Choosing & Combining Type

Carl Shank • March 29, 2021

How To Choose the Right Type for the Right Job

In his masterful book about typography, Robert Bringhurst wisely says — "The best type for a book about bicycle racing will be, first of all, an inherently good type. Second, it will be a good type for books, which is to say, a good type for comfortable long-distance reading. Third, it will be a type sympathetic to the theme. It will probably be lean, strong and swift; perhaps it will also be Italian. But it is unlikely to be carrying excess ornament or freight, and unlikely to be indulging in a masquerade." (The Elements of Typographic Style, 91). Jan White echoes this sentiment about choosing type in How To Spec Type — "There is no such thing as 'right' or 'correct' use of type. There is only vivid and eloquent effectiveness, or numbing and misleading ineffectiveness." (10) Consequently, a math textbook will use a different typeface than a slogan on a can of soda or a bottle of wine.


White suggest the following questions for the would-be use of a typeface in any context — [1] Does the way the type is handled in a specific circumstance fulfill its purpose? [2] Is it doing the job efficiently? [3] Is the message coming through clearly and vividly? is the message jumping off the page into the reader's mind crispy and memorably? (10) He goes on to say that "good typography is transparent, like blister-packaging — exposing the content inside and letting it speak for itself." He agrees with Bringhurst about the use of type ornaments — "too often typography is used like gift wrapping, in the hope that cosmetic prettification will make the package seem more desirable." (10) So then, "good typography links the verbal with the visual to produce arresting results. Good typography clarifies. It articulates. It elucidates. It expresses meaning." (11) Many would-be editors and writers and office personnel try too hard when it comes to setting type. With the thousands of possible typefaces that are on the market today, produced by would-be typographers, playing with digital type producing programs, many people can get overwhelmed and confused and frustrated by what typeface to use. So, here's some suggestions.


Be careful of a poorly designed typeface. Such a font is missing what should constitute a font family — regular or book, italic, bold, bold italic, ligatures, small caps, text figures, diacritics and important analphabetics. If you don't know what these are, and are content with the standard regular, italic, bold and bold italic then use them in an ordinary way, not trying to be cute or extravagant with them. An example would be Times New Roman —

This is a standard Times Roman.

This is a standard Times Roman Italic.

This is a standard Times Bold.

This is a standard Times Bold Italic.


Even here, "Boldface romans, however, are a nineteenth-century invention. Bold Italic is even more recent, and it is hard to find a successful version designed before 1950. Bold romans and italics have been added retroactively to many earlier faces, but they are often simply parodies of the original designs." (Bringhurst, 99) He would suggest avoiding Garamond and Baskerville, both popular faces available on many systems. Instead, use Robert Slimbach's Utopia font family (See sample below. Note especially the bold small "g" in the Times Roman as contrasted with the small "g" in Utopia.)


Use font variations within the font family. A well-designed font has a number of weights from which to choose for optimum use. So, the font Utopia has Utopia Caption, Regular, Subhead, Display, and the Semibold similar instances as well as the Bold instances. A Utopia Black face is also included. Such variations allow visual interest and adaptability. Here are the weights of the web font Alegreya —

Alegreya Normal

Alegreya Medium

Alegreya Bold

Alegreya Bolder

Alegreya Boldest


Use contrasting sans serif headliners with serif text fonts. But be careful to do some well-defined matching here. Sans serif ("without feet") fonts need to have a similar inner structure to the serif text face used. Thus, Formata Bold in small amounts goes with many text fonts —

Formata Bold with Minion OR with Georgia OR with even Times Roman.


All of this may seem tedious and too time consuming with which to bother. After all, most people do not look at type the way a trained typographer would. But there are obvious overused and overdone font combinations that not only do not please the eye but are simply atrocious. A little care here can mean a great deal to a pleasing report, book or paper.

