Typography is always important because presentation is always important. For example: before a court appearance, do you do any of the following things?
- Take a shower
- Brush your teeth
- Brush your hair
- Put on a clean shirt
- Polish your shoes
If you’re like most lawyers, you do all of those things. But why? There aren’t any rules of court that say you have to be clean and well-groomed. What prevents you from just rolling out of bed, pulling on your sweatpants, and heading into court?
The first problem is that it isn’t professional. Dressing properly is one way we signal to clients, other attorneys, and judges that we take our work seriously and we take court seriously.
The other problem is that it’s not persuasive. A nice suit will not make your argument better, but a pair of dirty sweatpants will certainly distract the judge from whatever you’re trying to say.
By comparison, on a day that you have to finish an important court filing, do you do any of the following things to your document before you file it with the court?
- Convert straight quotes to curly quotes
- Remove double spaces between sentences
- Insert nonbreaking spaces where appropriate
- Insert small caps
- Check hyphenation
If you’re like most lawyers, you do none of these things. But why not?
There is no difference between these two examples. When you show up to make an oral argument, you make sure that you present yourself as professionally and persuasively as possible. Similarly, your written documents should reflect the same level of attention to typography.
Good typography makes your written documents more professional and more persuasive.
As a graphic designer, I cannot agree with you more on the (mostly subconscious) psychological effects of all these little typographic nuances. It truly does make a difference.
The reader of said document might not be able to verbalize what exactly is wrong with a poorly typeset page but they surely notice something is wrong and sits uneasy with it.
I disagree with you that “There is no difference between these two examples.” Most people are consciously aware of the physical appearance of someone that she or he sees in a courtroom. Most people are not consciously aware of the typography of what they read or write, or the quality thereof.
If you were correct that “most people are not consciously aware of … typography”, then all lawyers would print their business cards and stationery in Times New Roman on photocopy paper, because that would save a lot of time and money. (They would also make their websites in raw HTML using the default tag styles.)
Why does the distinction between conscious and subconscious awareness matter? If you’re making a bad impression, it’s not less bad just because it’s subconscious (I think it’s worse, actually).
I would agree people are usually a lot more sensitive about imperfect hygiene or appearance than imperfect typography, so “there is no difference” is an exaggeration.
Something like “there is no difference in principle” might make a better point.
For the same reason it’s important to use typography well, it’s also important to use correct, or at least preferred, grammar and punctuation.
Most usage guides either insist on a comma after “e.g.” or say that it’s preferred. There’s probably some guide out there that says it’s no longer required or it’s a matter of taste, but each time you choose a minority usage, you run the risk that someone will look at your writing and say, “Well, so much for ‘attention to detail.’”
And while “none” can be singular or plural, I’m unaware of any authority that says “each” can be plural, so “each of whom have been” in your Road Runner pleading should be “each of whom has been.”
[...] Typography for Attorneys. Butterick is an attorney with a background in type, and it shows. Listen to Butterick, and look [...]
Times may a bit naff but when it comes to effective use of limited space, it’s hard to beat.
[...] and typography. I’m very impressed by his recognition of the reason his expertise is needed. He explains that using good typography is like dressing well for court, a way “we signal to clients, [...]
Typography is extremely important in the engineering world, too. Presentation is everything — engineers rarely give clients a tangible product, but we do give them a report and charge them lots of money. Unfortunately, many engineers and scientists don’t care how a report “looks”, because they are too busy getting it out the door or because they just don’t care about the details. This makes you wonder about the accuracy of their engineering calculations and recommendations — presentation is typically a reflection of professionalism. Thanks for your website!!!
[...] way Matthew Butterick compares typographic concepts to recognisable day-to-day activities in Why is typography important for lawyers? proves he is as good an educator as he is a typographer. Which he is – from the splash page [...]
Good typography is a LOT like good hygiene in an elevator or a good DJ at a wedding.
When it’s done well, you don’t notice it.
Which makes it easy to say that it’s unimportant or it’s irrelevant to have any focus on typography. The pros make it look easy (like an Olympic gymnast) and it’s all very non-offensive.
However, that 500 page book you just read was painstakingly typeset by a professional who made it easier for you to read and absorb the writer’s intended message. Had it been set in any crummy type with complete disregard for visual sensibility, your time spent reading would be difficult, indeed. You, personally, might not have the proficiency to know exactly what mistakes were made, however the jumps on the page with poorly hyphenated words would have made your reading difficult at best, thus losing the writer’s intended meaning because you had to put so much more effort into reading it.
Like the poor hygiene in the elevator, you only notice when someone smells.
Or the DJ at the wedding, you only notice him when he skips a CD, mispronounces the family’s name, or some other obnoxious, offensive error.
“Typography is what language looks like” from Thinking with Type by Ellen Lupton.
Good typographical choices are as important as good word choices in language. People know when a sentenced doesn’t “sound right” and they have the grammatical knowledge to correct it. Most people don’t notice bad typographical choices because their eyes are not as well trained. Their documents look unprofessional; they just don’t realize it.
Matthew, thanks for this website. As a CPA, I wish my profession would emphasize the importance of typography usage in financial statements (especially the footnotes).
Hi again… Still nice site, now a bit of a consideration…
I agree with AS, I believe that it is his name, and I also agree with Michale Doan. That said, I must also add that I firmly believe the truth lies in between of them two, with a bit of salt and pepper from other comments.
We need all good type. Nevermind the profession, we all do. If I write a sentence, a header, and I leave ONE character behind, to the next text line, even a person with limited type knowledge knows that there is something wrong.
I also add, from my point of view, that type, for me, is not only type, as it is, even more, design, thus agreeing with Matthew Butterick (cousin of Matthew Broderick, sorry, had to do it! Ehehehe!) and it as his own path in the correct deliver of stuff, in making our life better. The road sign did of course, really, looked a lot better with the actual font instead of the script one, despite the script font could be considered «beautiful» . Not only in that situation. Therefore, like the design way of doing stuff, type helps us, all, receiving better the things that are given to us, in this case, written things, texts, whatever.
Are there good and bad type? Certainly. This site is, perhaps, one of the examples of good one, and there are, out there, lots of examples of bad ones, like would have been the case if the road builders had chosen the script font to the signs.
Again, then, keep up the very nice, nice, nice work, and visit my own blog, a bit small, with just a few posts, but quite honest.
Cheers from Portugal
Márcio Guerra
P.s.- The site is… http://TypeZine.Wordpress.com. Feel free to add any comments there!
“If you’re like most lawyers, you do all of those things.” Um, most male lawyers!
The list avoids gender-specific grooming tasks — doesn’t it?
One could argue that putting shaving after showering connotes a man shaving his face. Women who shave tend to do it *in* the shower.
The “shave” reference is distractingly male-centric, diluting my enjoyment of an otherwise great site.
I am a lawyer and I couldn’t agree more! I developed the reputation of being too picky about font and small caps, but I’ve also heard feedback from both attorneys and judges that the look of the pleading was noticed. A personal peeve of mine is a pleading written in courrier font! Maybe just a personal preference, but it looks so outdated that one may assume the law cited is equally outdated. Why risk that kind of bias? Thanks for the post.
Certainly a great many typographers have persuaded themselves that the convention of placing double spaces between sentences is unacceptable in typeset prose, but the lay-public has no such aesthetic commitment. A great many judges will be amongst those who once frequently used typewriters, and are thus inclined by training to see a double space as more proper. Rather fewer judges were once typographers.
hi everybody
just signed up and wanted to say hello while I read through the posts
hopefully this is just what im looking for looks like i have a lot to read.