The aim of this book is to determine principles underlying the design of optical sizes, with a view to giving useful advice to practitioners who wish to design such sizes for their own fonts.
What are optical sizes?
“Optical sizes” are size-specific adjustments to type designs. They were practiced for 500 years of metal type printing. Since punches had to be cut separately for each type size, adjusting them accordingly did not involve any additional effort and the optical compensations were built into the fonts. Characters intended for use in small sizes typically show an increased width and x-height, reduced stroke contrast and looser spacing.
In phototype, size-specific adjustments were largely given up and single-master designs dominated. This practice was continued during the early years of digital type.
Why wrote this book
From the metal type era, hardly any documentation on the subject is available since punchcutting, like other crafts, was not discussed much in writing. The skills and insights were passed on from one master to the next by demonstration. Even today the design process of optically sized typefaces has rarely been recorded or analysed. This lack of resource lead Tim Ahrens to research and write about it himself in 2007, in the hope that the outcome would become a useful source for practitioners who wish to create fonts with size specific styles.
Features of this book
The book looks into type history and perception psychology, and analyses designs by old masters and numerous contemporary designers. We interviewed a number of designers such as Robert Slimbach, David Berlow, Akira Kobayashi, and Christian Schwartz. Their answers, along with the analysis of existing fonts, form an important basis for the principles explained in the book.
About the new edition
The original version of this paper was written as part of Tim Ahrens’ MA in Typeface Design at the University of Reading in 2007. The following year, it was published by Mark Batty Publisher. This first edition was produced as print-on-demand, which regrettably resulted in a very high unit price and restricted production quality. In 2013 we obtained the publishing rights and, since we have been constantly receiving requests for the book, decided to update, extend, and re-publish it ourselves.
This 2014 edition is co-authored by Shoko Mugikura, who joined extending and updating the content and designed the book.
For more about the difference from the previous edition read our blog entry.
