{"id":650,"date":"2007-12-03T01:23:18","date_gmt":"2007-12-02T16:23:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2007-12-03\/650"},"modified":"2007-12-03T01:23:18","modified_gmt":"2007-12-02T16:23:18","slug":"robert-bringhursts-the-elements-of-typographic-style","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2007-12-03\/650","title":{"rendered":"Robert Bringhurst’s The Elements of Typographic Style<\/i>"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n

From The Elements\nof Typographic Style<\/a> (third edition):<\/p>\n\n
“<\/span><\/td>\nIn a world<\/span> rife with unsolicited messages, typography must often draw\nattention to itself before it will be read. Yet in order<\/span> to be read, it\nmust relinquish the attention it has drawn.<\/span>”<\/span>— page 17<\/span><\/td><\/tr><\/table>\n\n

For the four-and-a-half hours in the bullet train on my trip to see a friend<\/span><\/a> the\nother day, I brought<\/span> with me this excellent book by Robert\nBringhurst<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

When most people read a book (or a sign<\/span> or the classifieds or a menu<\/span>\nor...) they don't give even the slightest thought to the typography –\nthe shapes of letters and punctuation, and their layout relative to each\nother and to the page as a whole.<\/span> Yet, since the typography is responsible\nfor 100% of the information you get from the printed word, its clearly\nextremely important to think about when writing. Even when writing a simple<\/span>\nweb page like this, the writer makes may typographic decisions: how to\ndistinguish paragraphs, when\/if to use italics or bold, etc.<\/p>\n\n

I was enthralled by the first edition of this book while working on the\nfirst edition of mine<\/a> back in the mid 90s,\nnot only because of its information content, but also due to Bringhurst's\nwriting style. He is also<\/span> a poet,<\/span> and while I don't<\/span> have much stomach for\npoetry (see my thoughts here<\/a>), that aspect of his\nnature lends a wonderful<\/span> lilt to his typographic writing.<\/p>\n\n

It's a completely different kind of “<\/span>great writing”<\/span> than, say, Bill\nBryson (about whom I've written here<\/a> and here<\/a>), or Light —\nScience and Magic<\/i>, the clearly-written book on photographic lighting I've posted about<\/a>. So,\nhere are some examples of Bringhurst's writing...<\/p>\n\n

While discussing how the design of each letter in a font<\/span> can\nvisually bond – or not – to other letters, he brings up...<\/p>\n\n
“<\/span><\/td>\n...other unserifed faces, such as Helvetica, in which nothing more than\nwishful thinking bonds the letters to each other.\n<\/span>”<\/span>— page 32<\/span><\/td><\/tr><\/table>\n\n\n

In talking about how to use whitespace, he writes...<\/p>\n\n\n
“<\/span><\/td>\n\nLists, such as contents pages and recipes, are opportunities to build\narchitectural structures in which the space between the elements both\nseparates and binds. The two favorite<\/span> ways of destroying such an\nopportunity are setting great chasms of space that the eye cannot leap\nwithout help from the hand, and setting unenlightening rows of dots (dot\nleaders<\/i>, as they are called) that force the eye to walk the width of\nthe page like a prisoner<\/span> being escorted back to its cell.\n\n<\/span>”<\/span>— page 35<\/span><\/td><\/tr><\/table>\n\n\n

Of title pages, he says...<\/p>\n\n
“<\/span><\/td>\n\nIt is not enough, when building a title<\/span> page, merely to unload some big,\nprefabricated letters into the center of the space, nor to dig a few<\/span> holes\nin the silence with typographic heavy machinery and then move on. Big type,\neven huge type, can be beautiful and useful. But poise<\/span> is usually far more\nimportant than size – and poise consists primarily of emptiness.\nTypographically, poise is made of white space. Many fine title pages\nconsist of a modest<\/span> line or two near the top, and a line<\/span> or two near the\nbottom, with nothing more than taut, balanced white space in between.\n\n\n<\/span>”<\/span>— page 61<\/span><\/td><\/tr><\/table>\n\n\n

In talking about the blank pages one often finds before the first page\nand after the last...<\/p>\n\n
“<\/span><\/td>\n\nA brief<\/span> research paper may look its best with no more space at the\nbeginning and end than is provided by the standard page margins. The same is<\/span> rarely true of a book,<\/span> whose text should generally be, and should seem\nto be, a living<\/span> and breathing entity, not aged and shrink-wrapped meat.\n[Some short books] can begin directly with the title page. Otherwise, a\nhalf<\/span>-title is customary, preceding the title page. It is equally<\/span> customary\nto leave a blank<\/span> leaf, or at least a blank<\/span> page, at the end of a book.<\/span>\nThese blanks provide a place<\/span> for inscriptions and notes and allow the text\nto relax in its binding.\n\n<\/span>”<\/span>— page 72<\/span><\/td><\/tr><\/table>\n\n

Yet, he goes on to note...<\/p>\n\n
“<\/span><\/td>\n\nA wad<\/span> of blank leaves at the end of a book<\/span> is a sign<\/span> of carelessness, not\nof kindliness toward the readers who like to take notes.\n\n<\/span>”<\/span>— page 73<\/span><\/td><\/tr><\/table>\n\n

