Re: font colors

[Catlyn catlyn@xxxxxxxx]

Re: aging eyes...

A number of years ago, I became responsible for editing, printing, and
distributing our town report and decided to have some fun with it by
re-designing the book, which was the usual soft cover, approx. 8 1/2^ x
5 1/2> (folded 11"), of over 150 pages and growing.

Having learned that, to make the extremely tight deadlines, I had had to
do some of the photography, typesetting, et al -- in addition to some of
the writing, all the re-write & editing, as well as some of the printing
-- I decided that in 1979-80 I would do it all -- except the
illustrations. (Managed to persuade an architect, a town "birder", who
was recovering from an accident, to do some drawings of conservation
land.) Since I was working full-time, I had to "borrow" equipment at
night.

My finished product was hard cover, 12 1/2^ x 8 1/4> (folded 161/2") --
easier to hold and, with fewer pages, more inviting to read. I decided
to go with offset and typeset the body in Souvenir 12 pt. because I was
enamored with the font's S and open, easy to read and, therefore, to
opaque, style. (When you have to deal with a lower case e, and neither
your eyes nor hand are accustomed to the work, every little advantage
helps!!) It was definitely more interesting than the usual Century,
Garamond, or Times Roman, and a definite improvement over the 8-9 pt.
body and 6 pt. numerical reports, that's for sure. Page layout was a
slight challenge: page numbers were centered on the vertical edges.
And, by the way, I also had decided to bring it in at 60 pages even if
it meant using an exacto knife to do some final editing.

Anyway, some minor research had indicated that brown on creme was
purportedly much easier to read than black/white, green or yellow/black.
(Remember the chalkboard experiments???) So, as long as I might be hung
for size, shape, and "strange" font style (this is an old New England
town), I went all the way. I ran the book on a flatbed Harris, using a
PMS brown (don't recall the number) on a light creme sheet.

Burlen Bindery agreed to library bind the sixty pages, hard cover in a
linen. (When equipment broke shortly before the run began, with the
pickup truck on its way, I was quickly taught and joined the line to
hand-iron the first 50 or so. Burlen usually bound limited editions,
such as "The Brandywine Heritage", so I was particularly fortunate.)

The cost of the final product was less than that of the prior year.

Point: even though you may not be able to customize a creme or
off-white background, you might want to try a brown or brown/red font on
the white. We received about 50 calls, as well as several letters,
commenting on the noticeable eye-ease.

Good luck and do let me know what you think.

-Catlyn