I received such a great response to this latest TypeTalk column that I added a downloadable PDF of the chart upon the request of several readers. You can download it here, but I suggest going to the article for the full explanations as well as to download.

Klaus Heesch, my cohost, did an amazing job of introducing the session, as well as troubleshooting a slight sound glitch we had in the middle. Giving Webinars is a lot more than knowing your subject matter, preparing informative and engaging visuals, and a giving a lively delivery. You are at the mercy of microphone, digital sound and internet connection issues, with a lot of other variables that are out of one’s control. It takes a calm yet quick-thinking person to address any problems on-the-fly and assist in making a quick recovery.

Another challenge is that the presenter is virtually speaking to their computer alone in their office trying to sound animated, entertaining, and enthusiastic about the subject matter, without a live audience. It’s a little odd at first if you’ve never given a Webinar before, but having given a dozen or so myself, I was not unfamiliar with the process, and strived to make it sound as if I was presenting to real people, just of the virtual kind.

Having said that, the presentation went really well and got a lot of nice comments. But we did have a slight static problem in the middle, at which time Klaus interrupted the presentation so I could remove my microphone, change some audio settings, and then pick up where I left off. Since these are live performances, there is always the possibility of things happening beyond one’s control, just like any live stage, radio, or internet event. But I managed to stay calm while we resolved the problem, which only took a few seconds, and move forward.

The question and answer session was informative and a lot of fun, with a humorous contribution by the noted typographic illustrator, and future presenter, Gerard Huerta. The Q&A not only helped answer questions, but allowed for a more personal connection with the audience which was great!

All Webinars will be recorded and availabIe for viewing OnDemand, which included this past session, which is available here. This is an important aspect of the TypeCast program as it allows us to reach a broad audience, at their convenience, and in any time zone. I, personally, am very excited to be able to offer the kind of information and personal contact that I have only been able to give, up until now, in person in classes, workshops, and conferences.

We have a lot of great Webinar topics planned, as well as some talented, exciting guest presenters, including Gerard Huerta, Jeff Fisher, Jill Bell, James Montalbano, Jim Parkinson, Trevett McCandliss & Nancy Campbell, and a lot more. The next session is The 10 Worst Type Crimes on Thursday, January 12, So stay tuned, and sign up to stay informed if you have not already.

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After giving our premiere Typecast Webinar, Troubling Typesetting Mysteries: Solved at last! I heard from a respected colleague, Adobe Certified Instructor Scott Citron who offered several additions to the information presented.

• Paragraph Composer vs. Single-Line Composer Paragraph Composer looks at the entire paragraph when determining line breaks, not just three lines backwards and forwards.
• Changing Default Settings The best way to change default settings is to update the Basic Paragraph style with no docs open. Otherwise, changing the settings outside the Basic Paragraph Style will give you a plus (+) on the Basic Paragraph forever. By the way, quitting InDesign after changing your Basic Paragraph styles is not necessary.
• Hidden (Invisible) Characters I always advise users to leave Hidden Characters on. The reason this is important is because this way you can make sure that the end of paragraph mark (or pilcrow) is selected. Also, seeing Hidden Characters like tabs, soft returns, multiple spaces, and so forth will inform designers about why their text is behaving in a given way.
• To highlight a paragraph, click the Type tool four times anywhere in the paragraph, which will include the pilcrow. Don’t drag to highlight paragraphs, which makes it easy to miss the pilcrow and wind up with uneven line spacing.
• Command-Option-Q used to clear all character overrides, but does no longer. Go to Edit > Keyboard Shortcuts > Product Area > Text and Tables and look for Clear Character Overrides. Make your own. I used Control-Option-Command-Q and set Context to Text.

By the way, Scott will be presenting several TypeCast Webinars, so stay tuned.

Have a very healthy, happy holiday and New Year, and I look forward to seeing you, virtually of course, in the coming year!

Ilene

What causes this? The most common explanation is that we don’t read letter-by-letter, but rather by word shapes, which are in part created by the position and frequency of ascending and descending characters. But in all cap settings, such word shapes are lost, making it more challenging, and slower going, to read. Some recent research has disputed this ‘word shape’ explanation, but it is widely acknowledged that all cap settings are more difficult to read than lowercase. What we read most often (mostly lowercase) is what we read more easily.

