Andi,
that’s an interesting question that I asked myself last year while teaching typography to a second year graphic design class.

They had already started the basics with Quark during their previous year so “copy fitting” came as no real mystery to them. The school was using James Craig’s Designing with Type and when we reached the section on traditional copyfitting (manually calculating) I did talk them through the excercise quickly, just for the mechanics of it, but then added an in-class project for them to solve.

I gave them a “real case” scenario of working production at a small weekly news magazine. The style sheet is fixed: display and subhead styles & sizes, body text and caption typefaces, point size & line spacing, and column widths. They were also given 4 photos and a sidebar to work into a 2 page spread. All the Quark layouts were done WITHOUT text insertion, just the text columns blocked out ready for copy.

Knowing that news articles come in last minute and are often re-edited, my question to them was: What is the character (or line) count number to be given to the writer/editor so that it could all fit at the last minute.

The answer (and solutions) can be arrived at very easily in several ways, but the principle is that text fitting SHOULD NOT be done on-the-fly, fudged, nudged or mutilated, but can be estimated beforehand.

It is not uncommon to be given a large manuscript file to start with, and to be asked “How many pages long will this book, manual, catalog or whatever, going to be?” And many times, the graphic designer is just doing production and cannot make arbitrary changes to layout and content. Somebody has to tell them it ain’t gonna fit before spending hours and then discovering that it won’t.

No, I personally don’t feel traditional copyfitting techniques need be taught, but I do believe that graphic designers should treat text the way architects and construction companies treat bricks. Not just an element to build with, but a tangible entity that gives character to the building itself. Again, someone has to calculate how many and what specific kind of bricks will be needed before starting the project.

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Yes, I’m old, but I copyfit with style!

I appreciate your insight, Norbert!

Andi,

You may already know that James Craig has a companion web site, DesigningWithType.com, to complement his book. His team lists samples of many projects done by design students around the world, including the Ontario College of Art and Design.

I’ve been on the site, Norbert, and through all of the sample exercises. There are some really good ones there adn I’ve downloaded a few. I’ve written to Mr. Craig as well, very nice man. So far, for the first year students, I have found the workbook I am using the most helpful. I use it mostly as reference but it’s very comprehensive. The trouble is that there is just so much typographic material to cover in such a short period of time under the roof of one big Graphic Design program. I really have to be very selective with what I feed young minds. I want it all to be relevant and interesting (even though I find all the information I teach very interesting myself!)

“I’ve written to Mr. Craig as well, very nice man”

By happenstance, He sat with us at the party at TypeCon. Too bad you missed meeting him while you were there—he is a very nice man.

Years ago, when I was teaching, copyfitting was very important and I had made up an exercise for my students. I will Check Jack Benny’s vault for it if you like but I think Norbert has a good way of making it current and useful. Today, copyfitting after the text is written is mostly pointless. Allowing an exact amount of space, as Norbert points out, to be filled later is still a current need.

ChrisL

> so much typographic material to cover in such a short period of time ...

So true. Oddly enough, typography is delegated a minor position in most Graphic Design programs. Perhaps in another topic thread the forum can explore suggestions for new excercises/projects to aid students in developing sensitivity to typography.

That is a shame that I missed him Chris! Maybe next year.

That is an excellent idea Norbert. I remember there was a section devoted to educators in the pre beta version of Typophile but it wasn’t heavily populated. Mind you, I get scores of ideas from all the typographers here but an education area would be fantastic!

I also met James Craig many years ago. He started teaching typography at The Cooper Union years after I left.

Last year while I was using his book for typography class, I had a genuine interest in contacting him and suggest a possible collaboration on new excercises/projects that could be added to the web site. But I am ashamed to say that I never acted on it.

I did talk with Alan Halley about what Agfa-Monotype (now Monotype Imaging) had available for educational resources and he did give me links to the type info/education areas they were developing online.

I am less interested in developing any guidlines for selecting and using type since those kinds of resources abound. I have been more interested in exploring new methods/exercises that would help interested students to develop that special sensitivity and feeling for typography.

I use the term excerise because that is exactly what they would be. Not a project or anything finished, but a series of “warm-ups” that aid understanding.

Like traditional Chinese Kung Fu, the master would run students through a series of seemingly useless routines, all of which actually help to develop new abilities. Remember, “Wax on. Wax off.”?

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Yes, I’m old, but my Chi flows strong!

“How important and/or relevant do you think it is to teach budding graphic designers this procedure?”

very simple: knowledge + understanding = power

I learned casting off, counting characters, and all that in the mid-eighties, pre-computer. It is useless now, except as mentioned above to tell a writer what character count will fit. That takes 1 minute:

In InDesign, use the Placeholder Text feature to flow in Lorum Ipsum text into the ad, mag page, web page, etc. Then copy and paste that into Word (shudder!) and do a character count. Easy greasy. All that old chacter counting stuff and math is completely obsolete. Any book that seriously suggests you teach it is obsolete too.

As for books, I find Lupton’s Thinking with Type to be just the right fit for an intro class. Cutting edge examples, copulating dinosaurs (seriously!) and enough typographic history, theory, and technique discussed quite intelligently. Some good projects available online too at thinkingwithtype.com. I love it. Structure my quizzes, exercises, and projects around it.

Good luck!

H. Todd Duren,
designer. educator. yada yada

myopendoor.net

Hey Andi,
Where are you!

ChrisL