Continue reading →

Your book better not look like a poorly designed Website!

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I had a little go’round with a coding geek on the #eprdctn Twitter feed about the use of fonts in ebooks. He was muttering about those #$*&^!%^#$ designers, and I ended up biting off the tips of my fingers to avoid cutting him a new one to drain all his pent up hostility. It was hardly a fruitful conversation. But it got me thinking. The real problem with the new publishing is the layout quality The quality … Continue reading →

French Old Style: ITC Galliard

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As mentioned, Granjon was another of the new breed of professional punchcutters who developed type foundries in Paris in the early sixteenth century. I find Matthew Carter’s interpretation to be the best of the Garalde styles, but Hoefler makes it another classification (probably just to give himself an excuse to show this exquisite design in addition to the required Garamond). French Oldstyle characteristics Heavier Serifs becomes much stronger: more like supports than finishing strokes to a stem … Continue reading →

Keeping your file size under control for graphic ePUBs

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I was working on my best-selling book this morning, Practical Font Design, Third Edition. It’s an ePUB with 266 graphics in it—almost entirely screen captures—showing what I am doing in FontLab as I design a font. I design my ePUBs in InDesign CS6 & use the export unchanged I realize that’s anathema to many of you code geeks, but the ePUBs out of InDesign are now more than good enough—if you design within its limitations. Now that … Continue reading →

Geralde: Garamond, the classic serif font

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Garalde: Garamond 3 This group is named in homage to Claude Garamond and Aldus Manutius. These original serif fonts are exemplified by the work of Claude Garamond in Paris in the early to mid-1500s. Robert Slimbach released a new interpretation of Claude Garamond’s and Robert Granjon’s styles called Adobe Garamond Pro—now ramped up to Premier after redoing the OpenType version. Garamond was the first major type designer. He was not a printer or calligrapher, he was a freelance punchcutter. Along with … Continue reading →

Formatting basics: making a beautiful book which is comfortable to read

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Before I get started with the basics of formatting I need remind you about the goal: a beautiful book which is comfortable to read. You need a customized set of styles to enable you to keep your book consistent and give you global control over the entire book as you format. This is only possible if you first understand how to design paragraphs. I will help you through the basic set up of styles (to implement your … Continue reading →

Aldine: the intellectuals begin their assault on font design

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Aldine: Bembo These fonts are also from Northern Italy. Bembo is a revival of the work of another printer, Aldus Manutius in the 1500s. Manutius was a major influence on type design as we know it. This continued the trend toward a more intellectual development of type away from its calligraphic roots. Aldine characteristics Narrower caps: But not by much Larger x-height: This tends to make these fonts look a bit more contemporary to our eyes. Ascenders … Continue reading →

Dealing with bleeds & crossover images

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Bleeds A bleed is needed when you produce a design where the ink goes to the edge of the paper. (On-demand printers will normally not allow type to come any closer than .375” or .5” from the edge of the trim size.) Printers and printing presses can never print to the edge of the paper. The ink or toner will run off and build up on the back side of the paper. This will not only ruin … Continue reading →