The book I just finished has a note at the end regarding the type font
colophon
I have seen these paragraphs and I have seen the word but I never knew they were connected. Thanks!
Interesting! I didn’t notice anything particularly pleasing about the font until I read the little note. Funny how subtle the differences can be.
Oh yeah, I wouldn’t have tried to figure that one out either. The part about avoiding the contrasts of thick and thin strokes is interesting and does lend to its readability. That would have been more novel in its time though, as most copy typefaces were serif faces. In the years after this type designer, many san serif faces came into vogue. Those san serif typefaces (think Helvetica, Franklin, etc.) often had uniform (or almost uniform) stroke weights, and serif fonts were free to occupy the classic thin/thick stroke role they were known for.
In matters of design there are two holy grails of existence: Being extravagantly noticed or quietly unnoticed. Both are necessary, but not necessarily at the same time.
Well, dont feel bad.OP has a typeface collection.
Have you watched the Helvetica documentary? It's really well done and interesting.
You might enjoy Just My Type, by Simon Garfield (https://www.simongarfield.com/books/just-my-type/)
You might enjoy the collected words of Elle Cordova: https://youtu.be/BXbW42uTKYo?si=gbpm7hM_H_6aFF7B
Brilliant! I was waiting to see what she would do with Comic Sans
Bro I read “Helvetica” and now I can’t get that song from Spy Kids outta my head
Is that search for the typeface called a colophonoscopy?
Well played. I’m stealing that shit and shoe horning it in to every type/font conversation I have (which are sadly less and less anymore).
Sadly, this one is ugly af, or maybe it's just the tight kerning. Not loving the monotony on the mean line ("typ" all connected), or the fl ligature.
Yeah way too tight.
There is an app called WhatTheFont that will identify fonts for you!
Can I ask to blatantly steal your typeface collection? Or get a recommendation of your favourites?
Do you know what free fonts in Microsoft Word and Google Docs have the "a" like a school taught "a", such as in Comic Sans?
That is a really nice font.
Sure, I mean, it's no Comic Sans, but..
It's no papyrus either
Let’s see Paul Allen’s typeface.
I hit Paul Allen I'm the face with an ax
Off white, very nice.
I like the font, except what is going on with the numbers?
They’re text figures! AKA lowercase numbers
Cool. This is interesting and I dislike it.
Oldstyle baby!
You've never seen numbers like that before? You've never read a book published pre like 1970?
It's a nice font but the kerning leaves something to be desired (e.g. 'fl' of fluid and 'tr' of strokes).
The fl is a ligature here (a combination of two characters combined into a single glyph), so it's designed that way. Lowercase fi is the other common ligature that probably shows up in this text.
And even today some (web)fonts use ligatures, it's a design choice. But I'm also not really a fan of most.
It has been typeset on a Linotype, which (along with the Monotype) revolutionized printing by allowing text to be typed on a keyboard. Then the type was machine-cast, letter by letter, from molten lead. Once printed, the type was melted for reuse. This was much faster than setting type by hand (and sorting it back after use). However, a major drawback was the character metrics had to conform to a grid with certain fixed dimensions for each letter. Designers did what they could to work within the constraints, but yes, the end result is that texts from this era have less-than-ideal character spacing.
Did there used to be a letter for the fl- sound in English?
The way they’re so pressed together in this font makes me wonder if that’s something that has ever been presented through one sign.
Those are ligatures: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ligature_(writing)#Stylistic_ligatures#Stylistic_ligatures)
Thanks! I knew that & was an example of what I was thinking of but couldn’t think of the name!
"THE AVATAR LOGO IS PAPYRUS IN BOLD"!!
Lots of books have these
NOS4R2 from Joe Hill has a similar page in the back, BUT it has a surprise bit of plot in it too. I've never read an "About the Type" page before, but I'm so glad I read that one. I imagine a lot of people probably miss it.
"Renowned." This is like when you see the sign on some mom and pop store about their "famous" fried chicken... but nobody knows about it.
Two unnecessary hyphens and a misaligned headline.
I’d get a refund.
The fact that the heading is off centre hurts my brain
The off centre, not fully to the side heading is doing my head though. I enjoy Merryweather or Playfair as a personal font.
A pirate looks at fifty by Jimmy Buffett?
Murder on K street by Margaret Truman
Nice. I recently noticed this for the first time also and it was in the Buffett book
"I'm not like other girls"
Is this book called Late Bloomers by any chance? I just finished reading it and it also had a similar note at the end.
Nope, Murder on K Street
This is called a colophon and used to be common in “classier” published works. I’m a type nerd (started my professional life as a graphic designer about a million years ago) and I wish these were still common. When I find a typeface to be particularly pleasing in a book, I’ll spend time poring through my typeface collection to identify it.