Unreadable Typeface on DVD Cases
TaliesinSoft
that which lists producers, directors, and actors, in a very fine stroke tall
and narrow font that is virtually unreadable. It is though they don't want
you to read that text. I'm curious as to why this is so. Perhaps someone who
knows can explain!
--
James Leo Ryan ..... Austin, Texas ..... talies...@mac.com
Armadillo
> that which lists producers, directors, and actors, in a very fine stroke tall
> and narrow font that is virtually unreadable. It is though they don't want
> you to read that text. I'm curious as to why this is so. Perhaps someone who
> knows can explain!
It has become the 'official' credits typeface. I think this started in movie posters but in a big poster one could read the text easily at close range. But you can't close enough to DVD case.
So if you see that kind of text you'll know immediately it has credits information. So in this case it is probably more important to look right than to be legible.
It is a common mistake to use condensed typeface to save space because very often regular type in even smaller size is way more legible. Condensed typefaces are at best in bigger sizes like headlines consisting only a few words.
****
In legal text like in software licenses part of the text is usually in capital letters. With poor spacing and tight line space it is really hard to read. It well may be that the purpose is to emphasize important parts of the text but it seems that it works in other ways too.
Jukka
TaliesinSoft
(in article <op.udlu0...@lapdillo.pp.htv.fi>):
There are times when I think the list of credits is deliberately presented in
a "we don't want you to actually read it" face. The same information can be
displayed in the same space with a readable font. I'm wondering if there is
something to do here with a "my credit has to be so tall" contract.
Dick Margulis
>
> There are times when I think the list of credits is deliberately presented in
> a "we don't want you to actually read it" face. The same information can be
> displayed in the same space with a readable font. I'm wondering if there is
> something to do here with a "my credit has to be so tall" contract.
>
Well, that's possible. It's certainly the rationale for some of the
fonts used on food packaging. (In the US, the applicable regulations
specify the height of certain required elements. In some cases these are
absolute cap height in inches. In other cases they are expressed as a
percentage of the name of the product.)
However, I suspect that's not what's going on here. I think CD inserts
tend to be designed by "graphic designers" rather than typographers. As
a rule, that sobriquet describes people who think of blocks of type as
just page elements that have to be incorporated into the design somehow,
preferably disrupting the graphic flow as unobtrusively as possible, and
legibility be damned. On top of that, they're designing a page that is a
few inches square on a large monitor at high magnification. "Hey, _I_
can read it. What's _your_ problem?" Throw in the arrogant personality
that bullies the client into never questioning the designer's judgment,
and you have a perfect model to produce illegible credits.
In other words, I don't think there's any grand conspiracy of CD
producers or publishers trying to freeze out the creditees.
Armadillo
> fonts used on food packaging. (In the US, the applicable regulations
> specify the height of certain required elements. In some cases these are
> absolute cap height in inches. In other cases they are expressed as a
> percentage of the name of the product.)
This is one way to do it but unfortunately cap height does not include readability. As a designer I can make two inch text disappear and make everyone read 0.1 inch text.
Food packaging in many countries has now standardized elemnts and surprisingly some of them are very well designed. A few design awards even.
Jukka
Dick Margulis
>> Well, that's possible. It's certainly the rationale for some of the
>> fonts used on food packaging. (In the US, the applicable regulations
>> specify the height of certain required elements. In some cases these are
>> absolute cap height in inches. In other cases they are expressed as a
>> percentage of the name of the product.)
>
> This is one way to do it but unfortunately cap height does not include readability.
Yes, that's exactly the point. In the US, regulations are the output of
long negotiations between bureaucrats and the lawyers representing
regulated industries. The bureaucrats want the net weight, for example,
to be easily comprehended by the consumer. The industry wants the
ability to conceal the net weight. The two sides argue back and forth,
and the compromise they settle on is a specification of cap height. Then
the manufacturer is free to choose an illegibly condensed font at that
height. I was just saying that how those decisions get made; I wasn't
suggesting it was a good idea <g>
TaliesinSoft
<0001HW.C48F1422...@News.Individual.NET>):
> It seems that literally every DVD case has a fair amount of text,
> especially that which lists producers, directors, and actors, in a very
> fine stroke tall and narrow font that is virtually unreadable. It is
> though they don't want you to read that text. I'm curious as to why this
> is so. Perhaps someone who knows can explain!
