Attachment-J_TypograicStandards.pdf

pg 1February 2010

NPS Rawlinson and Adobe Frutiger are the two typefaces used on National Park Service wayside exhibits. Frutiger is used for agency and park identity, maps, and safety information. NPS Rawlinson is used for titles, text, captions, and quotes.

The National Park Service holds an unrestricted license with Terminal Design, the font designer, for NPS Rawlinson. NPS employees, or any entity working with or for the NPS, are allowed to use the typeface on projects benefiting the agency. Frutiger is used under license from Adobe Systems. NPS employees are allowed to use Frutiger, but not to transfer it to others. Vendors and contractors must buy the font and add it to their library of typefaces.

The design elements of typography (typeface, size, weight, style, leading, line length, color, and kerning) provide readers with visual clues to the nature and hierarchy of information. The following typographic styles will enhance overall accessibility to wayside content by creating logical patterns, legible text, and reflect the appropriate voice of the National Park Service.

The wayside grid files include Paragraph Styles for text, caption, titles, and quotes. Use these style settings with appropriately sized text frames to ensure maximum legibility and consistency.

Point Size The larger the type, within reason, a wider range of users will be able to read the exhibit. Wayside Paragraph Styles are set to strike a balance between legibility and the limitations of space on a wayside exhibit.

Line Spacing Wayside Paragraph Styles set line spacing (leading) to maximize legibility.

Letter and Word Spacing Paragraph Styles specified in the grids use metric kerning for text and optical kerning for titles. Custom adjustments may be necessary to refine letter and word spacing.

The Typographic Standards are one of many tools used to create a consistent recognizable format for organizing and presenting information to the public. These standards along with National

Park Service identity standards, editorial standards, map standards, consistent work processes, and maintenance programs help keep costs down and visitor interest in the wayside media at a high level.

Wayside Exhibit Typographic Standards

Fonts

Accessibility

Paragraph Styles

National Park Service U.S. Department of the Interior

Harpers Ferry Center Media Services

Attachment J

Wayside Exhibit Typographic Standards continued pg 2February 2010

Lines set too short (less than 5 words per line) require tedious re-acquisition of the beginning of each line. Lines set too long (greater than 12 words per line) can cause readers to lose their place when moving from one line to the next. A line length of 6 - 12 words is optimal for wayside exhibit text and captions.

Text legibility is greater when set in flush left, ragged right alignment. All wayside text with the exception of labels for diagrams, should be set flush left with a loose open right rag.

Hyphenation should be avoided, as piecing back together the parts of hyphenated words can be an obstacle for readers with impaired vision. Wayside Paragraph Styles in the wayside grids are set for no hyphenation. When adjusting the rag, use shift-return keys, rather than using letter spaces or a hard return.

There are three perceptual attributes of color which affect contrast. They are hue, saturation, and lightness. Contrast based on lightness is more effective than contrast based on hue or saturation. Avoid large areas of white or very light color to reduce glare in the outdoor environment.

Layouts that present a clear hierarchical flow contribute to legibility and clarity.

Place related text and graphics in close proximity and create logical progressions.

Avoid decorative elements so as not to obscure or distract from the content.

Simple layouts that convey information visually are preferable because of their inherent clarity.

Three small dots are used to represent any omission within a quoted passage.

Keep things simple and avoid using a “four-dot ellipses” (a period with an ellipses). Use the ellipses character from the Glyphs menu in InDesign with no space before or after the ellipses.

Westbrook’s opening reception…showed his strength and smarts.

Line Length

Alignment

Hyphenation

Color and Contrast

Content and Layout

Ellipses pg 3February 2010

Bullets are most often used to mark items in a list. The preferred character for creating a bullet is Option and 8, which results in a proportional bullet for the font and point size used. Bullets should hang in the left margin.

Phrases in sentences should be set off by an em-dash. An em-dash is created by selecting Option and shift while striking the hyphen (-) key.

Saguaro reproduction begins during the hottest, dryest times of the year—late spring and early summer.

