Creative Cut: The Power of Type

She recommends that catalogers: 1) review typeface options in complete pages or spreads, making sure the type family works for both headlines and captions, at multiple sizes; and 2) make sure the face doesn’t include “some funky numbers or punctuation marks.”

The Font Bureau’s Highsmith says that technical factors, such as printing technology and paper grade, can also influence font selection. “For example, newspapers are printed on rough, cheap paper on presses that run very fast, [so] the impression they make on the paper is not great. There are typefaces designed with those limitations in mind, like Poynter Old Style or Linotype Excelsior.