[texhax] book: Active Literature: Jan Tschichold and New Typography

Pierre MacKay pierre.mackay at comcast.net
Wed Jan 7 18:00:30 CET 2009


John Palmer wrote:

>On Tuesday 06 January 2009 20:34:25 Fehd, Ronald J. (CDC/CCHIS/NCPHI) wrote:
>  
>
>>Today, we lean toward toward san serif because it reads good/well
>>on screen. Has that official opinion changed?
>>    
>>
>
>What office are you thinking of, if any ?  If I may try to start a discussion 
>on matters of taste, personally I deplore the recent flood of inelegantly 
>used sans-serif, on the Web and elsewhere.
>Regards, John
>
>  
>
Hear, Hear!

It might be noted that Tschichold moved away, in later life, from his 
passion for sans-serif and "came to the extraordinary conclusion that 
the `new typograpny', in ist insistence on certain styles of type and 
design, was inherently Fascist." (Sebastian Carter, Twentueth Century 
Type Designers, New York, 1987, p. 127.)  His final achievement, "his 
one significant typeface", (ibid.) was Sabon.

With modern screen resolutions, a decently restrained seriffed typeface 
will surpass any sans-serif for instant readability.  Bodoni-like 
extremes don't work, but perhaps they never did.

Pierre MacKay
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