Re: Unreadable Typeface on DVD Cases

Article View: adobe.typography

Article #680

#680

From: Dick Margulis
Date: Wed, 02 Jul 2008 00:47

27 lines
3093 bytes

TaliesinSoft wrote:
> 
> There are times when I think the list of credits is deliberately presented in 
> a "we don't want you to actually read it" face. The same information can be 
> displayed in the same space with a readable font. I'm wondering if there is 
> something to do here with a "my credit has to be so tall" contract.
> 

Well, that's possible. It's certainly the rationale for some of the 
fonts used on food packaging. (In the US, the applicable regulations 
specify the height of certain required elements. In some cases these are 
absolute cap height in inches. In other cases they are expressed as a 
percentage of the name of the product.)

However, I suspect that's not what's going on here. I think CD inserts 
tend to be designed by "graphic designers" rather than typographers. As 
a rule, that sobriquet describes people who think of blocks of type as 
just page elements that have to be incorporated into the design somehow, 
preferably disrupting the graphic flow as unobtrusively as possible, and 
legibility be damned. On top of that, they're designing a page that is a 
few inches square on a large monitor at high magnification. "Hey, _I_ 
can read it. What's _your_ problem?" Throw in the arrogant personality 
that bullies the client into never questioning the designer's judgment, 
and you have a perfect model to produce illegible credits.

In other words, I don't think there's any grand conspiracy of CD 
producers or publishers trying to freeze out the creditees.

Technical Details

Message-ID: <7-Sdndbt7Yy-TffVnZ2dnUVZ_hOdnZ2d@supernews.com>

Path:

arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!g2news1.google.com!news4.google.com!news1.google.com!border1.nntp.dca.giganews.com!nntp.giganews.com!local02.nntp.dca.giganews.com!nntp.supernews.com!news.supernews.com.POSTED!not-for-mail

References:

<0001HW.C48F1422000DC628B01AD9AF@News.Individual.NET> <op.udlu0sj429ay2f@lapdillo.pp.htv.fi> <0001HW.C490191B0046F9D8B01AD9AF@News.Individual.NET>

Show Full Headers

Complete Article Headers

X-Google-Thread: 1042b6,207fe03ac1b3e60f
X-Google-Thread: fbb79,207fe03ac1b3e60f
X-Google-Attributes: gid1042b6,gidfbb79,domainid0,public,usenet
X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit
Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!g2news1.google.com!news4.google.com!news1.google.com!border1.nntp.dca.giganews.com!nntp.giganews.com!local02.nntp.dca.giganews.com!nntp.supernews.com!news.supernews.com.POSTED!not-for-mail
NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 01 Jul 2008 19:47:31 -0500
Date: Tue, 01 Jul 2008 20:47:07 -0400
From: Dick Margulis <margulisd@comcast.net>
User-Agent: Thunderbird 2.0.0.14 (Windows/20080421)
MIME-Version: 1.0
Newsgroups: adobe.typography,fa.typography,comp.fonts
Subject: Re: Unreadable Typeface on DVD Cases
References: <0001HW.C48F1422000DC628B01AD9AF@News.Individual.NET> <op.udlu0sj429ay2f@lapdillo.pp.htv.fi> <0001HW.C490191B0046F9D8B01AD9AF@News.Individual.NET>
In-Reply-To: <0001HW.C490191B0046F9D8B01AD9AF@News.Individual.NET>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Message-ID: <7-Sdndbt7Yy-TffVnZ2dnUVZ_hOdnZ2d@supernews.com>
Lines: 27
X-Trace: sv3-aS0mD8bxZDyYRSSXBPJpqr5R68ZqmFFx2SqwKFc+YyP8CazGo9SVyc+K+4yw0ytOYaejlwlKrITRFyA!RWfwTgeuxvr8x9szQbmjZaqKJZycM1z0NrAU72HUOULAA15ud5GKhYFjv4FYzKDaxRIH3GEnrsY5!026WtaD+lkI=
X-Complaints-To: www.supernews.com/docs/abuse.html
X-DMCA-Complaints-To: www.supernews.com/docs/dmca.html
X-Abuse-and-DMCA-Info: Please be sure to forward a copy of ALL headers
X-Abuse-and-DMCA-Info: Otherwise we will be unable to process your complaint properly
X-Postfilter: 1.3.39

Reply to Parent Message