We communicate with our readers using type -- lots of it. The challenge is to make the type speak through the use of distinctive shapes, styles, curves and sizes.We've met that goal by creating a new typeface we call Mencken.
Readers should be able to recognize the importance of a story and its message through the kind of headline type that accompanies it. Headlines also play a key role in the organization of a news page. Larger, bolder typefaces appear at the top and decrease in size to the bottom of the news page.
Learn more about the namesake for The Sun's new type font.
All Sun photographs are accompanied by a caption, usually directly below the photo, indentifying what's happening in the picture as well as the photographer. In the new design, the caption is larger and bolder. This same type, called Nobel and created by The Font Bureau, will be used in indexes, information boxes and graphics.
|
The smallest type in the newspaper is known as the agate. Readers see this type in stock tables, sports stats and roundups, TV listings and entertainment capsules, such as movies and concerts. These lists are long and require much space, so a special typeface is used that allows reduced size without compromising legibility. The Sun recently switched the stock tables to a newer agate typeface called Retina. A version of this type was originally created by typographer Tobias Frere-Jones of Hoefler & Frere-Jones for use in The Wall Street Journal. With the redesign, all of the agate in the newspaper, including the crossword puzzle clues, is now presented in this easier-toread type. |
| TYPOGRAPHY Jean François Porchez Porchez Type Foundry |
Most of the type you will see in the new redesign was created by Jean François Porchez, a typographer in France, for the exclusive use of The Sun. You won't see it anyplace else for years.
We commissioned Porchez, an awardwinning creator of type whose work is well-known in newspapers in France -- he also designed the lettering for the public transportation system -- to create a family of typefaces for use in our newspaper, from headlines to the text.
Porchez is the President of the Association Typographique Internationale and teaches type design courses in Europe and conducts workshops across the world.
Understanding the new font
The most important type for readers is
the story text, known as body type. Our
new design modernizes the typeface and
also allows for an increase in the size of
the body type. These factors combined
result in improved readability.
What makes the new type easier to
read?
The new body type has a larger "xheight,"
which means the text is taller
and displays larger than the former body
text. Meanwhile the ascenders, such as
lower case L, remain the same.
It also looks darker. Why is that?
It is slightly bolder than the former font,
and it has been optimized to the current
printing conditions.
Won't the paper look boring with just
one font?
No. We actually have several different
fonts called a family that have similar
characteristics, but look different. Some
are bolder, some are lighter and some are
curvier.We plan to use this variety to create
interest and depth on our news pages.
Why call it Mencken?
To honor H.L. Mencken's contributions to
The Sun. According to the London Daily
Mail, H.L. Mencken even ventured beyond
the typewriter and into the world of
typography. Because he felt Americans
did not recognize irony when they read
it, he proposed creation of a special typeface
to be called ironics, with the text
slanting the opposite direction from italics
type, to indicate that the writer was
trying to be funny.