Typefaces and newspapers

mandated to provide for their readers, decisions are made on type, style, colour and size of typefaces that form part of the page style sheets.
Typefaces are a set of characters, such as members of the alphabet, that exhibit common design features.
Each typeface is made up of a collection of glyphs, with each different from the other and representing a single alphabetical letter, numeral, punctuation mark or any other symbol related to linguistics.
Today, the terms “typeface’ and “font” are sometimes used interchangeably, but historically the two meant different things.
Whereas “typeface” distinguished between one character design and another, “font” considered size as well.
A 12 point Arial italic for example was seen as a different font from a 15 point Arial italic.
Understandably, there were very limited typefaces during the early days of newspaper production and many of the broadsheets and tabloids looked almost the same in both format and layout.
But technological advancements and the availability of more typeface choices has drastically changed the face of the print media industry. Most typefaces exhibit stylistic variants that include regular, italic bold and condensed.
Stylistic variants have led to the formation of font families, typically defined as a group of typefaces with similar designs and only differing in weight, width or orientation.
These variants give typefaces diverse aesthetic values that maybe manipulated by newspapers to highlight or emphasise information.
For example, “Helvetica” is a font family that consists of several typefaces with similar, rounded stylistic impressions including ultra light, thin, roman, medium and black. 
In newspapers, the space meant to be filled with information is both limited and specific and the design qualities of a typeface are important in determining success in news dissemination. One particular area of the newspaper that very careful considerations on typeface are made is the newspaper’s masthead that is filled with specific and consistent information every time an edition is printed.
Normally, a masthead would provide information about the name of the newspaper, price, slogan or motto, and teasers that tell the reader about other interesting news elsewhere within the product.
The newspaper name has the same qualities as a company logo because it is an image that represents the brand. It does not change unless a major rebranding takes place.
The newspaper name has to be formed by the biggest letters on top of the page so that it stands out and distinguishes it from anything found on the page or anywhere else.
Just about every newspaper has a shorter width than depth and given that the bigger the size of fonts on the masthead the better, the width of letters is particularly essential. Recent rebranding efforts by some Zimbabwean newspapers have regrettably not made them look better.
A daily newspaper rebranded several weeks ago and gave its masthead more prominence. The mast is deeper than it was on the previous design presumably to make the teasers bigger.
The font size on the newspaper name became smaller and leaves space on the right side of the page to accommodate an image teaser dropping to the foot of the masthead.
The overall masthead format is now a typical L-shaped, multi-coloured teaser arrangement engulfing the newspaper name.
But for a newspaper with a printable width of only 262 millimeters, the choice of typeface is rather poor.
Understandably, the paper may have been going for uniformity as the teaser typeface looks similar to the one used on the newspaper name.
The thick typeface, pronounced even more by its characteristic extended “feet” unnecessarily occupies huge acres of width space and a result compromises the value of images on the masthead.
Much like the Sans family of type of typefaces that has loops at the bottom of the page, the lettering used for the teasers leaves a lot of space in between letters and gives the impression of disunity and fragmentation. The font used on the masthead to illustrate page numbers is a good example of what would have been idea for the teasers.
It is thin, almost condensed, rounded and leaving very little space in between letters and numerals.
Had it been used for teasers, its characteristics would make the typeface bigger and more prominent within the limited space and even give equal eminence to imagery. In newspaper design, aesthetic value is secondary only to the need to present information as simplistic and comprehensible manner as possible.
Typeface design is a major part of ensuring that information is passed on to members of the public.
It is essential that typeface arrangement is spot on, and it is even more important that the right style is chosen to ensure linguistic information is properly packaged.
In most newspapers, font families forming their style sheet are routinely used on every page as a way to retain consistency and familiarity that readers may identify as a news organisation’s particular form of presenting information.