I guess that the unreadable text on the DVD cases can be equated to the
several fold normal speed blathering that accompanies a great many radio
commercials at the end. That is, "we have to include this information that
we'd rather you not hear".
Character
> It seems that literally every DVD case has a fair amount of text, especially
> that which lists producers, directors, and actors, in a very fine stroke tall
> and narrow font that is virtually unreadable. It is though they don't want
> you to read that text. I'm curious as to why this is so. Perhaps someone who
> knows can explain!
>
The quantity is probably for the same reason that movie credits are
now as long as the movie.
gra...@fontcraft.com
missed it.
The font in question is called Empire, and it is primarily used for
the credits on
movie posters where it looks just fine. Then they shrink it down for
the DVD
cover whcih is the same general shape and the result is complete
unreadability.
It's just too narrow to be used in the equivalent of about 10 point.
TaliesinSoft
<4d0ce0ea-b8db-4750...@2g2000hsn.googlegroups.com>):
I always thought the DVD case was shaped to be different from the CD case. It
never occurred to me that the shape was a miniaturization of the movie
poster. That actually makes sense!
Thanks for the enlightening comment!
Andreas Höfeld
> On Wed, 9 Jul 2008 10:05:46 -0500, gra...@fontcraft.com wrote (in article
> <4d0ce0ea-b8db-4750...@2g2000hsn.googlegroups.com>):
>
>> I didn't see anyone answer the ctual original question, but maybe I missed
>> it.
>>
>> The font in question is called Empire, and it is primarily used for the
>> credits on movie posters where it looks just fine. Then they shrink it
>> down for the DVD cover whcih is the same general shape and the result is
>> complete unreadability. It's just too narrow to be used in the equivalent
>> of about 10 point.
>>
>> Dave www.fontcraft.com
>
> I always thought the DVD case was shaped to be different from the CD case. It
> never occurred to me that the shape was a miniaturization of the movie
> poster. That actually makes sense!
The DVD cases simply fit the height of the VHS video cassettes, sorry to
enlighten you again :-Þ
Andreas
gra...@fontcraft.com
on the movie poster which is used as one of the image sources for the
design. They lift the art from the poster for the front of the case
and the text from the poster goes on the bottom of the back of the
case with a custom-written blurb and some publicity stills above it.
That's the basic formula. I'm sure some cases are more creative. I
know I've seen some that are pretty clever. But the basic formula is
to use graphics you already have, which means including that funny
narrow text from the movie poster. As with the credits after movies
on TV where they run too fast to read, there's no priority on doing
anything but fulfilling the contractual obligations to unions and
copyright requirements and no one really cares whether the stuff is
actually readable so long as it's technically there.
TaliesinSoft
<48766157$0$7546$9b4e...@newsspool1.arcor-online.net>):
[continuing in the discussion about the shape of the typical case for a movie
on a DVD]
> The DVD cases simply fit the height of the VHS video cassettes, sorry to
> enlighten you again :-Þ
The DVD and VHS cases are indeed the same height but the DVD case is about a
full inch wider.
Andreas Höfeld
> On Thu, 10 Jul 2008 14:22:04 -0500, Andreas Höfeld wrote (in article
> <48766157$0$7546$9b4e...@newsspool1.arcor-online.net>):
>
> [continuing in the discussion about the shape of the typical case for a movie
> on a DVD]
>
>> The DVD cases simply fit the height of the VHS video cassettes, sorry to
>> enlighten you again :-Þ
>
> The DVD and VHS cases are indeed the same height but the DVD case is about a
> full inch wider.
Well a VHS is 10 cm wide while a DVD has a 12 cm diameter. I guess
folding the DVD was not an option ;-)