Re: typeface to go with photographs of various kinds

From: John Cremati <johnjohnc@core.com>
Subject: Re: typeface to go with photographs of various kinds
Date: Fri, 23 Jul 2004 18:01:44 -0400

> He also used various Type styles and words incorporated into his
> pictures to promote these emotions and ideas on some of his
> images..... He felt everything was visible and would have a impact..

Interesting. Is this referring to typographic elements appearing as a
part of the subject matters? I often have a sign or graffiti as a part
of my images but they are often used as a key to make sense of the
image, not something to invite attention. Plus, I would not care about
their types as much as what they say...

But I was actually referring to printed material outside of the
subject matters...

From: Kate M <kateb@paradise.net.nz>
Subject: RE: typeface to go with photographs of various kinds
Date: Sat, 24 Jul 2004 10:18:48 +1200

> Hi, Ryuji, I base my choice entirely on how it will look in the
> final printout. There are other considerations,
> though....readability, compatibility with the image. Some people get
> all carried away with the choice of fonts available and it's hard to
> choose from the variety around.

I agree that readability and clarity are important if a type face is
to be used for text. Types of high readability, like Garamond, Caslon,
Minion, etc. are often categorized as "text types." But there are
other factors like year of design, character shapes, stroke contrasts,
etc. that come to mind. If someone is printing a piece of literary
work, I imagine the type face gets a lot of attention. But when I
pulled dozen random publications, monographs, etc. related to
photography, many of them looked as if they didn't care much (e.g.,
using Times New Roman make it smell like that).

I'm not sure but I might be too concious of the time of the process
(in case of silver gelatin, 1871) and the time of photographing
experience (now).

> I try to use uncluttered typefaces, such as sans serif ones, and ones
> that translate well into italics or boldface in my teaching notes for
> headings and emphasis.
>
> At the moment I'm using Comic Sans for my notes as it copies well too.

Printing people seem to agree that serifed types tend to be more
readable and printing of long text in sans serif seems
discouraged. Many sans serifs look cleaner when they fill the page,
but I would not choose them if the text is to be read. I find Charter
(Bitstream Charter family is available freely in Type 1) to be
suitable when quality of reproduction is unsure.

Incidentally, I type up my darkroom formulae and notes and keep them
in binders in my darkroom. The influence of text layout and type
selection to the readability is much more obvious in safelight than in
the office illumination.

--
Ryuji Suzuki
"You have to realize that junk is not the problem in and of itself.
Junk is the symptom, not the problem."
(Bob Dylan 1971; source: No Direction Home by Robert Shelton)