Readymag Design Almanac: Typography

There are many ways to put it. We talk of marrying typefaces, of finding mixtures that work, combinations that hit it off, pairings that make sense. Whatever the words, the heart of the matter is the same: we want an appropriately expressive presentation of text that works in practical terms. The look and feel of what we want to communicate depend on getting the combination right.

Overall, anyone who lays out texts faces two kinds of problems: practical-functional and aesthetic. Finding what works across the board takes time and effort, lots of it. And every designer has his or her own way of going about the “how” of it. Some rely on instinct, a “feel”, others on rules for combination drawn from experience, and still others on the winning examples of others. Yet every typographic situation is different, even unique, and success can only be measured by readers’ unconscious impressions.

The four pairings of typefaces offered here are matched in terms of: proportions (Futura and Garamond), in look or plastic quality (Farnham and Benton) and by a kind of contrapuntal interplay (Century Old Style and Sweet Sans; Chaparral and Proxima Nova). Just a word more: there are no hard and fast rules for combining typefaces. Our suggestions are meant to spark your own thinking.

1. Proportions

Futura and Garamond have almost identical vertical metrics — the relationship of lowercase and uppercase letters (x-height) and the length of extenders. The moderate height of the lowercase letters along with the height of the ascenders give, in addition to a feeling of “slimness,” a sense of space between lines even where there is little leading.

The capitals of both typefaces use the classical proportions of Roman capital letters, each letter of which derives from a simple geometric form: triangle, circle, square (or one of their segments). The drawing of this kind of face is rhythmically complex. The “voice” is never monotonous.

Garamond's lowercase letters are noticeably different in width, a feature deriving in part from the not quite extinguished link to the proportions of humanist minuscule, the basis for the first serif typefaces of the 15th–16th centuries, which were much influenced by Renaissance ideas of “beautiful form”. Odd as it may seem, the proportions of the lowercase letters of Futura, a face of quite a different time and character, are very close to those of Garamond. But, for Futura, a typeface meant to last long after the era of its creation, use of the time-tested classical proportions was entirely natural and wise.

2. Details

Like many other handwriting-based Renaissance serifs transformed by the chisel into type, the letters of Garamond have a direct, expressive link to their origin in script.
On the other hand, Futura is one of the first typefaces whose letters are based on the idea of “pure” geometry. But Futura's geometry is a matter more of the eye than
of mathematics — a geometry created with compass and ruler but adjusted countless times before reaching final typographic acceptability.

Futura was designed by the painter, book designer and teacher Paul Renner and produced by the Bauer type foundry, which sought a typeface that would both suit the spirit of the time and the demands of avant-garde aesthetics — that would celebrate the aesthetic of the machine and the beauty of simple forms.

Futura was the first popular, widely used geometric sans serif and was followed by a wave of imitations. Even the famous contemporary, Gill Sans, a typeface of quite different character and drawing, added supplementary characters very close in structure to the letters of Futura.

Notwithstanding that Futura was clearly a child of its time and the changes in taste since then, the face has continued to be in demand. In part, this is connected with the seeming simplicity of its original design. In part, too, it derives from the fact that the basis for the face are proportions dictated, not by fashion, but by centuries-long tradition derived from the forms of Roman capital letters.

The typeface is available to users of Readymag in 18 styles: Light, Light Italic, Regular, Italic, Medium, Medium Italic, Bold, Bold Italic, Extra Bold, Extra Bold Italic, as well as in 8 narrow styles in 4 thicknesses.

Adobe Garamond is a contemporary interpretation of typefaces created by the famous 16th-century punch-cutter, Claude Garamond.

Like Nicolas Jenson and Francesco Griffo, Garamond created typefaces that exquisitely expressed his time's ideas of the harmony and beauty of assemblages of forms. They have not lost their force.

Thanks to Garamond's expert workmanship and remarkable feeling for form, his typefaces were not only highly valued by contemporaries and used by many of the presses of Europe but have continued to be used and celebrated by succeeding generations.

