Typography Research: Stop Stealing Sheep by Spiekermann and Ginger

Stop Stealing Sheep by Spiekermann and Ginger

• Given the typographic choices available, there is no excuse for producing bad business forms, illegible invoices, awkward applications, or ridiculous receipts. 
• Not a day goes by without having to deal with printed matter of this nature. It could so easily be a more pleasant experience.
• Some of the new typefaces designed to work well in business communication & on low-resolution out put devices, such as laser printers or ink-jet printers e.g. ITC Stone Informal, Lucida, ITC Officina. 
• We read best what we read most, even if it is badly set, badly designed & badly printed.
• This is not to suggest there is a substitute for good type, great design or clean printing, but a reminder of the fact that certain images are deeply ingrained in the reader's mind. 
• Handgloves-this word contains enough relevant shapes to judge an alphabet.
• Good typefaces to consider-Adobe Caslon Regular, Candida, Helvetica, ITC Stone Serif, Sabon, Bodoni Old Face, Memphis, Syntax.
• Typographic features like large x-heights, wide counters, and exaggerated ascenders are no less slaves to fashion than the perpetual changes in skirt lengths dictated by what's shown on Paris runways. 
• The size of type, indicated in points ( a point is 0.01384 inch; 12 points=1 pica; 6 pica= 1 inch), is only a reminder of a historical convention, when type was cast on a body of metal. The body size of all 12-point type would have been the same, but actual image on that body could be vastly different. 
• Times New Roman was specifically produced in1931 for the London newspaper that gave its name to the typeface. 
• In the late 1930s Mergenthaler Linotype in the USA developed a group of five typefaces that were designed to be legible despite the rigours of newspaper printing. They were not surprisingly called the 'Legibility Group,' and a couple are still popular today: Corona and Excelsior. 
• Some typefaces have a leisurely look, while conforming to everyday typographic expectations. Others were born unusual, yet casual shapes and make the best of it.
• Stempel Schneidler combines friendly letter shapes and high legibility-you can use it everyday without it becoming restrictive like a necktie. 
• A recent typeface that looks casual, even 'nice' but still good for real work is ITC Flora. It was designed by the Dutch type designer Gerard Unger in 1980 and named after his daughter. 
• Ellington, released in 1990, is a new design by Michael Harvey, the English lettering artist and stone carver. Both typefaces are quite unusual and therefore, not often thought of as useful text faces but they are.
• Many typefaces designed to look 'friendly' tend to be patronising. They can be so nice that you quickly get tired of them. When you're looking for casual typefaces, the obvious candidates are, of course, all of the scripts. Most, however, are not suited to long spells of reading, just as sandals are very comfortable, but not for walking on rocky roads.
• It is very simple to tell a particular business by the typefaces it prefers; the more technical the profession, the cooler and more rigidly constructed the typefaces have to be (Univers for architects); the more traditional the trade, the more classical they are (Bodoni for bankers). 
• Frutiger has recently become one of the more popular typefaces for corporate use. 
• Palatino owes its popularity largely to its availability as a core font on PostScript laser printers. It is nevertheless a welcome alternative to other less suitable serif fonts.
• Univers was the first typeface designed to be planned with a coordinated range of widths and weights, comprising 21 related designs. 
• Bodoni Old Face is one of many re-designs from the late 18th century. 
• Numbers can be an eyesore when they are set in the middle of regular text. Old style figures, sometimes called lowercase figures, are endowed with features like ascenders and descenders, which allow them to blend right in with other words on the page.
• Setting text in short lines for quick scanning requires rearrangement of all other parameters, too. Tracking can be tighter, and word spaces and line spaces smaller. 
• A quick look at a short piece of writing could be assisted by typeface that has a little verve. It shouldn't be as elaborate as a display font used on a label or a poster, but it also doesn't need to be too modest. 

Reflection

This has some good suggestions for typefaces which I will bear in mind. It also has some good type recommendations.