🚀 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.

****

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

On Tue, 1 Jul 2008 03:54:18 -0500, Armadillo wrote
(in article <op.udlu0sj429ay2f@lapdillo.pp.htv.fi>):

>> 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.
> 
> ****
> 
> 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

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.

-- 
James Leo Ryan ..... Austin, Texas ..... taliesinsoft@mac.com

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.

> 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.)

This is one way to do it but unfortunately cap height does not include readability. As a designer I can make two inch text disappear and make everyone read 0.1 inch text. 

Food packaging in many countries has now standardized elemnts and surprisingly some of them are very well designed. A few design awards even.

Jukka

Armadillo wrote:
>> 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.)
> 
> This is one way to do it but unfortunately cap height does not include readability. 

Yes, that's exactly the point. In the US, regulations are the output of 
long negotiations between bureaucrats and the lawyers representing 
regulated industries. The bureaucrats want the net weight, for example, 
to be easily comprehended by the consumer. The industry wants the 
ability to conceal the net weight. The two sides argue back and forth, 
and the compromise they settle on is a specification of cap height. Then 
the manufacturer is free to choose an illegibly condensed font at that 
height. I was just saying that how those decisions get made; I wasn't 
suggesting it was a good idea <g>

On Mon, 30 Jun 2008 22:52:18 -0500, TaliesinSoft wrote (in article 
<0001HW.C48F1422000DC628B01AD9AF@News.Individual.NET>): 

> 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! 

I guess that the unreadable text on the DVD cases can be equated to the 
several fold normal speed blathering that accompanies a great many radio 
commercials at the end. That is, "we have to include this information that 
we'd rather you not hear". 

-- 
James Leo Ryan ..... Austin, Texas ..... taliesinsoft@mac.com