Use an en-dash to indicate a range (such as in a range of time, 5:00 p.m.–6:00 p.m., or dates, 1963–1997). Make an en-dash by using the keystroke combination Option and hyphen. Kerning may need to be adjusted so that the en-dash is evenly spaced, especially between 1 or 7.

Do not use hyphens, single or double (- or --) for either type of dash. See the NPS Editorial Style Guide for appropriate use of hyphens.

Letterspace acronyms such as CCC or NPS or abbreviations such as A.D. with tracking amounting to 5% of the type size. So if CCC is set in NPS Rawlinson, track the initials 1 point.

Graphic captions sometimes refer to an element on one side or another, or above and below. When a directional cue is given in the text it is placed between roman parentheses and set in an italic face.

President Theodore Roosevelt (left) addressed a crowd of 70,000.

Use a single word space between sentences.

There should not be any additional space between strings of initials. However, additional kerning may be needed between initials and periods so that they are evenly spaced, tight but not touching.

W.B. Yeats

• use the character combination of Option and 8

• hang in the left margin

Lists and Bullets

Dashes and Hyphens

Abbreviations

Directional Cues

Spacing pg 4February 2010

Any series of numbers that include the numeral one need additional kerning.

1776 1776 On the right the numbers have been set to use Optical kerning and tracked -10.

The result is numbers which are evenly spaced, tight but not touching.

Fractions should be set as a true typeset fraction like, 1½, not as a keyboard fraction, 1 1/2. This can be done in InDesign by using the correct fraction from the Glyphs menu.

Measurements are given in both English and metric. When used in text, English measure is given, followed by the abbreviated metric equivalent in parentheses.

Metric is set lowercase Roman, use one space between the figure and the metric unit. Periods are not used with the metric abbreviation and the abbreviated symbol is always singular.

In Pine Creek a 14-inch (36 cm) rainbow trout is common.

Numbers, Fractions, and Measurements

Quotes and Quote Attributes Wayside grid files include Paragraph Styles for quotes and attributes. Use these settings without a dash or indenting the attribute.

Set the attribute flush left, roman or at the end of the last line when it is a short line.

If I had more time, I would have written a shorter letter.

T.S. Eliot

There was never a story so good that it could not be improved upon. Mark Twain pg 5February 2010

When a second language is used in a wayside exhibit it is preferable to set it in a different color from the English text without losing reducing contrast or legibility. Do not set the second language in italics.

Often other languages use additional characters in their alphabets. Those special characters can be created on Macintosh keyboards using the following key stroke combinations:

Accents – Option e, then the appropriate vowel character á é í ó ú Circumflex – Option i then character (rare in Spanish) î Tilde – Option n, then character. ñ Umlaut – Option u, then character. Mostly used for dipthong vowels. ü ö Cedilla – Option c (very rare, mostly archaic) ç Questions in Spanish – Option, shift, question mark. ¿ Exclamations in Spanish – Option 1 ¡

Many Hawaiian words require special characters, a kahakö (-) and an ‘okina (‘). For example: ‘¯Ohi‘a lehua. Hawaiian diacritical marks are included in all OpenType versions of NPS Rawlinson OT. To obtain Hawaiian diacritical marks for the OpenType version of Adobe Frutiger, you must request HFrutiger LT Std from the Office of NPS Identity.

Foreign Language

Hawaiian Language pg 6February 2010

Option - 8 Hang in margin and set tabs to align.

Option+ Shift, -

Option, -

Go to Type Menu, Glyphs and double-click on fraction to get ½

Use Optical kerning in Character menu for titles

Use baseline shift to center parenthesis.

Option, [

Option + Shift, [

Shift - Return

Alignment

Bullets

Editorial Style

Kerning

Numbers

Punctuation

Rag

Spacing between sentences

Spacing between words

Spelling

Typestyle

Widows

Bullets

Em-dash

En-dash

Fractions

Kerning

Parenthesis

Quotation (open)

Quotation (end)

Rag adjustments

Review Checklist

Quick Reference