Subscribe by RSSWicked Humanist Type Face
Published on November 13th, 2007
A good friend of mine recently bought me a first edition of Wicked by Gregory Maguire. Several times now, I have curled up with it, but cannot seem to make it past page 14. Unfortunately, the font they chose for the body copy keeps distracting me from the story.
I often run into this. Walking down the street I will find myself pondering the font choice on a sign or billboard. Sometimes I will see a font on TV and remember a time when I used the same font in a design. This often diverts me from the real purpose of the message.
The particular font used in Wicked is so unique that I found myself distracted by the shapes — especially the lowercase “e” which features a sloping bar and an extra little nub. The font’s x-height is short with tall ascenders and descenders. The dot on the “i” looks like calligraphy. The caps seem large compared to the lowercase and the serif on the bottom bar of the capital “E” seemed a little bizarre to me. Here is an excerpt for you:
While surfing the Internet, I came across an article about Humanist Type Faces. It included an example of Centaur. I took one glance at that and immediately wondered if it was the same font used in Wicked. It was very close, but not quite right. The capital “E” and “R” are definitely different. However, there is no doubt in my mind the unknown font belongs to the Humanist category.
I ran and got one of my typography books and read about the font style. Here are a few things to look for when identifying the style:
- Sloping bar on the lowercase “e”
- Heavy weight to the font
- Poor contrast between the thick and thin strokes
- A wide set in the capitals
- Oblique, steeply sloped, heavy serifs
- Oblique stress
- Small x-height
- Long descenders
Here is a diagram I made for you:
Humanist is the first font style developed after Blackletter (think Old English). Due to the early development and the lack of knowledge about readability at the time, Humanist fonts are not as readable as Old Style faces like Garamond, Goudy, Palatino or Times New Roman which were not developed until later. The Complete Typographer by Christopher Perfect and Jeremy Austen had this to say about it:
Shortly after Gutenberg’s invention of movable type in 1455, the first group of roman types, called Humanist, appeared in Italy during the 1460s and 1470s. […] The term “Humanist” derives from the 15th-century Italian humanistic handwriting on which these types were closely modeled. […]
Humanist designs are not frequently used today for continuous text setting. Their heavy weight, wide set, and obtrusively large capitals considerably impair their legibility. In addition, the strong calligraphic influence make the letter shapes too irregular for continuous text reading. However, they are used extensively in advertisements and for small amounts of brochure copy.
Whew! At least now, I feel justified in letting this font distract from getting into the story. Unfortunately, I went through my entire font library searching for the actual font, but I do not seem to have it. Maybe you know the name of it. If so, please let me know what it is.
Now that I’ve written this post, maybe I’ll finally be able to read this book.
Thanks for mentioning iLT.
Your sample looks like “Truesdell” to me. I could be wrong.
Posted on November 13th, 2007 at 5:04 pm
Oh, and forgot to mention that there’s quite an interesting story surrounding Truesdell: it’s based on a type designed by Goudy, lost to fire, and resurrected by Monotype.
You can read a little more about it here.
Posted on November 13th, 2007 at 5:13 pm
Johno,
Thank you very much for that info. I agree it does look very much like Truesdell and the history of the font was very interesting as well. Now, maybe, my mind will be at ease.
I think I’ll add your blog to my links. I’ve enjoyed it so far and am sure others have something to learn from you.
Karly
Posted on November 13th, 2007 at 6:17 pm
I’m voting for Truesdell, too, which is actually a face I love in some contexts (I used it for my wedding invitations), but I wouldn’t set a whole book in it.
Excellent post, Karly. You took an observation and turned it into a really nice lesson. I’ll be back!
Posted on November 13th, 2007 at 7:55 pm
Leslie,
Thank you for stopping by, I’m glad you enjoyed the post. I’d be interested to see those wedding invitations, Truesdell is a very unique choice.
Posted on November 14th, 2007 at 10:21 am
Sadly, the invitations were lost when my hard drive died. I can probably dig one up, but we moved this summer and everything’s in chaos.
It was a fairly simple invite, just 8 1/2 x 3 3/4″(ish) which I printed myself on my laser printer. Of course, I had to make my life difficult by creating a folder for it with one paper on the outside and another on the inside. Then I embossed a translucent band with a monogram I made of mine and my husband’s initials and wrapped it around the whole shebang. We had a tent wedding on Cape Cod, and Truesdell felt right — not too fancy, not too casual.
Posted on November 15th, 2007 at 8:22 am
Leslie,
I ran across your post about your hard drive crashing on your blog. Losing all of your personal files must have been very hard.
I’m getting ready to design wedding invitations for my good friends. I’ve been extremely interested in what others have done. As soon as I find time I will sit down with me sketch book and start the process. I’m really looking forward to it.
Posted on November 15th, 2007 at 8:13 pm
I thought I was the only one who couldnt read books set in Humanist typefaces… thank God I am not! I wholeheartedly agree with you.
Posted on January 31st, 2008 at 12:55 pm
It’s definitely Truesdell. I looked all over for it and finally found it, myself, based on this guy’s books, although I did so because I found it easier to read than most typefaces, and really pretty. (It would probably horrify you to note that I have Truesdell as the font my web browser uses by default now.)
Note that Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister has it as a way more readable size than Wicked does. I couldn’t read Wicked very easily, not because of the font, but because it was tiny.
Posted on February 3rd, 2008 at 2:37 am
Amanda,
Thanks for sharing your point of view. I am really entertained that you like it so much that you’ve chosen to use it as your default font. It just goes to show that everyone has different tastes.
I confess, I still have yet to read the book….it got pushed aside for others.
Posted on March 5th, 2008 at 10:45 am