THE NON-DESIGNER'S TYPE BOOK

Condensed text faces

Condensed text faces are handy when space is at a premium. You've probably
noticed that some typefaces take up a lot more room than others. Compare
the space occupied by the copy set in the two faces below, Garamond and
Times. Times was created for the London Times specifically to save space
yet still be eminently readable. You can tell even in this small sample that
a large body of text in Times would fill significantly less space than the
same size type in Garamond, even though Times appears to be larger
(because of its x-height; see page 17 for details about the x-height).

They have a wonderful therapeutic
effect upon me, these catastrophes

which I proofread___When the

world blows up and the final edition
has gone to press the proofreaders
will quietly gather up all commas,
semicolons, hyphens, asterisks,
brackets, parentheses, periods,
exclamation marks, etc. and put
them in a little box over the editorial
chair. Comme ça tout est régie.

Henry Miller, Tropic of Cancer

They have a wonderful therapeutic
effect upon me, these catastrophes
which I proofread .... When the world
blows up and the final edition has gone
to press the proofreaders will quietly
gather up all commas, semicolons,
hyphens, asterisks, brackets, parenthe¬
ses, periods, exclamation marks, etc.
and put them in a little box over the
editorial chair. Comme ça tout est régie.

Henry Miller, Tropic of Cancer

The face on the left is Garamond; on the right is Times.

12: CONDENSED AND EXTENDED TYPE

Computer-drawn vs. true-drawn

You probably know you can compress and expand type through most soft¬
ware applications with the click of a button. This is okay for an occasional
emergency, but the computer distorts the type by simply squishing it. If
you need a compressed face so you can, for instance, get more words into
your newsletter, please don't let the computer squish the type—invest in
a "true-drawn" condensed face. True-drawn faces have been redesigned
with different proportions, stroke thicknesses, counter spaces, and other
fine features so as to retain the integrity of the typeface and maintain read¬
ability. Below are examples of what the computer does to the letterforms as
opposed to what the designer does.

Franklin Gothic, condensed
Franklin Gothic Condensed

In the first example, the computer simply squished the letterforms.
The second example is a redesigned face. Notice the differences in the
weight, the thin/thick strokes, the counters (spaces inside the letters),
the letter spacing, the height of the lowercase letters in relation to the
caps, the terminals of the "e"and "s" where open space has been designed
into the condensed version, and other subtle differences between the
computerized version and the redesigned face.

As for me, I am tormented A well-designed condensed text face

with an everlasting itch maintains maximum readability within

for things remote. the compressed proportions. This is an

I love to sail forbidden seas example of a true-drawn Garamond text

and land on barbarous coasts. face called Garamond Light Condensed.

Herman Melville, Moby Dick