The notion that we read by word shapes, as illustrated above, is widely cited, though not universally accepted.

So when, if ever, is it appropriate, or even desirable, to use all capitals? The use of all cap settings for running text (differentiated from abbreviations, acronyms, company names and other branding functions, etc.) can seem appealing because of the symmetry and emphasis it creates. But unless you are setting only a few words, such as very short headlines, subheads and phrases, readability will suffer.

All cap text is more difficult to read than primarily lowercase settings, as can be experienced in the above examples.

Another notion in favor of the use of upper- and lowercase vs. all caps, is that lowercase takes up less space. Because more words can be put on a line, a block of copy looks shorter and seems like less material to be read.

These cautions regarding all caps hold even more true for emails and other uses on the Web (including blogs, comments and other types of postings), where it is considered SHOUTING, which is unprofessional and a sign of poor etiquette (or, netiquette).

So the next time you are tempted to set text in all capitals, weigh the pros and cons, and consciously make your decision to use all cap settings — if at all — sparingly.

Typographic Typos
Steer clear of these common type crimes:
☐ Eliminate double word spaces between sentences
☐ Replace dumb quotes (including apostrophes)
☐ Check inch and foot marks (primes)
☐ Use hyphens, en- and em-dashes properly
☐ Avoid fake scaling, embolding and slanting
☐ Avoid computer-generated (fake) small caps
☐ Use all cap text sparingly
☐ Beware of all cap swash settings
☐ Size type appropriately (both text and display)

Spacing and alignment
Good visual balance and alignment contribute greatly to professionally set typography.
☐ Avoid poor justification
☐ Avoid tracked out lowercase
☐ Make sure kerning is even and tasteful
☐ Apply hung punctuation / optical margin alignment
☐ Check for proper vertical and horizontal alignment
☐ Use tracking appropriately, as necessary
☐ Check for appropriate word spacing and adjust as necessary
☐ Align initial letters properly

Refinements
The devil is in the details, so use these points as a guide to first-rate typography:
☐ Adjust bad rags
☐ Avoid too many hyphens in a row
☐ Avoid widows and orphans
☐ Use appropriate figure style and spacing
☐ Use diagonal fractions if possible, especially in OpenType
☐ Fine-tune size, position and spacing of bullets
☐ Fine-tune position and spacing of ®, ™ and © symbols
☐ Adjust glyph positioning as necessary

This article is excerpted from fy(t)i: Typographic Checklist, courtesy of Monotype Imaging.

What’s the story behind this typeface designed by Hermann Zapf, one of the most well-known and respected contemporary typeface designers? Allan Haley, Director of Words and Letters for Monotype Imaging, was Director of Marketing for International Typeface Corporation (ITC) when ITC Zapf Chancery was licensed to Apple. I asked him to jog his memory and tell us how it came to pass. Read on…

Q. What’s the difference between the TTF and CFF OpenType formats?

A. OpenType fonts come in two flavors with two different extensions: CFF, which usually has the extension .otf (often referred to as PostScript Type1); and TTF with the extension .ttf (usually referred to as TrueType). The format depends on the kind of outline data it contains: PostScript or TrueType. Read on…

Have you ever experienced the frustration of opening an existing document and being confronted with a prompt for a “missing font” that you have not used in the document? Or, have you on occasion found unused fonts listed in the Fonts in Use / Usage directory of your document and wondered how they got there?

This happens to just about every designer at one time or another. It can be both frustrating and time-consuming to resolve, and the actual mystery often remains unsolved, as to why or how the unused font(s) got in there in the first place! If you don’t find the cause when the discrepancy occurs, you will probably get an email or a call from your printer requesting the missing fonts, even if you insist that they are not used in the document. Read on…

The modest 24-page first issue declared, “U&lc will provide a panoramic window, a showcase for the world of graphic arts — a clearing house for the international exchange of ideas and information.”

And, indeed, it did.

Over the 26 years that it was published, U&lc gathered a following of thousands of avid readers that eagerly anticipated each issue. It became the most important typographic publication of its time.

Monotype Imaging, Inc. is now making Volume One available for download via the Fonts.com blog. Read on for more info…