A tip about using italics next to roman characters (The Tipping Point S01E03)

Written By Antonis Tsagaris

This is going to be a short one, because my IBS is acting up again.

Maybe you haven’t noticed, but take a look at this:

romanvsitalics.png

It’s hard to notice if you’re not alerted to its presence, but once you’ve seen it, it’s hard to unsee it.

What I’m referring to is the way the italics look slightly smaller than the roman characters, even though they are set at the same point size. This doesn’t only happen with this specific typeface (EB Garamond). Take a look at the same text set in Alegreya:

romanvsitalicsalegreya.png

This is a common occurence, especially in serif typefaces and it’s something you should be mindful of.

Now that you can recognize the problem, what can you do about it, other than wallow in self-pity? Well, increase the size of the italics, of course!

Here’s what happens when I make the italics slightly bigger:

romanvsitalicsfixed.png

Much better, right?

If you said ‘no’, you don’t deserve to call yourself a designer, but please accept my congratulations for having an actual life.

Antonis Tsagaris
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