Pixel perfect

Who would have thought that the subject of this book, extracted from an incredibly thin seam of the typographic coalface, could prove so interesting. Toshi Omagari writes with enthusiasm and technical knowledge (he works for Monotype) about historic arcade game type. None of the typefaces in the book existed outside of a digital screen so there are none of the usual type attributes like point sizes, leading, alternate characters, small caps et cetera. With these faces it's all down to an eight pixel square box but within this very tight limitation some very creative ideas have flourished.

The ten chapters on typefaces have plenty of complete alphabets plus numbers to show how clever some of the letters are though the three Sans chapters (Regular, Bold and Light) with letters like E,F,H,I, L and T with no curves obviously stand out from other letters that have curves, this was solved by adding graduated colour pixels, partial or full drop shadows and thick or thin outlines to the letters and in the case if a capital I adding a block serif top and bottom to make fill out a square like other letters. The basis for so many of these alphabets was an Atari font, probably created by Lyle Rains sometime in the late Seventies.

Lower case letters in most of the fonts are a real challenge and really so many of these letters end up as being almost unreadable. The chapter on Slanted (or italic) faces reveals some clever ideas for those characters that are basically straight, now they have to have a pixel added here and there to suggest a leaning letter. Page 184 has an alphabet for the 1987 Shinobi game with not only italics but in a sort of script. Luckily the eye reads complete words rather than individual characters.

The book is basically visual with its dozens of coloured alphabets, some of which are enlarged to fill a spread so it's possible to study how the characters have been made up in the eight pixel grid and I doubt they have ever been seen as big as this. A nice touch, here and there, are screen grabs of some games showing how the various type faces work as real words. Omagari's book covers an incredibly tiny corner of the typographic world but its excellent design and interesting words make the subject a worthwhile read (especially for typographers).

 

 

Just your type from Aftershock to Zerbydoo not forgetting ITC Out of the fridge

Unless you are involved with type professionally most people just take in the meaning of the words and ignore the face the message is set in and it's only until the obvious differences between, say, Caslon and Univers are actually pointed out that capital and lower-case letters probably all look the same to everybody. Peter Dawson's chunky and fascinating book has eighteen hundred faces to prove that each type is in fact different, though because sans faces have fewer design options to set them apart some of them do look incredibly similar. Unless you know what to look for Bauer Folio could easily be mistaken for Haas Helvetica (the cap Q is in instant giveaway).

The book's format allows each type to have the same display. The four chapters: Serif; Sans serif; Display; Script cover the eighteen hundred types with the alphabet in caps, lower case, numerals and some punctuation (plus @, #, &) all set in twenty point with a short caption describing the face's characteristics. A really useful addition for each entry is the name of the foundry who holds it, so if you wanted to use a particular type in a job this makes it easy to get more information via the net.

What I particularly liked about the book were lots of single pages and spreads devoted to individual types with printed examples of their use. There are also seventeen spreads of foundry profiles and eight designer profiles. The back pages have a thirty page index of types, designers and foundries. It's worth pointing out that frequently the index lists the correct name of a type so Avant Garde is found under ITC Avant Garde.

The author has compiled an impressive book of alphabets that has a practical use for any professional typographer but the excellent design and print makes it a joy to look through.

　

 

INDEX and More than thirty years later these photos still inspire

The 1987 edition is a lot smaller than the new Steidl  book.

 

An excellent and timely reprint of the revised edition of Sternfeld's remarkable photobook originally published in 1987 (and frequently excessively priced on the net). I think this Steidl edition is the one to get if you want to appreciate his work. The book is presented in the classic photobook format with an image on each right-hand page and facing a blank one opposite except for a caption. The photos at 34 by 27 centimeters are much bigger than in the original book (24.5 by 20) and printed on a whiter paper than the more creamy white in the '87 copy, both books use a 175 screen. Though perhaps a very minor point the photos include a bit more on each side and I assume that what I'm looking at on the page is the complete frame. Finally, the revised edition includes sixteen more photos than the original fifty-five.

'American Prospects' joins several books that defined American commonplace over the last few decades. Titles like: 'American Photos' by Evans; 'The Americans' by Frank; 'The American Monument' by Friedlander; 'Suburbia' by Owens; 'William Egglestone's Guide'; 'Uncommon Places' by Shore. These photographers captured the landscape in their own unique way and Sternfeld seemed to specialize in being at the right place at the right time, for example, the exhausted elephant on a local road or the fireman buying pumpkins at a farmers market while a house burns nearby. Also the large moored battleship and a few yards away a lone fisherman sitting on the shore or a house more or less demolished in a tornado but still standing with a fridge with its door open and showing how well stocked it was, the backs of tourists looking over the parapet of a dam and behind them a mobile playpen on the highway with a baby looking at the camera.

Because of their large size, Sternfeld's seventy-one photos in the book stimulate repeat viewing which never disappoints.