🚀 go-pugleaf

> It seems that literally every DVD case has a fair amount of text, especially
> that which lists producers, directors, and actors, in a very fine stroke tall
> and narrow font that is virtually unreadable. It is though they don't want
> you to read that text. I'm curious as to why this is so. Perhaps someone who
> knows can explain!

It has become the 'official' credits typeface. I think this started in movie posters but in a big poster one could read the text easily at close range. But you can't close enough to DVD case.

So if you see that kind of text you'll know immediately it has credits information. So in this case it is probably more important to look right than to be legible.

It is a common mistake to use condensed typeface to save space because very often regular type in even smaller size is way more legible. Condensed typefaces are at best in bigger sizes like headlines consisting only a few words.

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In legal text like in software licenses part of the text is usually in capital letters. With poor spacing and tight line space it is really hard to read. It well may be that the purpose is to emphasize important parts of the text but it seems that it works in other ways too.

Jukka