Display typeface
{{Short description|Face designed for use at large sizes}}
File:Common display face genres.png
{{Use British English|date=December 2024}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2024}}
A display typeface is a typeface that is intended for use in display type (display copy) at large sizes for titles, headings, pull quotes, and other eye-catching elements, rather than for extended passages of body text.{{cite book|author=David Consuegra|title=Classic Typefaces: American Type and Type Designers|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pcnMDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA1999-IA112|date=10 October 2011|publisher=Skyhorse Publishing Company, Incorporated|isbn=978-1-62153-582-9|pages=1998–9}}
Display typefaces will often have more eccentric and variable designs than the simple, relatively restrained typefaces generally used for body text.{{cite book|author=David Raizman|title=History of Modern Design: Graphics and Products Since the Industrial Revolution|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=J_NcHIW-zt8C&pg=PA40|year=2003|publisher=Laurence King Publishing|isbn=978-1-85669-348-6|pages=40–3}}{{cite book|last1=Eskilson|first1=Stephen J.|title=Graphic Design: A New History|date=2007|publisher=Yale University Press|location=New Haven|isbn=9780300120110|page=[https://archive.org/details/graphicdesignnew00eski/page/25 25]|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/graphicdesignnew00eski/page/25}}{{cite web|last=Frere-Jones|first=Tobias|title=Scrambled Eggs & Serifs|url=http://www.frerejones.com/blog/scrambled-eggs-and-serifs/|publisher=Frere-Jones Type|access-date=23 October 2015}}{{cite book|first=John|last=Lewis|title=Typography: Design and Practice|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=e5MkzETNcsgC&pg=PA13|date=April 2007|publisher=Jeremy Mills Publishing|isbn=978-1-905217-45-8|pages=13–17}} They may take inspiration from other genres of lettering, such as handpainted signs, calligraphy or an aesthetic appropriate to their use, perhaps ornamented, exotic, abstracted or drawn in the style of a different writing system.{{cite book|author1=Bruce Willen|author2=Nolen Strals|title=Lettering & Type: Creating Letters and Designing Typefaces|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yBytanUmuCoC&pg=PA66|date=23 September 2009|publisher=Princeton Architectural Press|isbn=978-1-56898-765-1|pages=66–79}}{{cite book|author1=Ellen Lupton|author2=Julia Lupton|title=Design Your Life: The Pleasures and Perils of Everyday Things|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Y3F801_wCpIC&pg=PA165|date=12 May 2009|publisher=St. Martin's Press|isbn=978-1-4299-9423-1|pages=165–174}}{{cite web|last1=Mosley|first1=James|author-link1=James Mosley|title=English Vernacular|url=http://typefoundry.blogspot.co.uk/2006/02/english-vernacular.html|website=Typefoundry (blog)|access-date=14 December 2016}}
Several genres of font are particularly associated with display setting, such as slab serif, script font, reverse-contrast and to a lesser extent sans serif.{{cite book|last1=Mosley|first1=James|title=The Nymph and the Grot: the Revival of the Sanserif Letter|date=1999|publisher=Friends of the St Bride Printing Library|location=London|pages=1–19|isbn=9780953520107}}{{cite web|last1=Mosley|first1=James|title=Comments on Typophile thread - "Unborn: sans serif lower case in the 19th century"|url=http://www.typophile.com/node/46184|website=Typophile (archived)|access-date=15 October 2016|url-status=bot: unknown|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140628041224/http://www.typophile.com/node/46184|archive-date=28 June 2014}} Walter Tracy defines display typefaces in the metal type sense as "sizes of type over 14 point" and in design that "text types when enlarged can be used for headings, display types, if reduced, cannot be used for text setting."
Titling fonts are a subset of display typefaces which are typically used for headlines and titles. They are often only uppercase, and have stroke widths optimized for large sizes.{{cite web |date=21 June 2017 |url=https://creativepro.com/all-about-titling-fonts/ |title=All About Titling Fonts |first=Ilene|last=Strizver}}{{cite web |url=https://www.fonts.com/content/learning/fontology/level-1/type-anatomy/titling-fonts |title=Titling Fonts |access-date=15 June 2021 |first=Ilene|last=Strizver}}
Historical background
For the first centuries of printing, display type generally did not exist. Printing was used primarily to print body text, although there might be use of some larger-sized letters for titling. Typefaces not intended for body text remained rooted in conventional letterforms: roman type, script typeface or blackletter. Signs were created as custom handlettering.
