Hi Don,

I don't much like it in the PDF. The spacing seems bad, and I find it hard to read. I have less objection to it on the web, probably because from what I saw in the link, the text is in smaller bits and pieces.

But really, I wouldn't want to have to read or proofread those course descriptions. Gotta say, our Calendar isn't any better -- it's set in Arial narrow. I made a case for changing it, but somehow that project got buried.

I am far from an expert, and have no formal training, but I've been doing my editing and publication design job for a couple of years now.

Kristina

That website shows how typefaces shouldn’t be mixed without at least examining them together. That aside, I am not a web designer nor a type designer so I don’t know the technical reason, I suspect it is partly hinting, although there isn’t much to hint with at that size, but Century Gothic and Avant Garde never seem to work on screen unless it is much, much bigger than that or a heavier weight, I have a client who uses Century Gothic to send me his corrections and in running text it really is too light to follow.

The pdf is let down by the format, flow, print it philosophy, no care has been taken to keep paragraphs together or to keep headings with text and poor judgement of the correct measure increases the hyphenation problems that riddle it, those shortcomings all contribute to what is ultimately a poor choice of typefaces in extended text.

Tim Daly, designer/typographer, 25 years of paid slog (crafting)

I'm not a designer, but I do edit a newsletter, so I have to make font choices. My reaction is that Century Gothic is a poor fit in terms of feel for a very long course description document. Something more neutral, like Helvetica or Myriad, would convey the information more effectively. Century Gothic feels a bit too "arty", particularly when it's used to describe science courses. And on the website, it just doesn't look very legible - Arial, Verdana or Tahoma. Maybe because the College is of "Applied Arts", they wanted to go with an arty feeling font? But did they forget the "Technology"?:-)

Sorry if this is too subjective to be helpful.

http://www.graphic-design.com/Type/Avant/index.html

no doubt been linked on here before.. Grafik Magazine (UK) uses Avant Garde for copy and it reads awful.

Don —

ITC Avant Garde was never intended as a text face, except perhaps in brief ads. Everything about it makes it hard to read en masse. It's too big, too round, too undifferentiated (the character shapes are designed to look as much like each other as possible, which is the opposite of what makes a text face easy to read). And it comes from a period when extra-tight spacing was in vogue, which made for some interesting display type (in talented hands) but wreaked havoc on text typography.

The default spacing in the lighter weights of Avant Garde — including the Book weight and even Medium — is much too tight. To make Avant Garde readable in text (it can be done), you need to apply noticeably loose tracking (looser the lighter the weight), and you need to give it a lot of extra leading. And keep the lines short.

But why bother? Use a good, readable text face, not one designed to draw attention in display use. For listings like the course descriptions in your PDF, Myriad might work, or FF Meta or FF Profile or ITC Stone Sans, if you want a sans serif face. Helvetica would be a poor choice, because the numerals look too much alike. (That's why Helvetica is one of the worst commonly available typefaces for things like letterheads and business cards, no matter how often you see it used.) Any of these typefaces need careful spacing: enough leading, short enough lines, comfortable tracking and kerning.

The problems with Avant Garde aren't related to how it looks onscreen; it's inappropriate in print, too, for this kind of use.

Everything that can be said about ITC Avant Garde applies to Century Gothic, which is essentially an imitation of the same sort of overblown geometrical typeface.

John Berry

Thanks to all so far, especially John. That is good stuff.