Type Color

Type on a page has a certain visual texture created by the rhythms of the characters in lines, the lines in columns, and of course the spaces among them all. When this texture is consistent and even, the type is said to have good color. Tightly spaced type will have a darker color than loosely spaced type, but the most important thing is for the color to be even and consistent.

Alternately tight and loose lines are a color problem at a very “local” level, but color problems are most noticeable at a larger scale, especially when whole paragraphs seem darker—due to tighter spacing—than those surrounding them, or vice versa (see Figure 8.1).