Successful Layout & Design

Advances in Typography: A Historical Sketch (Part 2)

By Carl Shank • November 20, 2025
Industrial Revolution and Display Typography (1800–1870) I have recently viewed the broadcasts of Great Canal Journeys, a narrated insight into Britain’s canals and waterways by two married and retired actors. They have been responsible for the restoration of a number of Britain’s canal systems. They noted that the Industrial Revolution in that country brought about the almost demise of the canals for moving products across the continent. The railroads took over much of the movement of goods from one place to another. In much the same way, typography and printing were forever transformed by the Industrial Revolution. Britannica notes that “the Industrial Revolution changed the course of printing and typography not only by mechanizing a handicraft but also by greatly increasing the market for its wares. Inventors in the nineteenth century, in order to produce enough reading matter for a constantly growing and ever more literate population, had to solve a series of problems in paper production, composition, printing, and binding.”

Advances in Typography (1500–1900): A Historical Sketch (Part 1)

By Carl Shank • November 18, 2025
Advances in Typography (1500–1900) A Historical Sketch (Part 1) Early Renaissance (1500–1550) We had noted in the Blog “What Happened After Gutenberg: 1460–1640” (November 8, 2025) that movable type spread across Europe beyond its German roots. Gothic Blackletter type, though still used for religious and legal documents, began to give way to Venetian old style humanist faces. Influenced by humanist handwriting and calligraphy, Aldus Manutius and Francesco Griffo developed italic type for compact books. National printing centers became established in Venice, Italy, Paris and Lyon, France, Basel, Germany and Antwerp in the Netherlands The transition from Gothic to Italic typefaces was part of the broader evolution of typography that took place during the Renaissance period, driven by shifts in cultural, aesthetic, and technological factors. The Renaissance, beginning in Italy in the fourteenth century, marked a revival of classical antiquity and a move toward humanism. This brought a renewed interest in the legible, flowing scripts of Roman and Greek antiquity, which were more readable and aesthetically simple compared to Gothic lettering. The development of the printing press (ca. 1440) by Johannes Gutenberg created a need for more versatile and legible typefaces. The emerging humanist values aligned with a preference for typefaces that resembled the clear, round, and graceful writing of ancient Roman scripts.\ The Italic typeface was introduced by Aldus Manutius in Venice around 1501. Italic type is a cursive font based on a stylized form of calligraphic handwriting. Along with Blackletter (See Blog Jan 16, 2025 Blackletter Type and Universities) and roman type, italic has served as one of the major typefaces in the history of Western typography. Italics takes notable influences from hand drawn calligraphy, with italic letters normally slanted slightly to the right. Upper case letters may have typographic swashes, flourishes inspired by ornate calligraphy. The name “italic” comes from their Italian use, to replace documents traditionally written in a hand-written style called chancery hand. Notice also the small “end point bowls” on some of the letters, where the ink pen stopped for a second. While modern italics are often more condensed than roman types, historian Harry Carter describes Manutius' italic as about the same width as roman type. To replicate handwriting, Griffo cut at least sixty-five tied letters (ligatures) in the Aldine Dante and Virgil of 1501. Italic typefaces of the following century used varying but reduced numbers of ligatures. Manutius sought to create more compressed elegant typefaces that could fit more text on a page, catering to the rising demand for smaller, portable books. Italic was based on the handwriting of Niccolò de’ Niccoli, a Renaissance scholar and calligrapher. Italic typefaces are defined by their slanted, cursive-like appearance, with letters that have a flowing, dynamic quality. It allowed for more text to be fitted on the page and mimicked the handwriting style of humanist scholars, like the handwriting of Petrarch. The common italic “slope” was introduced in the sixteenth century — “The first printer known to have used them was Johann or Johannes Singriener in Vienna in 1524, and the practice spread to Germany, France and Belgium. Particularly influential in the switch to sloped capitals as a general practice was Robert Granjon, a prolific and extremely precise French punchcutter particularly renowned for his skill in cutting italics. Vervliet comments that among punchcutters in France "the main name associated with the change is Granjon's.” (Wikipedia on Italic Type) The insertion of an italic typeface alongside a roman face would wait until later to distinguish portions of a book not properly belonging to the work, such as introductions, prefaces, indexes, and notes; the text itself being in Roman. Later, it was used in the text for quotations ; and finally served the double part of emphasizing certain words. Italic type was not only more elegant than the Gothic but also more efficient in terms of space. It became the preferred choice for printed texts that emphasized classical learning, philosophy, poetry, and humanist literature. Italic was initially used for entire texts but later became more common for emphasis alongside Roman type.
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