Quote:
Originally Posted by Mitchi
Some how that makes me sad that multiple typefaces in a book usually only show up in childrens's/teen books (like Sweet Valley Senior Year for example, where all the diary entry chapters showed up as different fonts for the hand writing of each character, and set a mood for their personality). Then again, having multiple typefaces in a book is hard to pull off without being tacky.
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I don't find it all that uncommon to see multiple typefaces in p-books I read. They are usually used to distinguish text being reproduced or quoted from a document (real or fictional), such a letter or legal notice. A recent example would be the popular "Shopaholic" novels published in the last few years. They include reproductions of typed letters the protaganist has sent to various businesses and their replies typed under company letterheads. I've also seen it used to show something, even though printed in English, is actually being spoken in a language other than the one the book is normally being spoken in.
You are correct, though, that it is difficult to use muliple typefaces without it looking tacky, not to mention junky or too busy. I have several hymnals that just "copy and pasted" hymns from several sources into one hymnal. The notation standards vary from hymn to hymn and the resulting hymnal just looks cheap and amateurish, especially now that the vast majority of music notation can be done on computers instead being physically engraved on metal plates. Heck, I'm a novice "engraver" myself although I have done some "professional" work (i.e. the "engraving" I've done has been for small time commercial use or used by a small indie band).