folio

On holiday, I sit down to read Susan Cain’s “Quiet” with a fresh pair of reading glasses.

But moments later, I recall why I gave up on my last attempt several years ago: the minuteness of its text. This paperback seems to have been set in 8pt Garamond, and is barely legible even with glasses.

I can only conclude that Penguin’s typesetters never bother to print a proof prior to going to press… or that the finance department has more say in a book’s page count than the design department.

It makes me quite cross as a former typesetter, who took great pains to design accessible, legible texts in those days. Had it been a lucrative business, it would almost have been my perfect career.

As it is, we natural typesetters must look on in horror as the major publishing houses butcher interesting and profound works by rendering them indecipherable in their efforts to manage the bottom line.