Sample sections on Suppression and emphasis of features in typeface design and on Spatial frequencies can also be found on our blog.
评分
评分
评分
评分
这本书的书名本身就充满了探索的意味,"Size-specific adjustments to type designs"——尺寸特定的字体设计调整。这几个词汇组合在一起,勾勒出一个引人入胜的领域。我一直对字体在视觉传达中的作用感到着迷,但过去更多的是关注字体的整体风格和美学,而忽略了它在不同尺度下的差异化处理。想象一下,一份小巧的邀请函上的字体,与一本厚重的史书中的字体,它们在视觉效果和阅读体验上必然存在着显著的区别。这本书似乎正是要深入剖析这些区别的根源,以及如何通过精巧的设计来优化不同尺寸下的字体表现。我很好奇作者会如何阐述这种“尺寸特定性”?是关于像素密度、屏幕分辨率的考量,还是印刷品在不同纸张和印刷方式下的适应性?抑或是字体在屏幕阅读和纸质阅读场景下的根本性差异?我设想书中会有大量的案例分析,展示同一个字体家族在不同尺寸下的变体,以及这些变体背后的设计Rationale。这不仅能提升我的审美鉴赏能力,更能帮助我理解字体设计师们在创作过程中所面临的复杂挑战。
评分"Size-specific adjustments to type designs"——这个书名直接点出了一个在字体设计领域至关重要但又常被泛泛而谈的议题。作为一个对排版和视觉传达有浓厚兴趣的读者,我一直对字体如何在不同的媒介和规模下呈现出截然不同的效果感到好奇。这本书似乎承诺要揭示这背后的奥秘。我猜想它会深入探讨字体设计中那些细微的、但又影响深远的调整,比如,在印刷品中,同样的字体在杂志内页和海报上的表现可能大相径庭。前者需要考量长时间阅读的舒适性,而后者则更注重第一眼的冲击力和信息传递的效率。这本书可能会详细介绍字体设计师们如何根据目标受众、阅读环境以及媒介特性,对字体的比例、间距、甚至笔画的细节进行微调。我甚至期待书中会涉及一些关于字体在屏幕显示上的挑战,比如像素化、抗锯齿等技术因素如何影响字体设计,以及设计师们如何应对这些挑战。这听起来是一本能够帮助我更深刻理解字体之于视觉叙事重要性的书籍。
评分这本书的标题,"Size-specific adjustments to type designs",让我脑海中浮现出一种精心策划的、高度专业的视觉体验。它不仅仅是关于“字体”,更是关于“如何让字体在特定大小下达到最佳表现”。这是一种精细化的艺术,一种对细节极致追求的体现。我猜想作者会从字体构造的微观层面出发,深入探讨笔画粗细、字怀大小、字重、字距、行距等元素,在不同尺寸下的动态变化。比如,在极小的尺寸下,为了保证清晰度,可能需要牺牲一些细节,放大字怀,减少笔画的复杂性;而在巨大的尺寸下,则可以更加自由地发挥,增加装饰性的细节,或者强调字体的力量感和雕塑感。我特别期待书中能够包含一些关于字体可读性研究的成果,以及它们如何指导尺寸特定的设计调整。这听起来就像是字体设计领域的“人体工程学”,只不过研究的对象是抽象的字符。我希望这本书能够提供一套行之有效的指导方针,让设计师们在面对不同尺寸的应用场景时,能够游刃有余,创造出既美观又实用的字体解决方案。
评分这本书的封面设计就足以引人入胜,那种低调的、带有历史厚重感的排版,立刻让我联想到那些经过岁月沉淀的经典字体,仿佛翻开书页就能闻到油墨和纸张混合的香气。从封面上那精心设计的书名字体,就能窥见作者在排版和字体设计上的用心。我尤其喜欢它那种沉静而专注的氛围,让人感觉这不是一本哗众取宠的书,而是一篇娓娓道来的、充满真知灼见的学术探讨。我一直在寻找关于字体设计背后那些不为人知的细节,尤其是在不同尺寸下,字体如何变化才能保持其可读性和美学。这本书似乎正是我苦苦寻觅的那一盏明灯,它承诺将揭示字体在不同媒介、不同阅读场景下的微妙调整,这无疑是字体设计领域一个非常关键但又容易被忽视的方面。我想象着书中会充斥着各种精美的字体样本,也许会是古籍排版中的衬线字体,或是现代网页设计中无衬线字体的演变,甚至可能是户外广告牌上那些醒目大字的秘密。我期待它能带来一些令人耳目一新的观点,打破我对字体设计固有的认知,让我看到字体设计背后更深层次的逻辑和艺术。
评分初见这本书的书名,"Size-specific adjustments to type designs",我脑海中便勾勒出一幅画面:一位严谨的设计师,手持放大镜,一丝不苟地审视着每一个字形,并在极小的画布上进行精密的雕琢。这不仅仅是关于字体的美观,更是一种对功能的极致追求。我期待这本书能够带领我走进字体设计背后的逻辑世界,了解那些肉眼不易察觉却至关重要的调整。比如,为什么在小尺寸的标题中,字体的衬线可能需要被简化,或者笔画需要加粗,以确保清晰可辨?又比如,在屏幕上动态展示的字体,又需要考虑哪些与静态印刷品截然不同的因素?我猜想书中会深入剖析字体在不同分辨率、不同显示设备下的表现差异,以及设计师们如何通过调整字体的结构、比例和间距来克服这些挑战。这不仅是一门技术,更是一种艺术,一种在方寸之间展现无限智慧的艺术。我希望通过阅读这本书,能够对字体设计有一个全新的、更深刻的认识,并学会如何欣赏那些为不同尺寸而精心调整的字体作品。
评分 评分 评分 评分 评分本站所有内容均为互联网搜索引擎提供的公开搜索信息,本站不存储任何数据与内容,任何内容与数据均与本站无关,如有需要请联系相关搜索引擎包括但不限于百度,google,bing,sogou 等
© 2026 book.wenda123.org All Rights Reserved. 图书目录大全 版权所有