For sample files click here.
This is a book designed to be used. It will be used in churches across Wales and needs to be readable in conditions which might sometimes be less than ideal, e.g., poor lighting, or by a person with impaired vision, or someone trying to turn pages with cold fingers! The altar book needs to be used by the minister to lead the service. For these and other reasons the page and line breaks need to be carefully selected, and the page needs to be clear and easily readable. This is the most important requirement, but it is coupled with other desirable features. The first of these is that the design and production of the book should be to the highest standards, creating a book worthy of its contents — the worship of God at the Eucharist in the Church in Wales. The style of the book should encourage people to want to use it, and to help them in their worship. It should be elegant in appearance, classic and timeless in its appeal, combining the best of tradition with a forward-looking design.
At the foot of this page will be found a variety of sample pages. First, some aspects of the design are presented.
The publisher, Canterbury Press, has specified a page size for the pew edition of 198 x 126mm, and A4 (297 x 210mm) for the altar book. Although one will be produced photographically from the other, in proposing a design the pew edition has been considered first: this will be used by more people, and must be legible at a smaller size. (As the two page sizes are not in the same proportions, this is also the best way of working: it means that the altar edition will have slightly wider outside edges.)
The page width of 126mm divides exactly into a 6mm vertical grid, and this is used for all measurements across the page: all the margins and indentations are multiples of 6mm. The size of the horizontal grid is determined by the size of the type used.
The page size is also a factor in determining the size of type to use. It is desirable to minimize page breaks, and in particular to avoid breaks in the middle of congregational sections. As the samples below show, this is not always possible if the type is to be readable. The longest piece of congregational text is the Nicene Creed. In order to set this on a single page it is necessary to reduce the type to 11pt (see this sample, page 4, labelled pages 20/21). To accommodate a larger size type, either the Creed must be split across two pages, or a larger page must be used (or both).
The layout follows directly from the chosen grid. The vertical layout is generally strictly followed, with rubrics and sub-headings indented 6mm, the main text a further 6mm, and wrapped lines yet another 6mm. The right margin is slightly more flexible, with a few long lines being allowed to encroach slightly if this will save an unwanted line-break.
The section numbers (1-7 in the main text) are treated as a display element, reminiscent of the decorated initial capital letters in older service books, and old manuscripts. They make it very easy to find the start of each section of the text, as well as adding a little 'colour' to an otherwise conservative design. (Although independently conceived, it is interesting to compare these with the even larger section headings in New Patterns for Worship.)
The rubrics and headings are set in italic and positioned one gridline to the left of the main text. These two features help to make it clearer to the reader, the worshipper, that they are a separate, non-spoken, element, and also help to present the structure of the service.
The two-language nature of the text is fundamental to this book and fundamental to its design. Each page is carefully balanced, and the headings and sub-headings are carefully aligned on each spread. Where an English text is shorter than its Welsh equivalent, or vice versa, a blank space is left so that the next section aligns. In other places, where it is necessary to break a long line in one language, I have sometimes made a corresponding line-break in the facing page. (Of course, all these line breaks need careful checking for sense, especially in the Welsh text — although I can read a very little Welsh, it is not up to doing this accurately enough.) Any such necessary line breaks are carefully selected so that the rhythms of speech are maintained, and the line is indented an extra space to show that it is a continuation of the previous line.
Page breaks are also carefully selected. A fundamental rule is that there are no page breaks in the middle of a congregational text, and breaks which lead directly into a congregational response are also to be avoided if possible. Some ministerial texts, notably the Eucharistic Prayers, unavoidably span several pages: here page breaks have been placed between paragraphs, so that the sense and rhythm are broken as little as possible. In several of the prayers, the break immediately follows the Sanctus and Benedictus, giving the minister more time to turn the page.
Another important aspect of the book is that it should be accessible, and in particular it should be as accessible as possible to people with various types of visual impairment. The design follows a number of guidelines for such use. Useful information on this topic can be found from the published RNIB guidelines, websites such as text matters — designing for the visually impaired, and recently-published books such as In Sight: a guide to design with low vision in mind (RotoVision 2004)
Accessibility is aided by a clear and consistent design, reasonably-sized type, inter-line and inter-paragraph spacing, as well as other factors that are helpful for all users, such as avoiding splitting paragraphs across pages.
It is understood that two-colour printing is not proposed for this book. This section was written before that was known.
The rubrics are printed in red, as is traditional (and as the word 'rubric' implies. (They are also printed in italic, so that they are distinguishable by the poorly-sighted, in poor lighting, or when copied to a black-and-white medium.)
The English Common Worship books have the rubrics in a shade known as 'Sarum red', suggested by the Bishop of Salisbury. For this book, I suggest using a brighter shade which is more associated with Wales — the red/coch of Y Ddraig Goch that might be found on a Welsh flag or rugby shirt.
The Design Guide for the dragon logo of the National Assembly of Wales specifies the following shade:
spot colour: Pantone 485Uand this has been used in the sample.
process colour: 100% magenta, 91% yellow
The typeface used is a subtle but major factor in the overall look and usability of a book, and a number of different faces were considered. Accessibility is important, although there is ‘still no conclusive research about the relative legibility of serif and sans serif’ (In Sight): the choice of typeface must be considered on its own merits.
Gill Sans has been used in the English Common Worship books. It is a clear and easy to read type, very British, but also modern-looking. The choice of this face for Common Worship did not meet with unanimous approval. To set the Welsh texts in the same or similar face might lead to some confusion between the English Church's authorized text and that of the Welsh Church, and it is therefore proposed to use a different, distinctive, face for this book. Some sample pages set in Gill Sans are included below.
The typeface Joanna is closely related to Gill Sans, and some trials have been set in this type. However, the italic, although very beautiful and easy to read, is somewhat idiosyncratic. It is best used alone or in small sections, unlike this text which requires large amounts of italic for the rubrics. Consequently the sample Joanna pages have the rubrics set in Gill Sans.
Finally, there are some sample pages in Perpetua, again a design by the British letterer, Eric Gill. The type was first used for an edition of the third-century Passion of Perpetua and Felicity, from which it received its name. It is an elegant and clear type, with a number of subtle features. It has one further advantage for this book, apart from any typographical qualities or religious associations: Gill designed Perpetua whilst he lived at the former monastery at Capel-y-ffin. These samples are therefore set in a typeface designed in Wales, and this is our proposed design.
Simon Kershaw
June 2004