01-06-2016, 02:40 AM | #1 |
Obsessively Dedicated...
Posts: 3,200
Karma: 34977896
Join Date: May 2011
Location: JAPAN (US expatriate)
Device: Sony PRS-T2, ADE on PC
|
Seeking typography feedback -- Small-caps alternative
I am working on some humor collections that include some parody "screenplays". In the printed books, these use lots of small-caps.
Often I have embedded small-caps fonts, to use for very short phrases, such as titles, signatures, etc. I have used semi-serif, such as Fontin or Marcellus, which *sort-of-kind-of-but-not-really* will go with the user's choice of serif or sans-serif body font. However, these books have entire sentences and paragraphs in small-caps. The embedded font does not look happy in such large swathes. I do not want to use fake small-caps with multiple spans for large and small font sizes (those multiple spans break search, and display fails on some readers). As you can see by the screen-shots of the p-books, small-caps are used for character names, and for "movie captions." Italics are already in extensive use for "stage directions" and other descriptions. So, should I replace the small-caps with ALL-caps? With BOLD? Or just ignore all that, and simply use normal text? In situations like this, I should probably ask myself, "What would Hitch do?" The answer floats back on the echoes, "Hitch wouldn't let herself get involved with such a diabolical choice..." . |
01-06-2016, 03:29 AM | #2 |
The Grand Mouse 高貴的老鼠
Posts: 71,495
Karma: 306214458
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: Norfolk, England
Device: Kindle Voyage
|
font-variant: small-caps
is valid ePub 2 CSS. I'd use that, even though the Adobe renderer doesn't obey it. Someday there will be an ePub renderer which will do it properly, and in the meantime, it's not vital. |
Advert | |
|
01-06-2016, 03:31 AM | #3 | |
Grand Sorcerer
Posts: 5,583
Karma: 22735033
Join Date: Dec 2010
Device: Kindle PW2
|
Quote:
|
|
01-06-2016, 04:21 AM | #4 |
frumious Bandersnatch
Posts: 7,515
Karma: 18512745
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Spaniard in Sweden
Device: Cybook Orizon, Kobo Aura
|
If you can leave with its having no effect, I agree. For the odd small-cap signature or something like that, that's what I'd choose.
For character names, I'd choose bold. They are short and mark the beginning of each dialogue part, kind of like a bullet would do, so bold is probably not too much. For "movie captions", you probably want them to stand out somehow, and bold would be too disruptive... An embedded font with some personality could work. Or maybe a grayed-out bold, or a gray background (but playing with "colors" is always risky). |
01-06-2016, 05:12 AM | #5 |
Resident Curmudgeon
Posts: 73,887
Karma: 128597114
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: Roslindale, Massachusetts
Device: Kobo Libra 2, Kobo Aura H2O, PRS-650, PRS-T1, nook STR, PW3
|
font-variant: small-caps will not work on most Readers or programs in use for displaying ePub as ADE/RMDSK is the most widely used and small-caps is not supported. So using it even though it's not supported is a bad idea.
There are two options. One is to embed a base font and a small caps font to go with it. The other is to use something like... Code:
.smallcaps { font-size: .75em } Last edited by JSWolf; 01-11-2016 at 06:17 AM. |
Advert | |
|
01-06-2016, 05:25 AM | #6 |
The Grand Mouse 高貴的老鼠
Posts: 71,495
Karma: 306214458
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: Norfolk, England
Device: Kindle Voyage
|
|
01-06-2016, 05:40 AM | #7 |
Resident Curmudgeon
Posts: 73,887
Karma: 128597114
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: Roslindale, Massachusetts
Device: Kobo Libra 2, Kobo Aura H2O, PRS-650, PRS-T1, nook STR, PW3
|
|
01-06-2016, 02:07 PM | #8 |
Unicycle Daredevil
Posts: 13,923
Karma: 185041098
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: Planet of the Pudding Brains
Device: Aura HD (R.I.P. After six years the USB socket died.) tolino shine 3
|
Granny, the free, open license version of Alegreya comes with a nice, neutral (serif) smallcaps font. I think it works nice with most serif fonts I have tried, even if you have longer bits of text, like in your examples. I would never read literature in sans-serif though, so I haven't tried how it plays with sans-serif fonts.
|
01-06-2016, 06:25 PM | #9 | |
Resident Curmudgeon
Posts: 73,887
Karma: 128597114
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: Roslindale, Massachusetts
Device: Kobo Libra 2, Kobo Aura H2O, PRS-650, PRS-T1, nook STR, PW3
|
Quote:
The version of Charis SIL I've modified for eInk comes with a smallcapsversion and it looks good with ePub and KF8. http://www.mediafire.com/download/om...L_-_Hinted.rar |
|
01-06-2016, 06:57 PM | #10 | |
Unicycle Daredevil
Posts: 13,923
Karma: 185041098
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: Planet of the Pudding Brains
Device: Aura HD (R.I.P. After six years the USB socket died.) tolino shine 3
|
Well, that's a matter of taste, I guess. I think it looks very nice.
Quote:
|
|
01-07-2016, 01:45 AM | #11 |
Obsessively Dedicated...
