Comments in text below
----- Original Message -----
From: "Chuck" <golden1@britsys.net>
To: "Andy Hollis" <awhollis@swbell.net>; "autox" <autox@autox.team.net>
Sent: Monday, April 28, 2003 9:01 PM
Subject: Re: Numbers
> Andy, I understand the frustration, I've expressed it myself, BUT, IMHO
> there still needs to be a "spirit of the rule" exemption available.
No. There is another word for such "excemptions." It is "loophole."
> I can
> say with certainty (I tested a number of single and multicolor
combinations
> before selecting the one we now use)
Which makes YOU the commendable exception. Ah, that everyone created their
numbers with such an intent to make it the best possible, then this
discussion would never be happening. Unfortunately, you are not the majority
example.
> that there is no single vinyl color
> that is as visible as our multicolored ones (white with orange and yellow
> border) on our blue car, and even though our typeface is not a single
> uniform width stroke, there is no mistaking what they say from a couple
> hundred yards away.
Does not have to be uniform width as long as the narrowest part of the
stroke is at least 1.25". What you don't want, to offer an example. is a
zero that is 2" wide at the sides and a 1/4" pinstripe top and bottom. At
speed 100 feet away it is not a zero, it is an 11.
> The fact is that any graphic design book will tell you
> that non uniform width serif fonts are MUCH easier to read quickly than a
> sans serif font like Helvetica. That's why you'll seldom see san serif
fonts
> used in publications save maybe the telephone book where it's used to save
> ink.
This is true for large blocks of type, as pages in a book or the text font
in a newspaper. It is not true for single or few letters. This is why you do
not use Olde English for your text font in a book, but it is effective
perhaps for a title (and even then, you use the florid uppercase only for a
first letter). Many newspapers use serif fonts for text, sans serif for
headlines. It's the difference between reading 1000 words and reading 10
words.
Serif fonts do indeed read well, but so also do sans-serif in the right
place. Note that most "small print" or "agate" is sans serif, because when
the letters get small, you remove all the excess frou-frou (serifs) to
improve legibility. Your 6" letters on the car may appear to be a
quarter-inch tall relatively when viewed from 100 feet away.
Very big type works either way. Moderate size (9-14 point) works well with
serif faces. Small size (8 pt and below) seems to work better with
sans-serif. From the point of view of timers, numbers are, or should be,
"very big" while class letters are more "moderate" but should not be
"small" -- speaking here not of actual size but how they are seen from a
distance. We read a book or newspaper 18-20" away and it stays still. We
read car numbers from many feet away and they move.
> Don't "punish the masses for the sins of a few!"
Unfortunately, it is the sins of a few that screw it up for the many. Not
just in what needs to be applied in graphic design, but the often-true
situation that trying to read that bad number gets the timers behind and
they then mess up the car (with the good number) that follows. Can you say
rerun? What seems a rule for the benefit of timers is ultimately a rule that
makes the event run smoother which is to the benefit of the competiors.
--Rocky Entriken
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