Type & Layout
I have just finished reading Type & Layout written by sir Colin Wheildon. And while most of the things in this book are common sense to an art director, what I liked about this book is it wasn't just someone in the biz telling you what they think--it's someone in the biz that conducted actual research with readers to prove these findings. So there's no real grey area to these facts:
Readers don’t read white type on a dark background. 80% found comprehension poor.
With lowercase vs caps for headlines, you have to weigh amount of impact vs amount of legibility. A chart stolen from the book:
Font lowercase capitals
Roman old 92% 69%
Sans serif 90% 57%
Studies have proven that long copy should be written in serifs. Sans serif causes people to lose concentration.
Coloring text showed 61% of people in the study found it more attractive.
But 47% found it harder to read. 64% said the color was distracting to comprehending the text. Basically, if you want them to comprehend something, make your headline text in black or a low chroma color (deep blue, plum red, dark purple, forest green, etc)
Black text on a 10% color background is 80% more attractive than a white background, and still comprehendible.
Boldface makes a headline harder to read/comprehend.
Justified text has a 30% higher comprehension level than left or right aligned.
Condensing headline text width to 70-90% is optimal, making it easiest to read.
People are 20% more likely to comprehend a headline if it is without a period. The period also stops readers from continuing on with the rest of the ad.
In newspapers, no reader likes following an article to a jump on another page and most won’t bother continuing to read. Same goes for drop quotes or photos getting in the way of the unfinished narrative.
Subheads are considered useful, as well as supporting photos with captions.
Body copy text is received most favorably between 20-60 characters in width.
Only 10% of recipients will look at a leaflet sent in the mail. If targeted, only 25% will. Most of the time they’ll only read the headlines. Put a headline and a supporting photo with caption on each face to get the reader to continue on.
Layout should follow the gravity line, starting at top left and working down and left to right to the bottom. Anything that forces the eye against this flow is work for the reader.
Don’t place the headline where it won’t lead the reader to the rest of the text. ie: don’t put the headline below the body copy, or in the middle of it.
The headline should be all together and no more than four decks (lines)
Watch your kerning and line spacing; too tight or too spaced make it harder for the reader.
In other book news, Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man was a dull dud. Got through 100 pages of it really trying and it failed. Rabbit, Run had a similar misfortune. But moreso because the main character was suffering from ennui and a lack of interest in the world for the character usually transfers into a lack of interest in the book for me; there's no depth or enthusiasm. I also sent back The Dip because it didn't tell me anything my instincts already knew. You quit something when you're no longer getting something out of it, when there's no room for growth or learning, etc.
But with the passing of three poorly matched books for suzy comes three new ones!
Meatball Sundae: 14 trends in marketing you can't ignore
Guerrilla Marketing
Guerrilla Publicity
I'm hoping the Guerrilla books aren't too out of date. Let me take this moment to say that I love the library. I look forward to being in a position where I can afford to buy brand new advertising and design books and donate them to the library for someone else to take advantage of.
back to reading!
Readers don’t read white type on a dark background. 80% found comprehension poor.
With lowercase vs caps for headlines, you have to weigh amount of impact vs amount of legibility. A chart stolen from the book:
Font lowercase capitals
Roman old 92% 69%
Sans serif 90% 57%
Studies have proven that long copy should be written in serifs. Sans serif causes people to lose concentration.
Coloring text showed 61% of people in the study found it more attractive.
But 47% found it harder to read. 64% said the color was distracting to comprehending the text. Basically, if you want them to comprehend something, make your headline text in black or a low chroma color (deep blue, plum red, dark purple, forest green, etc)
Black text on a 10% color background is 80% more attractive than a white background, and still comprehendible.
Boldface makes a headline harder to read/comprehend.
Justified text has a 30% higher comprehension level than left or right aligned.
Condensing headline text width to 70-90% is optimal, making it easiest to read.
People are 20% more likely to comprehend a headline if it is without a period. The period also stops readers from continuing on with the rest of the ad.
In newspapers, no reader likes following an article to a jump on another page and most won’t bother continuing to read. Same goes for drop quotes or photos getting in the way of the unfinished narrative.
Subheads are considered useful, as well as supporting photos with captions.
Body copy text is received most favorably between 20-60 characters in width.
Only 10% of recipients will look at a leaflet sent in the mail. If targeted, only 25% will. Most of the time they’ll only read the headlines. Put a headline and a supporting photo with caption on each face to get the reader to continue on.
Layout should follow the gravity line, starting at top left and working down and left to right to the bottom. Anything that forces the eye against this flow is work for the reader.
Don’t place the headline where it won’t lead the reader to the rest of the text. ie: don’t put the headline below the body copy, or in the middle of it.
The headline should be all together and no more than four decks (lines)
Watch your kerning and line spacing; too tight or too spaced make it harder for the reader.
In other book news, Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man was a dull dud. Got through 100 pages of it really trying and it failed. Rabbit, Run had a similar misfortune. But moreso because the main character was suffering from ennui and a lack of interest in the world for the character usually transfers into a lack of interest in the book for me; there's no depth or enthusiasm. I also sent back The Dip because it didn't tell me anything my instincts already knew. You quit something when you're no longer getting something out of it, when there's no room for growth or learning, etc.
But with the passing of three poorly matched books for suzy comes three new ones!
Meatball Sundae: 14 trends in marketing you can't ignore
Guerrilla Marketing
Guerrilla Publicity
I'm hoping the Guerrilla books aren't too out of date. Let me take this moment to say that I love the library. I look forward to being in a position where I can afford to buy brand new advertising and design books and donate them to the library for someone else to take advantage of.
back to reading!