Hi,
I've been doing some research into what's best out there at the moment and thought I'd open it up to discussion
Ideally, the typefaces would be complimenting serif and sans serif in a large variety of weights, including condensed for the sans. They would have international character sets and perhaps phonetic characters.
My current favorite are (together) Mercury and Whitney by Hoefler and Frere-Jones… simply wonderful.
Any suggestions/comments??
Cheers
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Is dictionary design so ossified that all that needs to be mentioned in the typespec brief is “dictionary design”?
At the very least, the relative merits of condensed, normal and extended might be discussed, in relation to how much cramming is necessary (assuming the product is in print, which is another spec that might be relevant).
Something with IPA characters, I would hope, which narrows things down a bit.
For the record, the new 2nd edition of the Oxford Latin Dictionary (over 2,000 pages, published earlier this year), uses Arno and Myriad. To my eye it looks good.
Interesting entry by Paul Luna from the Typography at Reading blog about the use of Parable by Christopher Burke in various Oxford dictionaries:
http://blogs.reading.ac.uk/typography-at-reading/2012/04/30/reading-type...
Not Just a Pretty Face: The Contribution of Typography to Lexicography also by Paul Luna from his Dictionary Design blog, is a much more involved article and goes into quite a lot of detail about the history of typography in dictionary design.
Nick Shinn's Beaufort
You're right! There aren't many faces with IPA characters…
Nick, dictionary typography is scarier than you might think. And bilingual dictionaries... wow. It's one of the reasons for Nour&Patria's complexity (although that turned out too bookish for dictionaries).
hhp
Nonetheless, it does seem a bit vague when asking for typeface recommendations, to merely mention a genre of content, without reference to layout or medium.
Basically, you’re confining yourself to cliché, and thinking inside a very small box.
Hi Nick,
Ok, I see your point…
Layout would vary but mostly A5/Octavo or smaller.
Dictionaries are always printed on relatively thin, moderately absorbent papers, so the typeface would need to account for some ink squash, maybe with built in ink traps, and pared counter and apertures.
I love the "Extroversion" of Whitney by H&FJ, meaning headwords would be cohesive in a tightly packed environment.
Beyond this, there are all the usual requirements for a small font size and its condensed nature: enlarging the x-height to retain clarity and legibility, and at the same time, ascenders and descenders need to be kept relatively short to facilitate the tight leading required.
Thanks
Stone Sans + Serif is used quite a lot, f.i. in the Roget's Thesaurus. I think it works very well
I like Lexicon a lot.
I like Lexicon a lot.
Captured from commoncrawl.org on 19 Apr 2015. original URL
It would be if you need a typeface for a specific project. As an open question I feel all the information was implied. If it didn't concern print I'm sure it would have been mentioned. Other than that, I don't think there are wildly different standards when it comes to dictionaries, are there? I think it's implied that you would need a pretty sturdy serif typeface with a relatively large x-height and unlike newspaper typefaces it shouldn't be too condensed or have a high contrast. If I were to ask for good newspaper typefaces, would you also need to know specifics or would you start naming newspaper typefaces you now will work well? Newspaper typefaces in general seem very typical.
Doesn't that describe a dictionary though? I'm all for innovation, but a dictionary doesn't seem to be the kind of medium where you can go wild. Perhaps I'm being narrow-minded, but can anyone give examples where something truly different has been done in a respectable dictionary?
I would just like to name two typefaces I know were specifically designed with use for dictionaries in mind. Lexicon was designed to be used in the Dutch Van Dale dictionaries and Skolar is a sturdy typeface made for academic publications and dictionaries. Both typefaces have been designed to work well at small sizes.