The arrival of the poster and greater use of signage spurred the arrival of new kinds of letterform, both as lettering and in print.{{cite journal|last1=Mosley|first1=James|title=English Vernacular|journal=Motif|date=1963|volume=11|pages=3–56}} Historian James Mosley has written that "big types had been cast in sand, using wooden patterns, for some centuries [by 1750] but there is evidence that English typefounders only began to make big letters for posters and other commercial printing towards 1770, when Thomas Cottrell made his 'Proscription or Posting letter of great bulk and dimension' and William Caslon II cast his 'Patagonian' or 'Proscription letters'."{{cite book|first=James|last=Mosley|author-link=James Mosley|title=A Specimen of Printing Types & Various Ornaments 1796: Reproduced Together with the Sale Catalogue of the British Letter-Foundry 1797|url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_xpzgAAAAMAAJ|year=1796|publisher=Printing Historical Society|pages=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_xpzgAAAAMAAJ/page/n50 5]–12|isbn=9780900003103}}{{cite book|author1=Berthold Wolpe|title=Alphabet|date=1964|publisher=Kynoch Press|pages=57–64|chapter=Caslon Architectural: On the origin and design of the large letters cut and cast by William Caslon II}}{{cite journal |last1=Howes |first1=Justin|author-link=Justin Howes|title=Caslon's Patagonian |journal=Matrix |date=2004 |volume=24 |pages=61–71}}
New technologies, notably riveted "sanspareil" matrices made printing at large sizes easier from the beginning of the nineteenth century.{{cite journal |last1=Mosley |first1=James |author-link1=James Mosley |title=Sanspareil Matrices |journal=Matrix |date=2003 |pages=104–114}} At the same time, new designs of letter began to appear around the beginning of the nineteenth century, such as "fat face" typefaces (based on serif faces of the period, but much bolder),{{cite web|last1=Kennard|first1=Jennifer|title=The Story of Our Friend, the Fat Face|url=http://fontsinuse.com/uses/5578/the-story-of-our-friend-the-fat-face|website=Fonts in Use|date=3 January 2014|access-date=11 August 2015}}{{cite book|last1=Mosley|first1=James|author-link=James Mosley|chapter=Reviving the Classics: Matthew Carter and the Interpretation of Historical Models|editor1-last=Mosley|editor1-first=James|editor2-last=Re|editor2-first=Margaret|editor3-last=Drucker|editor3-first=Johanna|editor4-last=Carter|editor4-first=Matthew|title=Typographically Speaking: The Art of Matthew Carter|date=2003|publisher=Princeton Architectural Press|isbn=9781568984278|pages=35–6|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WqXd_w4S4SsC&pg=PA35|access-date=30 January 2016}} slab serifs (first seen from Vincent Figgins around 1817),{{cite journal|last1=Mosley|first1=James|title=The Typefoundry of Vincent Figgins, 1792-1836|journal=Motif|issue=1|pages=29–36}}{{cite web|title=Sentinel's Ancestors|url=http://www.typography.com/fonts/sentinel/history/|publisher=Hoefler & Frere-Jones|access-date=14 August 2015 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150905170730/http://www.typography.com/fonts/sentinel/history/ |archive-date= Sep 5, 2015 }} sans-serifs (already used in custom lettering but effectively unused in printing before the 1830s){{cite web|last1=Mosley|first1=James|author-link=James Mosley|title=The Nymph and the Grot: an Update|url=http://typefoundry.blogspot.co.uk/2007/01/nymph-and-grot-update.html|website=Typefoundry |date=6 January 2007 |access-date=12 December 2015}} and new blackletter faces.{{cite web|last1=Phinney|first1=Thomas|title=Decorative & Display Typestyles |date=August 30, 2010 |url=http://graphic-design.com/typography/design/decorative-display-typestyles|publisher=Graphic Design and Publishing Centre|access-date=10 August 2015|archive-date=9 October 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151009143543/http://www.graphic-design.com/typography/design/decorative-display-typestyles|url-status=dead}} Many nineteenth-century display typefaces were extremely, aggressively bold or condensed in order to attract attention. An important development that followed was pantograph-engraved wood type, which allowed cheap printing of large type on posters. Equally, some display typefaces such as Cochin and Koch-Antiqua have a particularly delicate build with a low x-height, and this style was very popular around the start of the twentieth century.{{cite book|last1=Tracy|first1=Walter|title=Letters of Credit: a view of type design|date=2003|publisher=David R. Godine|location=Boston|isbn=9781567922400|pages=50, 139–140, 180}}
In the past, almost all decorative lettering other than that on paper was created as custom or hand-painted lettering. The use of fonts in place of lettering has increased due to new printing methods, phototypesetting, and digital typesetting, which allow fonts to be printed at any desired size. This has made it possible to use fonts in situations where before hand-lettering would be most common, such as on business logos and metal fabricated lettering.{{Cite web |last=Shinn |first=Nick |title=The Golden Age of Hand Lettering in American Advertising |url=http://typeculture.com/academic-resource/articles-essays/the-golden-age-of-hand-lettering-in-american-advertising/ |access-date=1 April 2017 |website=Type Culture}} As a result, many modern digital typeface families such as Neutraface, Neue Haas Grotesk, and Arno include both text styles and display companion optical sizes with a more delicate design.{{cite book|author=Twardoch, Slimbach|author2=Sousa, Slye|title=Arno Pro|date=2007|publisher=Adobe Systems|location=San Jose|url=http://wwwimages.adobe.com/content/dam/Adobe/en/products/type/pdfs/ArnoPro.pdf|access-date=14 August 2015|archive-date=30 August 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140830030331/http://wwwimages.adobe.com/content/dam/Adobe/en/products/type/pdfs/ArnoPro.pdf|url-status=dead}}{{cite web|url=http://www.christianschwartz.com/neutra.shtml|title=Neutraface|author-link=Christian Schwartz|last=Schwartz|first=Christian|publisher=www.christianschwartz.com|access-date=October 2, 2011}}{{cite web|url=http://www.christianschwartz.com/neutra2.shtml|title=Neutraface No. 2|author-link=Christian Schwartz|last=Schwartz|first=Christian|publisher=www.christianschwartz.com|access-date=October 2, 2011}}{{cite web|last1=Schwartz|first1=Christian|author-link=Christian Schwartz|title=Neue Haas Grotesk|url=http://www.christianschwartz.com/haasgrotesk.shtml|access-date=28 November 2014}} Walter Tracy comments that in adapting a text face to display use such as in a headline "a judicious closing-up of the letters" improves the appearance.
