035: Thou shall not use horizontal or vertical scaling to distort fonts

Commentary Don’t be surprised if there’s a gasp of horror and a shake of of the head any time someone asks if this is an acceptable means of treating type. As one of the most universally accepted “bad practices” in typography, it is still common among inexperienced graphic designers and typographers. Distorting the type in such a way plays havoc with the balance of the typeface’s structure and creates unusual and awkward stroke widths in the characters. In short, it just looks awful! After the typeface designer and/or foundry have spent so much time and skill creating a beautifully weighted, consistent font family, stretching or squeezing it to “improve” it shows a serious lack of respect! If you do wish for a typeface with a wider character width, ....PD