What people know about typography can usually be traced back to typing-class teachers (or computer-lab teachers) and other unreliable sources. I’m sure your teachers were lovely people, but they were there to teach you typing (or BASIC programming), not typography. And what they knew about typography probably came from their own typing teachers 30 years earlier.
It’s not surprising that these bad habits get passed down. What’s surprising is how tenacious they can be.
A core principle of this book is that typography in legal documents should be measured by the same standards as any professionally published material, like books, newspapers, and magazines. There is no “legal typography.” There is only typography.
This wasn’t always true. During the era when law offices relied on typewriters, professional publishers had typesetting and printing technology that was substantially better. So for lawyers, the typographic standards of professional publishers were far out of reach.
But that’s no longer the case. Technology has brought law-office typesetting nearly up to the standards of professional typesetting. Modern word processors and laser printers have made it possible for lawyers to produce documents with excellent typography.
Therefore, lawyers should aspire to meet the standards of professional typography. That’s why the rules here reflect the customs of professional typographers and the majority views of authorities on typography, filtered through my experience as a professional typographer and as a lawyer.
But I’m also a pragmatist. I know the feeling of rushing to finish a motion an hour before the deadline. I don’t assume that lawyers have the time or interest to become professional typographers. I assume that your goal is to get the best typographic results for the lowest cost, and that nothing is more costly than your time. Therefore, I take a few shortcuts where the effort outweighs the results.
I am a student and am taking a typography class this semester. I’ve run across your site a couple of times and have seen your book praised by many a type blog. You mention here how teachers are many times the culprit for teaching bad typographic habits and I agree, as a college student I constantly run into the requirements of the 8.5 x 11 page with .5in margins, double-spaced in Times New Roman. The surprise is that my typography teacher is requiring this same format for my history of typography paper, a bit ironic considering he should be encouraging more readable formatting and trying to break us of such bad habits.
I will be challenging this, and I realize this is probably a teacher by teacher battle. However, my husband is going into to teaching and likely to influence lots of young minds about type probably unconsciously. I’ve done what I can to instill a decent sense of typography into his work, but what about the millions out there who like these word processing teachers and those taught by them? Would you happen to have any suggestions for reading material for them? I will definitely use your site as source material to help persuade the educators I know to break their bad habits, but is there anything like this for educators?
It seems like such an important field to implant the foundations of good typography as their work will spread to those they work with and ultimately to those they teach, likely infinitely extending outwards. How else could such formatting as that described above be so prevalent and ingrained?
I could criticize your teacher for being oblivious to mediocre typography in his midst. Of course you should be allowed (even required) to apply the principles of good typography to your research paper.
But even type designers — people who are supposed to be champions of better typography — are not immune to this kind of blindness. For instance, why do so few font-foundry websites use webfonts, instead of standard system fonts? Why are font-foundry licenses just a pile of ugly legalese, instead of being thoughtfully designed?
The fact that this habit is widespread doesn’t excuse it. We all have to practice what we preach, especially those of us claiming a public platform. I can’t demand that lawyers take more care with typography and then slack off with my own work.
But we might wonder why this habit is so widespread. It seems like we all keep a list of situations where we feel presentation matters, and situations where it doesn’t. For instance, every lawyer appreciates the importance of dressing properly for court. But most lawyers still don’t appreciate the importance of typography. (Though I’ve helped move thousands out of that column, there are still hundreds of thousands to go.)
So how do we form these lists? We look around to what others do, because this is the most natural way of learning social norms. New lawyers see that other lawyers dress well for court, so they do the same. Those lawyers also see that other lawyers use ugly typography, so they do the same. Type designers see that other websites and EULAs are ugly, so they do the same. Your typography professor sees that other academic papers are ugly, so he requires the same.
Sometimes there are good underlying reasons for these norms. Therefore, before rebelling against them, it’s usually worth discovering those underlying reasons, lest babies get thrown out with bathwater.
But in many cases, there are no good reasons. The norms grow out of lazy or careless habits that have been ratified through repetition. Certainly this is true in the case of the 12-point, double-spaced, Times New Roman format you mention. This format is just the computer age’s approximation of the most common layout of the typewriter age, which in turn was a result of the technological limitations of the typewriter. Nobody ever liked that layout. (Consider: have you ever seen a book, newspaper, or magazine from the typewriter era that used that layout?) There are no reasons to propagate it now that the mechanical need for it is obsolete.
My view is that advocates for better typography cannot pick and choose. If typography is worth supporting, it is worth supporting everywhere. There will always be some documents that don’t merit the full treatment. (I admit it — my grocery lists are still scribbled on sticky notes.) I’m not saying that typography’s advocates must be unreasonably demanding and finicky.
But a little demanding? Sure. When you share a document with others, whether private or public, that document a) demands their attention and b) reflects back on you. For both those reasons, typography matters. Ultimately, the only way to change typographic norms that arise from laziness or carelessness is to demand better, starting with ourselves.