Kerning<\/i> is the subtle adjustment of space between specific pairs\nof letters to create a more<\/span> pleasing result. Compare the letter placement\non these three lines:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first line is unkerned, so each letter takes up its default amount\nof space. In the others<\/span>, the letters have been “<\/span>tucked”<\/span> into each other to\nvarying degrees. It might<\/span> not seem important in this large display of\njust four characters, but it can make a big<\/span> difference in the overall\n“<\/span>feel”<\/span> of a book,<\/span> for better or for worse...<\/p>\n\n
“<\/span><\/td>\n\nComputerized typesetting makes extensive kerning easy, but judgment is\nstill required, and the computer does not make good judgment any easier to\ncome by.\n\n<\/span>”<\/span>— page 33<\/span><\/td><\/tr><\/table>\n\n

Indeed. Kerning can be particularly important with letter-punctuation\nand punctuation-punctuation pairs, so I did<\/span> a lot<\/i> of detailed hand\nkerning in my punctuation-heavy book on\nregular expressions<\/a>. It's one of<\/span> the reasons that my book garners an\ninordinate number of “<\/span>it's beautifully typeset”<\/span> comments. (I mean,<\/span> really,\nhow often do you ever see comments about a computer<\/span> book's typesetting, and\nat that, complimentary<\/i> comments?)<\/p>\n\n

\n\n

Most people never notice typesetting in what they read, and that's as it\nshould be because good typesetting is the kind that doesn't get noted\nconsciously, but instead subconsciously guides and sooths the reader. One only needs<\/span> to see poor typesetting to bring this to mind, such as any page\non MySpace, or Wired Magazine. (I read<\/span> a few<\/span> issues of Wired back in the\nmid 90s, but although I enjoyed<\/span> the content, their typography and page\ndesign – such as bright red lettering on bright blue paper –\ncaused me to become physically ill after just a few<\/span> minutes. I decided<\/span> that\nthe content wasn't worth a headache,<\/span> so I quickly<\/span> stopped reading it.)<\/p>\n\n

As much as I enjoy Bringhurst's book, a few<\/span> things bother me about it. He uses tall<\/span>, thin pages and a tight<\/span> binding, so you have to really work to\ncrack the book and hold open. It's not as<\/span> bad with this third edition as it\nwas with the first, for which I'm thankful, because I kept<\/span> getting cramps\nwhen reading the first edition until I concocted<\/span> a way<\/span> to use a coat<\/span>-hanger\nto jam open the book to the page I was<\/span> on.<\/p>\n\n\n

About footnotes he says...<\/p>\n\n
“<\/span><\/td>\n\nLong footnotes are inevitably a distraction<\/span>: tedious to read and wearying\nto look at.<\/span> Footnotes that extend to a second<\/span> page (as some long footnotes\nare bound to do) are an abject failure of design.\n\n<\/span>”<\/span>— page 68<\/span><\/td><\/tr><\/table>\n\n

I agree completely, but I don't think what he's done is much better. He\nputs side notes<\/i> into the generous outer margins he's put on each\npage. The problem<\/span> is that there's nothing but vague proximity to tie the\nnote to its text, so I often<\/span> find myself reading right past until I realize<\/span>\nthat I haven't<\/span> looked at any sidenotes recently, and turn back the pages to\nsee whether there were any.<\/p>\n\n

Perhaps even worse, when I do find a sidenote<\/span> this way, I can't<\/span> scan the\ntext for what it relates to because he does not use note markers. Thus, I actually<\/span> have to read and comprehend the text just to find the part related\nto the note. Ugh.<\/p>\n\n

As I said, I really<\/span> enjoy his writing style, but sometimes it gets in\nthe way of understanding. For example, I have no<\/span> idea what this is supposed\nto really mean:<\/p>\n\n
“<\/span><\/td>\n\nIn a badly<\/span> designed book, the letters mill and stand like starving horses\nin a field.<\/span> In a book<\/span> designed by rote, they sit like stale bread and\nmutton on the page. In a well<\/span>-made book, where designer, compositor and\nprinter have all done their jobs, no matter how many thousands of lines and\npages they must occupy, the letters are alive. They dance in their seats.\nSometimes they rise and dance in the margins and aisles.\n\n<\/span>”<\/span>— page 19<\/span><\/td><\/tr><\/table>\n\n

It sounds pretty and all, but it seems meaningless in any kind of practical\nsense.<\/p>\n\n

One final comment in case Mr. Bringhurst is reading. I've seen books\nwith their edition labeled with “<\/span>version”<\/span> (e.g. “<\/span>version 2”<\/span> instead of\n“<\/span>second edition”<\/span>). When this is done on a book<\/span> related to computer science,\nit's childish and cliché enough to make me cringe. For other<\/span> types\nof books, it's only worse. For a book<\/span> with the style and grace of The\nElements of Typographic Style<\/i>, the “<\/span>version 3.1”<\/span> on the cover is almost\npornographically out of place. What on earth were you thinking?<\/p>\n\n

\n\n

I don't want to end my post talking about the book's few shortcomings,\nbecause it's truly an excellent resource and an enjoyable read. Its target<\/span> audience is much larger now than when the first edition came out in 1992,\nbecause there's a lot<\/span> in there even for someone whose typesetting is\nlimited to writing web pages.<\/p>\n\n

And I'll end with a shout-out to Ken Lunde, who wrote the most-excellent\nCJKV\nInformation Processing: Chinese, Japanese, Korean & Vietnamese\nComputing<\/a>. It's Ken who<\/span> first sent me a copy<\/span> of Elements of Typographic Style<\/i> back in\n1995, and now I notice<\/span> Ken's name in the Afterword to the Third\nEdition<\/i>. Thanks Ken!<\/p>\n\n