Posts: 3,200
Karma: 34977896
Join Date: May 2011
Location: JAPAN (US expatriate)
Device: Sony PRS-T2, ADE on PC
|
Well, a lively little discussion has been going on while my back was turned.
I really don't want to embed a body font, I feel guilty enough that I even embed decorative fonts. I tried the fake small caps, and though it looks pretty ok, the span epidemic is really horrid, because there must be a span for every word (most are capitalized, and spaces and punctuation should be left full-size.) There are fifty spans in this small segment. Code:
<p>“T<span class="smcaps">WENTY</span> Y<span class="smcaps">EARS</span> A<span class="smcaps">FTER</span> . . . H<span class="smcaps">ENRY</span> A<span class="smcaps">DAMS</span> I<span class="smcaps">S</span> N<span class="smcaps">O</span> L<span class="smcaps">ONGER</span> Y<span class="smcaps">OUNG</span>, <span class="smcaps">BUT</span> <span class="smcaps">IN</span> H<span class="smcaps">IS</span> H<span class="smcaps">EART</span> L<span class="smcaps">IES</span> S<span class="smcaps">TILL</span> <span class="smcaps">THE</span> H<span class="smcaps">UNGER</span> <span class="smcaps">FOR</span> E<span class="smcaps">DUCATION</span>. G<span class="smcaps">OING</span> F<span class="smcaps">ORWARD</span>, E<span class="smcaps">VER</span> F<span class="smcaps">ORWARD</span>, H<span class="smcaps">E</span> R<span class="smcaps">EALIZES</span> <span class="smcaps">AS</span> N<span class="smcaps">EVER</span> B<span class="smcaps">EFORE</span> <span class="smcaps">THAT</span> W<span class="smcaps">ITHOUT</span> T<span class="smcaps">HOUGHT</span> <span class="smcaps">IN</span> <span class="smcaps">THE</span> U<span class="smcaps">NIT</span>, T<span class="smcaps">HERE</span> C<span class="smcaps">AN</span> B<span class="smcaps">E</span> <span class="smcaps">NO</span> U<span class="smcaps">NITY</span>. T<span class="smcaps">HOUGHT</span> A<span class="smcaps">LONE</span> I<span class="smcaps">S</span> F<span class="smcaps">ORM</span>. M<span class="smcaps">IND</span> <span class="smcaps">AND</span> U<span class="smcaps">NITY</span> F<span class="smcaps">LOURISH</span> <span class="smcaps">OR</span> P<span class="smcaps">ERISH</span> T<span class="smcaps">OGETHER</span>.”</p> At the moment, wishing to lean towards READABILITY rather than PRETTY, also known as "Mimic the Print Book", I am leaning towards Monospace in normal Sentence Case. (Camel Caps are hard on the eyes in large quantities, I think.) What do you think? Last edited by GrannyGrump; 01-07-2016 at 01:49 AM. |
01-07-2016, 02:08 AM | #12 |
Unicycle Daredevil
Posts: 13,923
Karma: 185041098
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: Planet of the Pudding Brains
Device: Aura HD (R.I.P. After six years the USB socket died.) tolino shine 3
|
Well, it's definitely all a matter of taste. For me, none of your monospace examples even come close to the decorative smallcaps. Seems I'm in the Pretty camp. (And no, I'm not pretty camp...)
ETA: Have you tried the smallcap font in regular instead of italics? |
01-07-2016, 02:59 AM | #13 |
Obsessively Dedicated...
Posts: 3,200
Karma: 34977896
Join Date: May 2011
Location: JAPAN (US expatriate)
Device: Sony PRS-T2, ADE on PC
|
The decorative Devroye smallcaps font that I tried before, only comes in that italic version.
Here I have used Andada slab-serif smallcaps in regular (I used this elsewhere for chapter titles, etc), the second segment in the middle of the page is Andada SC italic, and the third segment is Alegreya. Screen-shots show Serif and Sans-serif body font. Looks like the Andada font weight blends better with the Sigil previewer body fonts, but I don't know yet how it will look on a device. |
01-07-2016, 04:33 AM | #14 |
frumious Bandersnatch
Posts: 7,515
Karma: 18512745
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Spaniard in Sweden
Device: Cybook Orizon, Kobo Aura
|
I'd choose a decorative font, smallcaps or not, not italic. With "decorative" I mean something that's relatively unlikely to look like a wrong match with the text font.
|
01-07-2016, 04:46 AM | #15 |
Resident Curmudgeon
Posts: 73,887
Karma: 128597114
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: Roslindale, Massachusetts
Device: Kobo Libra 2, Kobo Aura H2O, PRS-650, PRS-T1, nook STR, PW3
|
If you use a sans-serif font (font-family: sans-serif) in place of the smallcaps, you won't have to emebed anything as you'll be used whatever the default sans-serif font is.
Last edited by JSWolf; 01-11-2016 at 06:17 AM. |
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
Small caps | JLius | ePub | 10 | 06-09-2014 01:37 AM |
Small caps | Notjohn | Sigil | 9 | 02-23-2013 10:19 AM |
Small Caps | djulian | Kindle Formats | 2 | 04-05-2012 08:48 AM |
small caps | yuxi_kelly | ePub | 20 | 06-05-2011 12:04 AM |