Comments on: Why don’t book publishers use Helvetica?

By: Kurt Schroeder

Kurt Schroeder — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 14:56:34 +0000

I watched the movie last night. Loved it. I first noticed that book publishers sometimes specify the font that type is set in when I was reading A Son of the Circus by John Irving. Ever since, I have looked at the front to see what font a book is set in. Irving often chooses Janson, but I haven’t decided if I like it or not. I agree that San Serif fonts just don’t look right for book text. personally, I like Courier.

Also, in one of my recent Christmas letters, I invoted people to write my Christmas letter for me as part of a contest, and I told them to not use Comic Sans. For all the grumbling that some people do about the overuse of Helvetica, the overuse of Comic Sans is the real horror.

By: andré carvalho

andré carvalho — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 02:36:37 +0000

i’m not a great fan of helvetica, but i really enjoyed the movie. i believe that the main reason that books aren’t printed with helvetica is because it really sucks in small size and when it’s justified it looks awful. and most books are printed in 12 or 11 pts size, and helvetica isn’t great at these size. since it’s a very geometrical typeface reading something writen on it for some time is very boring. as the letters are too much similar, we get very tedius very fast.

By: Imar

Imar — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 11:58:23 +0000

Serifs are so ironic. They have their origin in ancient methods of inscription, and today we still find them in default typefaces on computer screens… The popular opinion - based on “studies” - is that serif typefaces make body text easier to read in print, yet sans serif is a better choice for screen based text.
In print, the serifs supposedly act as a linear guide for the eye but due to low res rendering technologies, they blur on-screen text making it hard to read…
Book publishers may never warm to helvetica after all.

By: W.V.

W.V. — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 21:58:27 +0000

the x height is just too high. it create large interior counterforms in the characters that are distracting to the eye when reading large bodies of text.

By: Matt C.

Matt C. — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 14:42:45 +0000

Serifs seem (to me) to take less effort to read in large chunks than does something like Helvetica. Also, setting the body of a book in Helvetica requires much more patience to make it really helpful. Even the book referenced in #5 above seems a bit condensed for my eyes to be comfortable reading it. But I’d take a well-done Helvetica body over Times/TNR any day.

By: Steve

Steve — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 09:45:15 +0000

“How to be a graphic designer, without losing your soul” - a must read, has its body copy set in Gotham. It’s a gorgeous read, lovely to look at, easier to read than the latest Klosterman - some sort of diminished and bolded times new roman offshoot.

By: Jim Heid

Jim Heid — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 23:56:07 +0000

FYI, my book, “The Macintosh iLife ‘08,” is set almost entirely in the Helvetica Neue. We used Helvetica Neue 57 for most of the body text, and it’s exceptionally readable. 57’s space efficiency also allowed us to incorporate in a 400-page book as much text as might otherwise have required 800 or more pages.

Now in it’s sixth edition, it’s the world’s top-selling book about Apple’s iLife suite of programs.

I *loved* your film!

By: Alan

Alan — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 23:11:20 +0000

Professor Karen Schriver at Carnegie Mellon has done relatively recent research on this question. Her results echo the conventional wisdom: serif typefaces are easier to read for printed matter.

By: Chandler Easley

Chandler Easley — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 19:11:47 +0000

From the book “Homage to a Typeface” (a book about Helvetica which predates the film). I think Mr. Rand put it best in this qoute from his former pupil Kyle Cooper.

“I remember a time at Yale when my work was being critiqued by Paul Rand. Mr Rand told me only to use Helvetica as a display face, never in text. Then he squinted, leaned in, and whispered in my ear, “because Helvetica looks like dogshit in text”.” - Kyle Cooper

By: Mark Jensen

Mark Jensen — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 23:26:52 +0000

Maybe this is why: http://www.marks.dk/2008/01/13/will-the-choice-of-font-affect-your-grade/

Not that scientific, though