One of the results of the wide acclaim was that for several centuries the name "Garamond" was borrowed by typefaces from other hands, not just those of Garamond's own creation.

Unlike the digital versions of such doubtful offspring, Robert Slimbach's typeface is based on models whose authenticity is unquestioned.

The typeface is available to users of Readymag in six styles: Regular, Italic, SemiBold, SemiBold Italic, Bold and Bold Italic.

1. Proportions

Notwithstanding the obvious difference in physical dimensions (the blockiness of the Benton is part of its adaptation for use as a text face for screens), the faces are alike in the squatness of their lowercase letters, which have distinctly short ascenders and descenders. Benton Sans has a bit larger x-height than its partner.

Farnham and Benton Sans are regularly proportioned typefaces. Notable in their capitals is the suggestion of rectangles and ovals rather than squares and circles.

The lowercase letters of both are wide. Given that “a well-ventilated” line is easiest to read, openness of letterforms is important when it comes to choosing a text face. In Benton Sans, note the undisturbed simplicity of the apertures with outward-pointing terminals. In Farnham, whose letters tend to be compact, openness is cleverly achieved by the squareness in the counterparts, letting the lowercase letters gently open up.

The very close similarity in proportions — the large x-height and short ascenders and descenders — optimize the readability of both faces for small text blocks and create a more regular and fairly tight (perhaps calmer) leading.

2. Details

Farnham is clever and resourceful in many ways, but its baroque details and vibrancy are always at the service of essentially pragmatic tasks. On closer examination, the businesslike, deliberately plain forms of Benton Sans have almost the same degree of dynamics as Farnham, the serif partner.

In his 40 years with ATF (American Type Founders), the outstanding American type designer Morris Fuller Benton created more than 200 typefaces, many of which are still used.

His first sans serif, Franklin Gothic (1903), was based on American faces of the late 19th century but with more balanced and open forms. At first, Franklin existed only in boldface and was only used for display. Within several years, however, it had become the basis for a more compact and lighter body face — News Gothic (1908) — which was hailed in a 1912 study as one of the most readable typefaces.

Both of these Benton sans serifs, best-sellers in their time, proved highly adaptable to the rapidly changing technologies of the 20th century — from letterpress and machine composition through photo- and digital typesetting.

Benton Sans RE* is a version of Benton Sans, which was created by a group of designers at Font Bureau (Tobias Frere-Jones, Cyrus Highsmith and David Berlow) on the basis of the original Morris Fuller Benton drawings for his New Gothic face.

The typeface is available to Readymag users in four styles: Regular, Italic, Bold and Bold Italic.

The asterisk (*) indicates that the face belongs to a series of screen fonts specially designed for use as body faces.

Typefaces created by the ingenious 18th-century punch-cutter Johann Michael Fleischmann were given new life at the end of the last century with the almost simultaneous creation of faces that, in various ways, drew on them for inspiration. These range from the outstanding revivals done by Erhard Kaiser for the Dutch Type Library (DTL Fleischmann, 1997) to Mathew Carter's Fenway (1998), created for Sports Illustrated magazine, which captures not just the look of a Fleischman face but, even more, its spirit.

The rebirth of interest in the old master in the 1990s, when a fondness for expressive typography swept over almost the entire world, were hardly unrelated events. There are probably no more vivid and fanciful typefaces in the history of the creation of faces than his, none more contradictory in structure, yet so well adapted for reading.

Christian Schwartz's Farnham is a modern version of the “sparkling” forms of the great German. Schwartz's typeface, which its creator has divested of what he saw as unnecessary historical detail, has the characteristic energy of the baroque, fed by inner dynamics and the intensity of conflicting forces.

The typeface is available to users of Readymag in six styles: Display Light, Light Italic, Text Regular, Italic, Bold, Bold Italic.