fonts

In The News – The Best Fonts for Ebook Readers, According to Book and Typeface Designers

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In The News – Articles Of Interest For Authors

Did you know that you can customize the fonts in your eBook readers? It can really make a big difference in reducing eye fatigue and providing a more enjoyable reading experience. Lifehacker‘s Patrick Allan shares which are the best fonts to use.

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The Best Fonts for Ebook Readers, According to Book and Typeface Designers

Patrick Allan

Beautiful young woman with tablet in parkPicking the right font for your Kindle or Nook can enhance your reading experience. Some fonts are easy on the eyes, some have a ton of personality, and some tell stories of their own. Here are some fonts the experts suggest for your devices.

Mark Wilson at Fast Company asked several book and typeface designers what fonts give the most authentic book experience. Anna Thompson, a book designer at Penguin Random House, and Robert Slimbach, the principal type designer at Adobe Systems, both suggest Baskerville. It’s easy to read, fatigues the eyes less over long sessions, and it looks classy. Baskerville may not work well for some devices, however, like a smartphone. Because of that, type designer Tobias Frere-Jones suggests a lower contrast, thicker, serifed font like Georgia. It renders clearly on all screen sizes, but still has enough personality to make it feel like you’re reading an actual book.

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A Glossary Of Typographic Terms

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This post by Janie Kliever originally appeared on Canva on 7/20/15.

The world of typography often seems like it has its very own language, full of serifs, strokes, and swashes.

Sorting out all those terms can be confusing in itself, so we’ve compiled a visual glossary that will guide you through the lingo — whether you’re an aspiring typeface designer or just a general typography enthusiast. Learning the building blocks of typography will help you better understand how to pick a suitable font and apply it effectively within your design projects.

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The Basics: Typefaces Categories & Styles

01. Font/Typeface:

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Back in the days of metal type and printing presses, fonts and typefaces were two different things — the typeface was the specific design of the letters, say Times New Roman or Baskerville; while the font referred to the particular size or style of that typeface, say 10 point regular or 24 point italic (each created as its own collection of cast metal letters and other characters). Today, however, many designers use the terms more or less interchangeably. The best and most straightforward modern definition I’ve run across (courtesy of Fontshop) goes as follows:

“A collection of letters, numbers, punctuation, and other symbols used to set text (or related) matter. Although font and typeface are often used interchangeably, font refers to the physical embodiment (whether it’s a case of metal pieces or a computer file) while typeface refers to the design (the way it looks). A font is what you use, and a typeface is what you see.”

02. Character:

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An individual symbol of the full character set that makes up a typeface; may take the form of a letter, number, punctuation mark, etc.

03. Alternate Character / Glyph:

 

Read the full post, which includes many more graphics, on Canva.

 

Kindle’s New Bookerly Font and Other Typography Features

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This post by Joel Friedlander originally appeared on his The Book Designer on 6/22/15.

Many ebook readers—and not just us typography nerds and designers, either—have complained about the limited font set provided with the major e-readers.

Considering the vast sums that have been spent on developing these devices, it’s always seemed odd to me that they would trumpet their e-reading devices and commitment to book readers, then ship a product that aims to fulfill these promises… but only in one of these fonts:

  • Baskerville
  • Caecilia
  • Georgia
  • Helvetica
  • Palatino

I’ve typeset books in Baskerville, but there’s Baskerville, then there’s Baskerville, a sturdy face with high stroke contrast and lovely long serifs, not the weak-tea version on the Kindle.

Now Amazon has put some work into upgrading both the font selection on its Kindle devices and apps, but also on other areas of typography that Kindle has historically fallen down on.

The rollout of these features seems to be happening slowly along Amazon’s product line, and it’s hard to tell which devices have received which upgrades.

On Amazon’s own site for the new Kindle PaperWhite, they list 5 new features:

 

Read the full post on The Book Designer.

 

Why Is Typography So Important To Content Marketing?

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This post by Erika Schneider originally appeared on the Outbrain blog on 9/16/14. Note that while it is aimed at small businesses, the information here is just as applicable to author websites and blogs, and even book cover design.

Content marketing has become one the primary ways of retaining customers, attracting new clients, and generating leads, sales, and profit for a company. While the content itself on a website is incredibly important, another crucial aspect of content marketing is typography. Typography isn’t often given a lot of consideration, but there is no doubt it plays a role in strengthening your brand, creating interest in your product, and highlighting your central message.

 

What is typography?

Typography is actually a pretty basic concept, and simply refers to the way that text is arranged on a page or document. Often times, typography is referred to as an art, as typography can be incredibly creative and innovative. Typography is great for enhancing a theme, adding personality, increasing emphasis of an idea or reinforcing a thought, demonstrating emotion, creating interest, and crafting aesthetic appeal.

While straightforward black-colored text such as this is appropriate for some forums, colorful and artistic text can be a great advertising tool. Notice how that sentence caught your attention and drew you in based on its font and color scheme alone? That’s the whole point of great typography.

 

Elements of Typography

You might think that typography is limited to font and color, but typography is actually much more than that. Here are the elements of typography that you should familiarize yourself with:

 

Read the full post on Outbrain.