Xref: utzoo comp.sys.mac.system:7567 comp.sys.mac.misc:13308
Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!caen!kuhub.cc.ukans.edu!1k1mgm
From: 1k1mgm@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu (Christopher Gunn)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.system,comp.sys.mac.misc
Subject: Re: FONTS for long documents
Message-ID: <1991Jun20.083547.31570@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu>
Date: 20 Jun 91 08:35:47 CDT
References: <1991Jun20.175630.1@csc.anu.edu.au>
Organization: University of Kansas Academic Computing Services
Lines: 41

In article <1991Jun20.175630.1@csc.anu.edu.au>, inm501@csc.anu.edu.au writes:
> 
> 	I am looking for a serif font suitable for long document.  I have been
> using Times but I found it too "tall".  Bookman is more readable but I found
> both of them too dark.  Is there any PD laserwriter serif font which is not
> as dark as Times and Bookman?  Thanks in advance.
> 
> Ida

I did a bunch of experiments when the LaserWriter II's first came out
and found that Palatino looks best in big runs of copy.  Most of the
other LW fonts are just trying to do more in the 10-12 pt. range
than a 300 dpi printer can cope with.  Course, this is a matter of
taste.

I just got a QMS printer that speaks Garramond, and it looks like
it might be a contender.  It appears (subjectively) 'small on the
body' in typographers terms (fills a smaller vertical chunk of an
N pt. slot than a 'big on the body' type) and might let some
visual air into large copy blocks.

A typographical niceity nobody pays much attention to is a
property called 'measure,' which is the most-appropriate length
of a line relative to point size.  Old-time newspaper printers considered
the best 'measure' of a typeface to be 1.5 times the total
length of the lower-case alphabet ('abcd...xyz') or twice
the point size in picas (1/6 inch).  This implies 4-inch columns
for 12-pt. type.  You need to expand this somewhat to account
for laser printer properties, but it still suggests that big
masses of copy might look better in two columns on an 8.5x11 page,
especially if you've gone down to 11 or 10 point sizes.
Catch is that word processors aren't as smart as old Linotype
operators, and everything I've every tried to do in two columns
has required a lot of manual word-division and other fine-tuning.
For 12 pt., best bet is to give yourself as much margin as
possible to shrink lines to maybe 5.5 inches.  (I use 6" for
ordinary letters, etc.)

Christopher Gunn	Molecular Graphics and Modeling Lab
SPAN--KUPHSX::GUNN	Department of Medicinal Chemistry, Malott Hall
913-864-4428 or -4495	University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS  66045