In a badly designed book, the letters mill and stand like starving horses in a field. In a book designed by rote, they sit like stale bread and mutton on the page. In a well-made book, where designer, compositor and printer have all done their jobs, no matter how many thousands of lines and pages, the letters are alive. They dance in their seats. Sometimes they rise and dance in the margins and aisles.
Robert Bringhurst
And here I’ve been reading books for their content. My only thoughts about design and font are that I want the print dark and large enough to read easily. Dumb me.
A well-designed book can be a thing of beauty, sure, but I don’t think this fellow’s metaphors were well chosen. Bleh.
This has got to be one of the most fatuous, flatuent, and foolish OP’s ever posted in TPV!
Good for quite the morning snicker for me.
Flatuent? Did you intend ‘flatulent’? And if you did . . . what?
The spell checker let me down. It’s all its fault! 🙂
And it’s OP hot air… of a different sort and source… and smell! 🙂
People who care about fonts, REALLY care about fonts and don’t understand why the great mass of people – don’t.
“In a badly designed book, the words mill and stand like starving horses in a field. In a book designed by rote, they sit like um-shucked corn, waiting. In a well designed book, where designer, compositor and printer have all done their jobs, no matter how many thousands of chapters and pages, the book is alive. The words dance in their seats. Sometimes they rise and dance in the margins and aisles.”
w/o permission an edit
As someone who has trouble keeping my eyes on a single line at a time – this would be a disaster for me.