Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!usc!jarthur!euler.claremont.edu!dhosek
From: dhosek@euler.claremont.edu (Don Hosek)
Newsgroups: comp.fonts
Subject: Leading was (Re: Bad typography (was Re: Why is Courier ugly?))
Message-ID: <1991Mar27.035802.1@euler.claremont.edu>
Date: 27 Mar 91 11:58:02 GMT
References: <27E6EA46.1044@telly.on.ca> <1991Mar21.154413.19923@pmafire.inel.gov> <1630@tekig7.MAP.TEK.COM> <1991Mar26.154304.24123@pmafire.inel.gov>
Sender: news@jarthur.Claremont.EDU
Organization: Harvey Mudd College
Lines: 41

In article <1991Mar26.154304.24123@pmafire.inel.gov>, geoff@pmafire.inel.gov (Geoff Allen) writes:
> I complained about a book set in a sans serif face and
> briand@tekig5.PEN.TEK.COM (Brian D Diehm) writes:
 
>>Actually, what you are complaining about is poor typography rather than
>>sans serif typefaces.

> 	There is a *lot* of leading between lines.  I know that some is
> 	needed to facilitate finding the next line, but there's a
> 	practical limit.  They exceeded it. 
 
> 	The type seems to be printed grey, not black.  This combined
> 	with the wide open line spacing makes for a light page.
 
> The font used (I'm not a true font connoisseur, so I can't identify it)
> has a rather large x-height, so that may have been the motivator to lead
> it more than usual.  I don't know.  But it would seem to me that one
> should let the x-height be whatever it is and lead for the line length
> and ease of reading rather than color.  Trying to control color with
> leading (at least in this case) seems to be a bad idea.

There are some general principles for determining how much
leading should be used; in particular, long lines require more
leading than short lines, darker fonts more leading than lighter
fonts and fonts with large x-heights should receive more leading
than fonts with small x-heights. In this case, the designer
apparently accepted the x-height rule and rejected/forgot about
the font weight rule (unless the final printing process was poor
which might account for the greyness of the printing).

-dh


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