Ludlow
Type Font Catalogue List of Sizes and Images

The First Rule in Type Setting - Make It Legible

The artist or designer is concerned with the message the type conveys, and this is most readily
achieved if your type setup stresses legibility and readability and is best suited for the job at hand

Your type also should be appropriate, which means that it should show a fitness for the job it is
to do.  Remembering that formal dress may be appropriate at a ball, yet be ridiculously
conspicuous at a picnic on the beach.

Put Type to the Test:

Is it easy to read?  
Does it show fitness for the purpose for which it is being used?  
Is it dynamic?

If you keep your eye firmly on that goal of legibility and readability you'll use grotesque and
bizarre type faces sparingly because you'll recognize that these type faces cut down
readability.  Like the seasoning in cooking, they serve their best purpose when used with the
light touch.

At the same time, keeping your type readable will keep you from mixing too many different type
faces or sprinkling your job with combinations of light faces, bold faces, lower case, all caps and
italics, for this merely gives you a hodgepodge that distracts attention from your work

Another threat to elegance and legibility in type setting is the mistaken notion that if an 18
point type face produced a well balanced look then a 36 point type ought to be twice as
impressive and a 72 point ought to bring an avalanche of parse.  This craving for heroic size
type defeats its own purpose when you consider that a line of 24 point or 30 point type well
balanced with the surrounding space (white space) on the product is large enough to look
elegant and get any reader's attention.