122 . THE NON-DESIGNER'S TYPE BOOK

Logic only gives man what he needs.
Magic gives hira what he

D wants.

Daba the
Idiot

Jteadiines and

и

meads

The headlines and subheads in a document do more than simply give clues
as to the content of the stories. They provide an organization to the page;
they provide a repetitive element that unifies the publication; they provide
the visual contrast that attracts our eyes to the page. Here are a few guide¬
lines for using heads and subheads to effectively take advantage of their
presence.

* Avoid using all caps or small caps. They are difficult to read, plus
they take up too much space. Using lowercase letters, you will have
more room to use a larger and bolder font.

* Watch the leading on multiple-line heads. The larger the type size,
the less leading you need. If there are few or no descenders, it is
particularly important to remove the excess space. Your intent is

to keep the two Unes together as one visual unit.

* If your text is flush left, keep your heads and subheads flush left,
not centered. This is particularly important if your page feels a little
cluttered; keeping the heads flush left with the text will reduce some
of the visual clutter. When a head is centered, our eyes connect its
placement with the first line of the first paragraph. If the first line
of text does not stretch all the way across the column, the centered
headline won't have a good connection to the story.

* To preserve the strength of this alignment (and to be typographically
proper), don't indent the first paragraph in the story. Any indent you
do use should be only about two spaces wide, about one em space
(as wide as the point size of your type; see page 113).