Styles of display typeface
{{see also|Samples of display typefaces}}
Common genres of display typeface include:
- Lettering with a design intended to seem hand-drawn, such as script fonts or designs with swashes{{cite web|last1=Shaw|first1=Paul|title=Lettercentric: Type as Writing|url=http://www.printmag.com/article/lettercentric-type-as-writing/|website=Print|date=7 April 2010|access-date=21 September 2015}}
- "Shadowed", "engraved", "inline" or "handtooled" lettering, with a blank space in the centre intended to suggest three-dimensional letters in relief. An early genre of display type, inline sans-serifs were also very popular in lettering of the inter-war period.{{Cite web|url=http://typographica.org/on-typography/farewell-futura-hello-neutraface-no-2/|title = Farewell Futura, Hello Neutraface No. 2}} "Shaded" or hatched designs have also been made which appear grey when viewed at a distance.{{cite web|title=Graublock|url=http://fontsinuse.com/typefaces/44253/graublock|website=Fonts in Use|access-date=24 January 2017}}
- Unusual or abstract redesigns of the alphabet, such as those drawn by the Bauhaus school of design, Milton Glaser's Baby Teeth or Indépendant.{{cite journal |last1=Van Haute |first1=Katrien |title=The Indépendant, a Typeface as Period Document |journal=Quaerendo |date=1 April 2008 |volume=38 |issue=1 |pages=49–69 |doi=10.1163/157006907X247219}}
- "Distressed" lettering, intended to seem damaged or distorted, such as Shatter or Electric Circus{{cite book|author=John L Walters|title=Fifty Typefaces That Changed the World: Design Museum Fifty|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vXIXAAAAQBAJ&pg=PT121|date=2 September 2013|publisher=Octopus|isbn=978-1-84091-649-2|page=121}}
- Ultra-light or ultra-bold adaptations of conventional letterforms, such as "fat face" types, Cooper Black or Gill Kayo
- Mixed case lettering that mixes upper- and lower-case letters in unexpected ways for an unconventional effect
- Reverse-contrast typefaces that invert the contrast of conventional writing, with the horizontals made thicker than the verticals.{{cite web|last1=Bilak|first1=Peter|title=Beauty and Ugliness in Type design|url=http://ilovetypography.com/2012/09/25/beauty-and-ugliness-in-type-font-design/|website=I love typography|date=25 September 2012|access-date=10 August 2015}}{{cite book|last1=Lawson|first1=Alexander|title=Anatomy of a typeface|date=1990|publisher=Godine|location=Boston|isbn=9780879233334|pages=321–323|edition=1st}}
- Lettering made to suggest an aesthetic, such as modernism, the natural world, or another genre of lettering. Examples of the latter include use of stencil or embossing tape fonts to suggest an industrial aesthetic.
