Scala Sans Pro

Image by arnoKath via FlickrFonts. used on a book cover make the initial reading impression and, when properly chosen, prepare readers for how the reading experience will feel when they turn to the first page.I know of two ways to select typefaces for book projects. First, the lazy — though not necessarily uninteresting way — is to choose superfamilies comprised of both serif and sans serif fonts.

Perhaps there is a similar alternative? Define ›similar‹:-).Scala Sans was a rather original design without any direct predecessors when it came out,. FF Scala Sans Pro family (FontFont library) contains 10 fonts. Dutch type designer Martin Majoor created this sans FontFont between 1993 and 2003. The family has 10 weights, ranging from Light to Black in Condensed and Normal (including italics) and is ideally suited for advertising and packaging, book text, editorial and publishing, logo, branding and creative industries, small text.

The other way is arguably the more creative way, and is what, intuitively, one expects to pay a book designer to do: dope out perfect matches for each book he or she works on.A few of my favorite type superfamilies are /, /, and /. (As a bonus, both the Fontin superfamily and the Liberation superfamily are open source — that is, free to use.) There’s also an interesting list of forty superfamilies in an article on Peyton Crump’s blog.

Stay on your toes, however, as not each of these pairs is suitable for making books.The second way to pair types is the “hard,” creative way; the doping-it-out kind of way, where the book designer does the matching. And that leads to the two ways to pair serifs and sans serifs: by contrasting or by matching.Contrasting, at first blush, is by far the easier of the two ways to work out pairings. Theoretically, nearly every difference provides contrast.Some obvious points to compare are letter height, x-height, stroke weight, character shapes, and direction of the axis (vertical or angled). The most practical contrast, however, when using serifs and sans side-by-side are roman to bold — the more extreme, the better; and size — one of the fonts should be at least a few points larger than the other.When matching types, there are certain combinations that work naturally, because of the weights, shapes, and proportions of the characters.

Oldstyle Serif types, with their angled stress and mild difference between thin and thickness of stroke, pair nicely with Humanist Sans Serifs — and, for instance.Other Oldstyle Serifs such as, and, combine well with other Humanist Sans Serifs such as, and.Transitional faces have a vertical stress and the contrast of thin and thickness of a character’s stroke is more obvious than with Oldstyle faces. Some examples of Transitional Serifs are, and typefaces. Transitionals are paired well with Geometric Sans Serifs such as, and.Modern typefaces have much more pronounced contrast between the thin and thick of their stroke than the Transitionals, and larger x-heights. Examples of Moderns are,. Geometric Sans Serifs, as with Transitionals, make nice pairings with Modern Serifs.For book design, I stop here, except for my desire to sometime set a book in, a Near-Serif Sans.A word on the two separate and distinct terms, typeface and font. A typeface is the name under which all the characters (letters, numbers, punctuation marks), in all styles (roman, italic, bold, etc.) and sizes, of a particular design are unified. A font is a typeface in a single size and a single style.

So Bembo is a typeface, but 10 point Bembo Italic is a font.-Many thanks to for sharing his knowledge. Read book design articles on his, and catch him on.

Font combination resources., elsewhere on the blog., by H&FJ., on Smashing Magazine., priced $24.95, from Doug at BonFX., on The Book Designer., on The Book Designer., on BonFX., on Authentic Boredom., on The FontFeed.

Image by arnoKath via FlickrFonts. used on a book cover make the initial reading impression and, when properly chosen, prepare readers for how the reading experience will feel when they turn to the first page.I know of two ways to select typefaces for book projects. First, the lazy — though not necessarily uninteresting way — is to choose superfamilies comprised of both serif and sans serif fonts.

Perhaps there is a similar alternative? Define ›similar‹:-).Scala Sans was a rather original design without any direct predecessors when it came out,. FF Scala Sans Pro family (FontFont library) contains 10 fonts. Dutch type designer Martin Majoor created this sans FontFont between 1993 and 2003. The family has 10 weights, ranging from Light to Black in Condensed and Normal (including italics) and is ideally suited for advertising and packaging, book text, editorial and publishing, logo, branding and creative industries, small text.

The other way is arguably the more creative way, and is what, intuitively, one expects to pay a book designer to do: dope out perfect matches for each book he or she works on.A few of my favorite type superfamilies are /, /, and /. (As a bonus, both the Fontin superfamily and the Liberation superfamily are open source — that is, free to use.) There’s also an interesting list of forty superfamilies in an article on Peyton Crump’s blog.

Stay on your toes, however, as not each of these pairs is suitable for making books.The second way to pair types is the “hard,” creative way; the doping-it-out kind of way, where the book designer does the matching. And that leads to the two ways to pair serifs and sans serifs: by contrasting or by matching.Contrasting, at first blush, is by far the easier of the two ways to work out pairings. Theoretically, nearly every difference provides contrast.Some obvious points to compare are letter height, x-height, stroke weight, character shapes, and direction of the axis (vertical or angled). The most practical contrast, however, when using serifs and sans side-by-side are roman to bold — the more extreme, the better; and size — one of the fonts should be at least a few points larger than the other.When matching types, there are certain combinations that work naturally, because of the weights, shapes, and proportions of the characters.

Oldstyle Serif types, with their angled stress and mild difference between thin and thickness of stroke, pair nicely with Humanist Sans Serifs — and, for instance.Other Oldstyle Serifs such as, and, combine well with other Humanist Sans Serifs such as, and.Transitional faces have a vertical stress and the contrast of thin and thickness of a character’s stroke is more obvious than with Oldstyle faces. Some examples of Transitional Serifs are, and typefaces. Transitionals are paired well with Geometric Sans Serifs such as, and.Modern typefaces have much more pronounced contrast between the thin and thick of their stroke than the Transitionals, and larger x-heights. Examples of Moderns are,. Geometric Sans Serifs, as with Transitionals, make nice pairings with Modern Serifs.For book design, I stop here, except for my desire to sometime set a book in, a Near-Serif Sans.A word on the two separate and distinct terms, typeface and font. A typeface is the name under which all the characters (letters, numbers, punctuation marks), in all styles (roman, italic, bold, etc.) and sizes, of a particular design are unified. A font is a typeface in a single size and a single style.

So Bembo is a typeface, but 10 point Bembo Italic is a font.-Many thanks to for sharing his knowledge. Read book design articles on his, and catch him on.

Font combination resources., elsewhere on the blog., by H&FJ., on Smashing Magazine., priced $24.95, from Doug at BonFX., on The Book Designer., on The Book Designer., on BonFX., on Authentic Boredom., on The FontFeed.