Typophile

Groovy type

David Sudweeks

Starting on my text face with Mark van Bronkhorst a couple weeks back I began by drawing a demibold and derived an ultralight from it, keeping the point structures compatible. My ultralight looked great & spaced fine on screen, but after the first test print I was scratching my head. David: "Yeah, the lighter weight looks much too big compared to the heavier weight at the same size. I get that." Pause. "But why... um. Why does it look like something Herb Lubalin drew?"

Mark: "Oh it's looking groovy?" I walk from the printer over to Mark thinking 'Is groovy some kind of precise typographic term I'm unfamiliar with?' Mark after seeing it: "Yeah, it's pretty groovy."

Though not perhaps used as such, in my mind groovy just as well be a precise typographic term. It would mean something like 'a condition achieved when display type appears in a text setting, looking too tight, too light, having lost much of its detail, & generally, like ITC Souvenir set small from phototype.'
In addition to spacing the ultralight more generously, I exaggerated the serifs and got into the habit of regularly taking breaks to view the monitor from about ten feet back, in between trips to the printer.

Above: The phrase 'times are altered' appears in an interpolated light weight somewhere between the ultralight and the demibold (also shown), with a little condensed thrown in for good measure.

Handpicked.

I'm presently realizing that the phrase ‘thrown in for good measure’ ought not be used in the context of typesetting, if whatever contribution does not in fact improve the measure, a precise typographic term.

your concerns are unjustified

Seen from below, all metal types are groovy! :-)

How do you see a face from below?


You pick it up and turn it over!
(The groovy part is at (3)).

Craig, are you my dad? That joke was terrible :)

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