Typophile

Methodological confusions

stormbind

:)

I am confused by what I have perhaps misunderstood.

General advice suggests that I should select my font(s) before writing to benefit legibility. Similarly, the advice is that I should select my layout before writing. However, the geometric picture does not become visible until after I have written!

In which case, to achieve any given page composition, the relative darkness and grid be designed first, then the text written, and then the font(s) selected to achieve the pre-determined darkness.

Wouldn't that throw legibility out the window? Could you please tell me, do you follow a methodology or work flow that mitigates my muddled contradictions?

Bert Vanderveen

There is difference between writing and reading. You should use a typeface that’s comfortable in your setup to do your writing on screen.
Composition is a completely different aspect of type usage.

. . .
Bert Vanderveen BNO

Don McCahill

If you are a writer, write. In whatever manner or method allows you to write most effectively and efficiently. Some writers still use a pencil.

When you are finished writing, and revising, give the work to someone expert in choose fonts and formats and making things easy to read --- a typographer. He/she will do all the rest of the stuff. If you really want to do something great, add a good editor in between. This idea that one person should be able to do everything is one of the key reasons why the world is rapidly sinking into illiteracy. (Well, I needed _some_ hyperbole in the posting.)

Captured from web.archive.org on 1 Feb 2010. view this capture