The Verdigris blog by Laurel Brunner
It’s been a long time since we heard a company talk about typesetting, rather than page layout. However a small Danish company is doing just that, with a view to improving print’s sustainability. 2K/Denmark has not so much developed a new technology. Rather it leverages digital prepress technology to achieve a specific goal: cut the number of printed pages in a book using intelligent design. Publishers have tried this in the past, reducing point sizes in order to save pages and cut costs. But this proved to be pretty unpopular with readers because the reduced point sizes were too small to be easily or comfortably legible. 2K/Denmark takes a different approach whereby letter sizes can actually be increased as needed, for instance for older readers. But by using their own font designs and following classic layout principles, page counts can be reduced. Hence the dubbing of their fonts as sustainable.
The goal of any page design, whether it’s books or newspapers is to ensure readability and accessibility. It’s why Times New Roman was invented by the Times newspaper for reading narrow, densely packed narrow columns on a newspaper page. At the advent of desktop publishing revolution designers Chuck Bigelow and Kris Holmes created Lucida specifically for readability at small sizes on low resolution screens. But it has ascenders and descenders that are too long to be efficient on the printed page.
In the interests of readability, it’s sometimes better to increase the font size rather than reducing it. But the x height (the distance from the baseline to the top of lowercase x, v, w and z) should never be less than 1.7mm. This guidance makes it easy to create large print books without increasing point size. 2K/Denmark’s threshold for the readability of letters is an x height of at least 1.6mm. The design of the font itself is largely irrelevant if the x height is correct. This is the guiding principle for 2K/Denmark font designs, plus ensuring that the letters take up less space on the page. To be acceptable to a wide readership, both young and old, the ideal x height is 1.7 – 1.9 mm.
Following these principles of readability metrics 2K/Denmark has designed a number of new typefaces, such as Sustainability Serif. Publishers can licence these fonts and do their own layouts using 2K/Denmark templates. The templates ensure leading and margins are not compromised. Alternatively 2K/Denmark can create custom made fonts. Large publishers looking to gain a design edge or improve support for their sustainbability messaging might choose this option. 2K/Denmark estimates savings of 20-50% on the paper needed for a single book. But there are obviously additional supply chain savings too: fewer pages means less paper and waste, and more books per box or container so transport costs are lower.
The 2K/Denmark fonts also have a smaller file size, 50% smaller than would be the case with Garamond for example. The fonts are protected with the Sustainable Typesetting trademark and clients get to use the term as part of their licensing deals. Everything required is included in the 2K/Denmark templates which use scripting and coding to calculate the number of words on a page to optimise the layout for reduced page counts. When the production PDF passes into prepress 2K/Denmark claim it requires no additional checking so there are no halts in production.
The company’s client base is primarily in the USA and Europe with some customers in South America. In the UK the company works with Cambridge University Press, Pallas Athene and United Bible Societies. 2K/Denmark costs its service according to the size of the publisher so it’s relevant for traditionally published as well as self-published titles. For a single book the publisher can expect to pay $500 to use 2K/Denmark fonts and templates, depending on the book’s complexity. Full licensing of the company’s fonts is capped at $20,000 per year plus $500 per template. These costs can be recouped in reduced consumables, printing, shipping and transport costs. And there is a value to be had from a publisher’s enhanced sustainability credentials, although this probably doesn’t matter as much as the cost savings.
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This article was produced by the Verdigris Project, an industry initiative intended to raise awareness of print’s positive environmental impact. This weekly commentary helps printing companies keep up to date with environmental standards, and how environmentally friendly business management can help improve their bottom lines. Verdigris is supported by the following companies: Agfa Graphics, EFI, Fespa, Fujifilm, HP, Kodak, Miraclon, RicohSplash PR, Unity Publishing and Xeikon.
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