Go to the previous, next chapter.
It is difficult to set out guidelines for font usage, because almost
any rule can be brilliantly broken under the right circumstances.
- General guidelines:
- Never lose track of the kind of work you're doing. An effect that
would ruin a newsletter might be just the thing for a record cover.
Know when you can safely sacrifice legibility for artistic effect.
- Keep in mind the final reproduction process you'll be using. Some
effects (like reversed type, white on black) can be hard to read off
an ordinary 300-dpi laser, but will work if finals are done on a
high-resolution printer, such as a Linotronic. Will the pages be
photocopied? Offset? Onto rough paper, shiny paper? All these factors
can and should influence your choice of fonts and how you use them.
- Running some comparative tests is a good idea. Better to blow off a
few sheets of laser paper now than to see a problem after thousands of
copies are made.
- No one can teach you font aesthetics; it must be learned by example.
Look at beautiful magazines, posters, books with wide eyes, so that
you can see how it's done. Examine ugly printed matter critically and
consider why it's hard to read.
- Good rules of thumb:
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