As for your questions:
1) Ask your teacher if you can apply good typography to your research paper. Let’s be generous and assume that he hasn’t considered the idea.
2) You don’t mention what subject your husband will be teaching, but here’s an analogy. I’ve heard from legal-writing professors who like Typography for Lawyers but who prefer to enforce uniform (and often ugly) formats for class assignments because those formats make it easier for students to learn the material, and easier for the professors to grade the papers.
My response is that if the ugly typography is an aid to learning, then it’s totally acceptable. (Remember: ugly is not the index of successful typography; utility is.) But to the extent a legal-writing class is meant to be useful preparation for the practice of law, at some point the ugly-typography habit becomes a detriment, because no supervising partner will accept work that looks like that. One legal-writing professor decided to impose his standards for the first semester, and let students use TFL’s standards for the second semester. I thought this was a fair compromise.
3) I’m not aware of a TFL equivalent specifically for educators. But many nonlawyers enjoy & recommend TFL, which stands to reason: very little of the material is indigenous to the legal world. As I mention above, I hold legal typography to the same standards as professional typography. In fact, everyone with a computer and laser printer has access to very fine typesetting and layout technology. Therefore, these standards can be applied anywhere.
I’d like to piggyback on Carina Marano’s comment above. I’m a student too, and I run into many of the same ugly typographic standards that she mentions. While some of my teachers are flexible and aren’t strict in enforcing the 12-point Times with one-inch margins, some seem to be a bit more picky. Using these typewriter-era layouts makes me cringe, because I know what good typography looks like (I’m a big type geek) and am bemused that these formats are still mandated in the age of the computer.
How would you suggest approaching these teachers with your material, or similar writers and designers? Most of my work is in social science and cultural studies. I can understand choosing system fonts when you’re submitting an MS Word document, but beyond that, I don’t understand why everything absolutely must be Times.
Your ideas are interesting, and I love typography. I’ll have to get a copy of the book.
However, I am also a legal professional, and I don’t see where your discussion addresses the “real” rules of legal typography: those established by the courts. Every court I am aware of requires that official documents be submitted in 12pt Times Roman font, double-spaced. In many cases, they even require the pertinent parts of citations to be underlined, instead of italicized. If you haven’t seen it already, you should review the section of the Bluebook (http://www.legalbluebook.com/) that discusses legal writing and typography.
There is a purpose behind the rule. It is supposed to keep the arguments of one side from being considered more favorably because they are “prettier.” Originally, it leveled the playing field between big firms with computers and small-firm or solo-practice attorneys who couldn’t afford them. That’s not a big constraint for attorneys any more, but many prisons (with lots of self-represented individuals who are active in the justice system) only provide access to typewriters, so although that issue is no longer as valid as it once was, it isn’t entirely gone.
I really don’t ever expect courts to allow special fonts that are not equally available to everyone (basically, any font that doesn’t come “free” with every computer automatically) — again, because they want uniformity for reasons of fairness.
Legal periodicals are a little bit more flexible than courts, but still very strict by the standards of other professions. Given those constraints, most attorneys I know just use the same styles for everything they write, because they’re safe.
That makes me somewhat pessimistic that your excellent points will have the influence that they should.
As a graphic designer and part-time college professor, I must give some insight. While the designer side of me understands that there are students that know good typesetting. However, there are those that don’t. If I don’t specify a consistent font, inevitable a student will submit a 3-page paper in a script font.
In addition, my margin requirements at a maximum 1 inch, font size between 10 & 12 points and double spaced paragraph settings are there for a few reasons: 1. a student will try to “stretch” a 2-page paper into three by using 1.5 inch margins, 14 point font and triple spaced paragraphs; 2. I really need that one inch margin and the double spacing to have enough room to write my comments. 3. my eyes are getting old and anything smaller than 10 or 12 points is difficult for me to read.
Christie,
As a graphic designer and a college professor, you are in a unique position to influence the way your students format their papers. As a psychology student myself, I am very familiar with the requirements of the APA; however, even the APA guidelines leave some room for flexibility. For example, although Times New Roman is the preferred typeface, it is not required (Publication manual of the American Psychological Association, pp. 228–229). I would suggest providing your students with a few choice systems fonts, such as those provided on page 83 of Typography for Lawyers.
In addition, I would suggest using a word count instead of number of pages as the requirement for length. I imagine this would likely be a difficult change to implement, especially if you are grading physical copies of papers. If a solution could be found for this hurdle, it would make my last suggestion easier to manage. In addressing your requirements for a space to write comments and ease of reading, I would suggest that you require larger margins, large enough to write in. Page 142 of Typography suggests 1.5 to 2 inches for 12 point type. In addition, character count is an even more reliable metric for finding a comfortable line length for easy reading.
As a graphic designer, you could create templates that are easy on your eyes, following good typographic principles and using system fonts. You could even make those templates available for download by your students. You could then more easily judge how many pages of each template are required to meet the length requirement, while telling your students to use a word count requirement.