FotF2e Typetest Round 2: Oldstyle v Caslon v Garamond v Bodoni
Ignore this if you don’t care about type minutiae. As per Jesse Rothacher’s suggestion to experiment with full-featured fonts, here’s a pdf of 4 different treatments: https://www.dropbox.com/s/01wx64isxnv3vko/FotF2e_typetest3.pdf?dl=0
In that PDf the order of appearance is: HPLHS Oldstyle (current L&B font), Caslon Pro, Garamond, and Bodoni.
I’m pretty sure I’ll be maintaining the house style for header type regardless.
FYI, Dropbox’s Preview PDF viewer induces a lot of noise in the type. Download it and view it in Chrome or another viewer.
That Bodoni is terrible. It might look decent in print but I can barely read it on the screen.
The Caslon is readable but most of its character seems to be in its italics. Minion might be another option if you want the same largeness in the body.
Garamond is only ever a bad idea in environments that are already over-saturated with it (which rpgs is not). I’ve used it before and will certainly do so again.
I like the Oldstyle, though, because it looks old, which is a very good look for a fantasy game. There are some issues with the way it looks on my screen though, which leads me to ask: are you using the export function or the print function to make pdfs?
Johnstone Metzger, I’m using the export function. Maybe the problem is Dropbox, as David Perry suggests?
I noticed it with Perilous Deeps actually, and this pdf looks like it was made using the same method. In my experience, the print function makes pdfs that work a lot better onscreen (with Adobe Reader, anyway). They tend to be smaller and render faster. I make them in RGB though, and I appreciate that you are using CMYK here so it’s easier to print (it sure looks like CMYK anyway). Still, I would suggest you try printing to pdf and see what you think of the difference yourself.
I have found oldstyle to turn out better in print then on screen.
The caslon pro looks to be the best out of the other 3. Bodini and Garamond look washed out. Too thin.
Bodoni has way too much sparkle to be easily readable. It’s one of the main problems with the the Burning Wheel layout.
Alternatively, you could always go with Alegreya.
I like the large “+”s of Garamond. Consider using it for those of you go with another (Old Style’s are tiny).
Printed it out (as booklet, so half-sheet for each, from Foxit), some observations:
Old Style’s bold+italic looks messy and squished together, and “+”s look even worse, almost just like blobs.
Bodoni doesn’t look quite so bad as on screen.
I like the contrast of Caslon’s bold italic to normal text, better than Garamond’s, otherwise it’s a tossup between those two for readability.
Did Souvenir get kicked out already? It’s a fantastic font that a lot of the early 80s D&D modules used.
Ben George it never made the cut because a lot of OSR folks use it and I’d like FotF to suggest but not mimic the classic stuff. Richard LeBlanc at New Big Dragon uses Souvenir extensively and to excellent effect, for instance. Wouldn’t really want to compete with his stuff from a design perspective.
http://www.newbigdragon.com/