- "Mimicry" or "simulation" typefaces intended to suggest another writing system. These are often used by restaurants.{{cite web|last1=Chachra|first1=Deb|title=Faux Devangari|url=http://hilobrow.com/2014/08/10/kern-your-enthusiasm-10/|website=HiLoBrow|access-date=1 October 2014}}{{cite web|last1=Shaw|first1=Paul|title=Stereo Types|url=http://www.printmag.com/article/stereo_types/|website=Print Magazine|date=17 June 2009|access-date=1 October 2014}}
A more prosaic genre of "display typefaces" is those intended for signage, such as Johnston, Highway Gothic, Transport and Clearview. These often have adaptations to increase legibility and make letters more distinct from each other. For example, Johnston and Transport have a curl on the lower-case 'L' to distinguish it from an upper-case 'i'.{{cite web|title=New Transport|first=Margaret|last=Calvert|author-link=Margaret Calvert|url=http://www.newtransport.co.uk/|publisher=A2-Type|access-date=1 March 2016}}
In German the term "Akzidenzschrift" is used for faces not intended for body text but for commercial or trade printing, without implying a specific size range, so including small-size sans-serifs in uses such as on forms or tickets. The famous sans-serif Akzidenz-Grotesk's name derives from this. {{langx|de|label=none|Akzidenz}} means some occasion or event (in the sense of "something that happens", not in the sense of a high-class social event or occasion) and was therefore used as a term for trade printing; Akzidenzschrift was by the 1870s a generic term meaning typefaces intended for these uses.{{cite web |last1=Reynolds |first1=Dan |title=New details about the origins of Akzidenz-Grotesk |date=11 November 2019 |url=https://klim.co.nz/blog/new-details-about-origins-akzidenz-grotesk/ |publisher=Klim Type Foundry |access-date=26 November 2019 |ref=none}}{{cite book|editor-first=August|editor-last=Marahrens|title=Vollständiges theoretisch-praktisches Handbuch der Typographie nach ihrem heutigen Standpunkt, zweiter Band: Das Drucken in seinen verschiedenen Branchen|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tQxnuy23-koC&pg=PA431|year=1870|publisher=Verlag d. Leipziger Vereinsdruckerei|page=431}} A modern German-language dictionary describes it as work such as advertisements and forms.{{cite book |last1=Muthmann |first1=Gustav |title=Handbuch zur neuen Rechtschreibung und Zeichensetzung : für Studierende und Lehrende an Schulen und Universitäten sowie für alle an der Sprache Interessierten |date=2000 |publisher=Schöningh |isbn=9783506741097 |page=254|quote=Drucksache von geringem Umfang, Anzeige, Formular}}{{cite web |last1=Hardwig |first1=Florian |title="Herzlichen Glückwunsch" wedding cards (1919) |url=https://fontsinuse.com/uses/22544/herzlichen-glueckwunsch-wedding-cards-1919 |website=Fonts in Use |date=2 August 2018 |access-date=28 June 2021}} The origin of the word is Latin accidentia, defined by Lewis and Short as "that which happens, a casual event, a chance".{{cite book |last1=Lewis |first1=Charlton Thomas |last2=Short |first2=Charles |title=A Latin Dictionary |date=1922 |publisher=Clarendon Press |location=Oxford |page=16}}
Note that these genres may also be seen in custom lettering, with which this topic overlaps. Older examples of lettering are often custom-drawn, rather than fonts.{{cite web|last1=Simonson|first1=Mark|author-link=Mark Simonson|title=Not a font|url=http://www.marksimonson.com/notebook/view/not-a-font|website=Mark Simonson Studio |date= February 8, 2009 |access-date=14 December 2016}}{{cite web|last1=Coles|first1=Stephen|title=Lettering is not type|url=https://fontbureau.typenetwork.com/news/article/clear-definitions|publisher=Type Network |website=Font Bureau |date=October 29, 2014 |access-date=2016-12-22|archive-date=2021-04-27|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210427234402/https://fontbureau.typenetwork.com/news/article/clear-definitions|url-status=dead}}{{cite web|last1=Johnston|first1=Alastair|title=The Misery of Edwin Drood: Bad Typography in the Movies |date=October 16, 2012 |url=http://www.booktryst.com/2012/10/the-misery-of-edwin-drood-bad.html|website=Booktryst|access-date=14 December 2016}}
Gallery
The following gallery shows the historical development of display type, from type similar to body text typefaces to the highly decorative types of the nineteenth century.
DKNVS award 1780 poster.jpg|1780 Norwegian notice using flourished blackletter type.
File:Brecknock against all Britain! Brecon Castle Fives Court 1786.jpg|Challenge to a game of fives, 1786. Type is similar to Baskerville.
File:Murder poster 1796.jpg|Murder poster 1796, using one inline initial.
File:Le jeune sage et le vieux fou - Méhul - annonce 1797.jpg|1797 notice of an opera by Méhul, Paris 1797.
File:Man of the World Young Hussar 1808.jpg|Theatre poster, 1808.
Wedi Crywdro… 1818.jpg|Welsh-language poster, 1818, using a bold italic inline "fat face" type.
File:The Public are Respectfully Informed that a neat and convenient stage coach..1831.jpg|An energetic bold and italic "fat face" type in an 1831 poster.
File:Reformers of Denbighshire! 1837.jpg|Fat face, slab-serif and sans-serif type, 1837.
See also
- Computer font, also known as a screen font