The Explorateur: Issue #22

Layout thoughts for August.Numbers: proportional v. tabular figures.Your numbers can come in different proportions depending on the typeface and font. Proportional figures are designed to be read in sentences and have varying widths depending on the number (1 is thinner than 2, for example). On the other hand, tabular figures have fixed widths. Making them particularly good in stacks, equations, and tables. Tabular numbers are consistent. If you want to know more about these difference and find out what "old style" and "lining" is, check out this design article, "Don't Neglect the Numbers," by Shambhavi Ojha. Leave the body text to workhorse fonts.The biggest mistake I see from first-time layout designers is the overuse of "cool" typefaces in their headers and body text. Save the funky, stylistic typefaces for your cover page, art, and (maybe) headers. The boring typefaces will serve you much better, re: Baskerville, Caslon, Alegreya, Open Sans, Roboto, Lato, Futura, etc. It might…