Customer Reviews

Type & Layout: How Typography and Design Can Get Your Message Across-Or Get in the Way

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Wheildon is an advertising man who was tired of guessing how typography influenced the effectiveness of print advertising. He did some research to find out, and most of what he found is no surprise. Serif type is easier to comprehend than sans serif. Copy set in all caps is difficult to read. He provides convincing data to back up these assertions - a useful contribution. The overall effect of the book however, gives one pause. Two major complaints: 1.- His results were originally distributed as a research paper, and the paper has been mercilessly padded to fill this book. 2.- The layout and type of the book itself fight his main point - that typography should enhance, not hurt, good communication. For instance, throughout the book paragraphs have both indents and extra spacing. Visually, this makes each paragraph seems like its own separate thought, unconnected to the previous idea. Add to that the varying blank space at the end of the page - is this the end of a chapter? - and you have a book whose layout inhibits communication. Not a good quality for a book entitled "Type & Layout." The examples of advertising in the book show how well his principles apply to that medium, but the layout of the book itself makes one wonder. After reading the whole book (which took about 90 minutes), I felt ripped off.

If you are someone who communicates with words and images for a living, you must do two things:

1) buy this book and re-read it every year or so, and 2) never, ever mention this book to a competitor.

Wheildon's book gives you an almost unfair advantage. The detailed information on how printing text in color prevents readability and message retention is absolutely required reading.

We all suspect it: designers often trample the message. But you might not know exactly HOW they sabotage the written word. Now you can. Wheildon's book covers the science of readability. This book is the world's best argument-ender, when you're going eyeball-to-eyeball with a recalcitrant designer. Learn here why reverse type reduces comprehension 500%. Learn why headlines should never have periods. Learn how the eye typically moves across a printed page (and how to take advantage of that well-trod path). I recommend this book in every communications seminar I teach -- and the students love it, because it empowers them to JUST SAY NO when a designer comes up with yet another "solution" that buries the message.

Wheildon refocuses the question of legibility onto how much the reader remembers. This is retention: the only thing that can be scientifically measured and the one thing that cannot be ignored when serving your clients. Wheildon interprets this information to disprove some typographical rules, but he lays down new rules that are often overly simple. He leaves no room for styling that might support the words or for visual appeal. The book will help you understand how much is lost if you allow style to dominate the copy and it has some penetrating insights into how we read.

After reading which doesn't take long, I converted all the text on one of our websites to the principles and like magic the legibility of our messages grew stronger with every Times Roman letter in black on white with little shades of gray to improve things in Upper and lower case - get my meaning? Design takes a back seat here to getting the message across. Of course this could have been a pamphlet so I am relieved I paid the price I did (marketplace). To all graphic designers who have let their imaginations run away with their work. Please read.

Colin Wheildon presents in very clear, understandable language the results of his exhaustive study on the effects of design on readability. This book is the basis of much of the material I teach in seminars. It provides the foundation for much of the material I use in working with clients. Wheildon presents objective arguments for particular typeface choices and layout formats and substantiates his recommendations with hard data. In the never ending struggle to balance form and function, this book takes care of the function. Now, all the designer has to do is add the form.

This book reveals the results of extensive research that tries to demystify "comprehensibility", as Wheildon calls it. Most of the conclusions in the analysis only apply to reading material with long-running text. Armed with this caveat, the reader can learn a number of very useful facts about reading behaviour, and what effects different attributes of a page have on the average reader. Wheildon's tone can be annoying, but the book is an easy read, and also serves as a reference.

The subtitle is "How typography and design can get your message across-- or get in the way". This is the only book that has peer reviewed readability test results in it and is very down to earth, instructive and - unfortunately - preachy. If you really want to know what affects your typographic communication in the time of "The Cult of the Ugly" you must read this. A great addition to Rober Bringhurst's "Elements of Typographic Style".

Was really hopeful that the book would help me with layout and design of technical documentation. But it focused more on ads and one-page design documents. It did a thorough job for those types of documents, but not for designing reference documents.

Not only does this book include the results of real, honest-to-goodness studies that will make your work more readable and allow for maximum comprehension, it is downright fun to read!

This book has been so helpful to me that I keep it at my desk for handy reference. For example, what kind of reader comprehension can I expect if I use 10 point font and 13 point leading? It's in the book. Where are serif and sans serif fonts best used? It's in the book . . . along with lots more.

Colin Wheildon conducted studies to determine the way type and layout affect a reader's comprehension -- and he suggests ways to use these results in order to produce better copy and layout. I know his results have helped me to do better work.