try Melior by Linotype or Freight Micro. I use on long bodies of text in a magazine.

Thanks for the suggestions monarchgg. Sadly, Melior has too much contrast and Freight Micro is too playful and the italics are just too . . . wacky.

I would suggest that Pantone 186 is a bit too bright for text, if they are printing on white stock. Tell them to go to the 193. Bright type will wear the eye our quickly. The darker the better.

I would suggest that Pantone 186 is a bit too bright for text, if they are printing on white stock. Tell them to go to the 193. Bright type will wear the eye our quickly. The darker the better.

Also, don't forget, reading is a strain to the eye, anyway, so concider the consequences when using type. The easier it is to read, the more successful the sell. Understand easy and readable type when doing a lot of it. Just look at the books you have around your house.

You may change your mind.

How about something like Carter's Charter or Unger's Oranda?

Eyehawk, thanks for the input about the color, i was leaning towards 193 for that very reason and you have helped push me even further in that direction. I will actually be flying half-way across the country to do a press-check JUST to make sure that the red looks right before printing 6,000 books. And yes, I agree easily readable type is hugely important, hence my post here and all my questions about Absara.

MHSmith, thanks for the suggestions! Charter has a little too much contrast for this job but Oranda certainly looks like a good possibility. SAdly they don't have an OT version, so thats a strike against it.

thanks! pfm

Yes they do, both of them. Check them out again at MyFonts.

Another possibility could be ITC Mendoza Roman.

I've used Filosofia from Emigre in a number of books where I wanted a cooler rather than warmer look. It's based on Bodoni. I liked the result on coated stock. It is relatively low contrast and is available in OT. The italic is very readable too. Drawback: Emigre's refusal to allow embedding in pdf's.

any thought of using 'the serif'

http://www.fontshop.com/fonts/downloads/lucasfonts/thesans_basic/

has been used quite a bit, but for a good reason, cause its such a nice face and such a broad family to use as well. you have

Why not choose Caecilia?

Or Chaparral? (nicely used by Bringhurst in The Solid Form of Language). But I do like Mendoza too. And I will always stand in awe of Dolly, OT or no OT.

Buy and try – Absara (serif) regular and italic. This is the very best typeface of Dupré in my opinion. Maybe you get Problems with the "E" and the "F" but it depends on how small it is printed and on what kind of paper.
Subjectiv – i adore it, it's a strong one.
Caecilia is a good, relatively calm, easy to work with, friendly – but not to friendly! – slab serif. Quite readable in small sizes, very versatile if you want "some obvious style".

>OT or not OT

… smiling

the best, poms

Our Alfon has been used in number of books to great success. One designer called it "muscular"

http://www.terminaldesign.com/fonts/sets/?CID=2

Lots of OpenType features in there.

James

Mendoza is certainly "austere", if that's what you're looking for. Presumably you have Bringhurst's Elements? Look at p.108 (vers 3.1) for a nice sample of 10/13 Mendoza. Another low contrast possibility is Scala.

Tyfa has the same effect. I guess I'd call it muscular too. It sits straight up on the paper and remains crisp. (I've been using it for a book series and the client finally told me they don't know if they like it anymore. But we'll see.)

Absara looks like very small potatoes next to FF Scala, a real star that works superbly everywhere. Also, Bitstream Iowan, now available with oldstyle figures in a separate bundle, very warm and yet very clear, and not yet discovered. Quadraat and Eric Gill's Aries are worth considering. In the Adobe OpenType collection, take a look at Chaparral, Dante, Electra, and Giovanni. And though it offers higher contrast, Warnock is a really distinguished new option for all of us.