Down the Road

Photographs and stories by Jim Grey

Typography update

Jim Grey
9 comments on Typography update
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Unless you are a total typography geek, you might not have noticed a change in this blog’s type today.

Because of some behind-the-scenes changes at WordPress.com, I needed to change font this blog uses for its title, its post titles, and its headings. The old font was called Jubilat, and the new font is called Domine.

Jubilat
Domine
Jubilat
Domine

As you can see, these two typefaces look similar, but aren’t exactly the same. I prefer Jubilat slightly — each letter is slightly wider, and the native kerning is tighter. I might be able to tighten the kerning a little and will play with it when I find some time. Given that Jubilat is not an option anymore, Domine is a reasonable replacement.

Comments

9 responses to “Typography update”

  1. David Winskill Avatar
    David Winskill

    I have no idea why but I am fascinated by typography.

    Someone once wrote that a good typography is like a good jazz drummer. You won’t actually notice a good one but you’ll certainly spot a bad one straight away!

    Reply
    1. Jim Grey Avatar
      Jim Grey

      Me too! And yes, when type does its job, it does so nearly invisibly.

      Reply
  2. photowrite2000 Avatar
    photowrite2000

    I am a bit of a typography geek, from childhood, so these otherwise mundane things interest me! I grew up the child of artists, and my father was, in turn, a signpainter putting himself through art school, then a high school art and English teacher, and eventually an architectural illustrator.

    But occasionally, he did some design work that involved typography. For that he had an ancient type sample book that totally captivated me. Eventually, I studied journalism and learned more about type, and then ended up doing some design work and desktop publishing of newsletters and pamphlets where I got to design with type to my heart’s content.

    I like type so much, I have occasionally designed my own fonts (just sketching) which I should someday translate into actual fonts. I believe there are programs you can use to develop your own usable fonts.

    Reply
    1. Jim Grey Avatar
      Jim Grey

      20-25 years ago I worked in publishing, both full time and as a freelancer, and had some fun working with type. Shortly after I got to design the interior of a book series and chose the typography. That was hard! It’s said that God doesn’t even know what typeface you should use, and after that experience I believe it!

      But I’ve never gone so far as to design my own fonts. You definitely should create some that you can use for real!

      Reply
      1. photowrite2000 Avatar
        photowrite2000

        One of the fonts I designed pretty much on the fly in college when a buddy asked me to handwrite some place cards and menu cards for a special dinner he was throwing for his date one night in his dorm room. It was a thin line font that looked a bit like what today is sometimes called Papyrus, though various type companies probably have their own names for it. Though similar, my font has some significant variations from Papyrus, which may not have even existed 45 years ago.

        I’ve never found one quite like what I came up with, so I guess I’ll have to formalize it one of these days. I’ve only sketched it a couple of times, mostly from memory, and some of the letterforms suggest several choices of design, so I’d have to decide which I prefer. Then there’s the upper case alphabet versus the lowercase and should some of the lowercase look like small caps, or vice versa! Yikes. It’s a very ancient, sort of calligraphic looking alphabet, though I had some Art Deco ideas in my head the first time I was writing out that menu text with it, making it up as I went along.

        I suppose one of the things that fascinates me about font design is how a family of letterforms can be created that follow a few simple design consistencies or rules so that all the letters do look like they belong together.

        That sort of design challenge is also what informs my self-challenges in finding and creating the images that I like my camera to immortalize for me.

        Reply
        1. Jim Grey Avatar
          Jim Grey

          I guess there’s software that can scan in your hand-drawn forms and help you convert it to a computer-usable font. I hope you try it someday.

          Reply
        2. photowrite2000 Avatar
          photowrite2000

          I hope so, too.

          Reply
  3. Mike Connealy Avatar
    Mike Connealy

    I’m not seeing a big difference in “Down The Road”.
    The Domine version of “Photographs and stories by Jim Grey” is easier to read.

    Reply
    1. Jim Grey Avatar
      Jim Grey

      It is, in part because to get the DOWN THE ROAD masthead to space out right I had to increase the size of the font, which simultaneously increased the size of “Photographs and stories.”

      Reply

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