Designing a straight text biography for a self-publishing client who is 
heavily biased toward a dark body face. Her emails to me are in Times Bold.

I sent her a sample design in Adobe Jenson, because off the top of my 
head that's the darkest-appearing standard text face that I have on 
hand, but she feels it's too light. I've explained that her 
idiosyncratic taste may not match that of her readers and that I really 
can't set the book in a semibold or bold font without looking like a 
complete idiot but that I'd look around for something darker than Jenson.

So I'm crowdsourcing here. Anyone have a [polite] suggestion?

Thanks!

Dick

Hoefler text is quite a bit darker than most. Or Elzevier book

Wm Voss

On Tue, 10 Apr 2012 09:12:10 -0400, Dick Margulis
<margulisd@comcast.net> wrote:

>Designing a straight text biography for a self-publishing client who is 
>heavily biased toward a dark body face. Her emails to me are in Times Bold.
>
>I sent her a sample design in Adobe Jenson, because off the top of my 
>head that's the darkest-appearing standard text face that I have on 
>hand, but she feels it's too light. I've explained that her 
>idiosyncratic taste may not match that of her readers and that I really 
>can't set the book in a semibold or bold font without looking like a 
>complete idiot but that I'd look around for something darker than Jenson.
>
>So I'm crowdsourcing here. Anyone have a [polite] suggestion?
>
>Thanks!
>
>Dick

In article <6pOdneyBuPAsrBnSnZ2dnUVZ_qudnZ2d@supernews.com>,
 Dick Margulis <margulisd@comcast.net> wrote:

> Designing a straight text biography for a self-publishing client who is 
> heavily biased toward a dark body face. Her emails to me are in Times Bold.
> 
> I sent her a sample design in Adobe Jenson, because off the top of my 
> head that's the darkest-appearing standard text face that I have on 
> hand, but she feels it's too light. I've explained that her 
> idiosyncratic taste may not match that of her readers and that I really 
> can't set the book in a semibold or bold font without looking like a 
> complete idiot but that I'd look around for something darker than Jenson.

Is it the overall colour she finds too light, or the weight of the 
stems? If the latter, maybe a slightly "Didone" type like _Electra_ or 
_Goudy Modern_ would work. Then there's _Caslon Three_, but that's 
pretty much a bold face despite not being so named.

Nicolas Cochin has quite dark letters, but the small x-height lightens 
the overall colour -- and it may be a little too quirky for a book.

-- 
Odysseus

Am 10.04.2012 15:12, schrieb Dick Margulis:
> Designing a straight text biography for a self-publishing client who is
> heavily biased toward a dark body face. Her emails to me are in Times Bold.
>
> I sent her a sample design in Adobe Jenson, because off the top of my
> head that's the darkest-appearing standard text face that I have on
> hand, but she feels it's too light. I've explained that her
> idiosyncratic taste may not match that of her readers and that I really
> can't set the book in a semibold or bold font without looking like a
> complete idiot but that I'd look around for something darker than Jenson.
>
> So I'm crowdsourcing here. Anyone have a [polite] suggestion?
>
> Thanks!
>
> Dick

A free font with "dark and meaty serifs" is called Vollkorn: 
http://friedrichalthausen.de/?page_id=411

Helmut

On Tuesday, 10 April 2012 18:42:10 UTC+5:30, Dick Margulis  wrote:
> Designing a straight text biography for a self-publishing client who is 
> heavily biased toward a dark body face. Her emails to me are in Times Bold.
> 
> I sent her a sample design in Adobe Jenson, because off the top of my 
> head that's the darkest-appearing standard text face that I have on 
> hand, but she feels it's too light. I've explained that her 
> idiosyncratic taste may not match that of her readers and that I really 
> can't set the book in a semibold or bold font without looking like a 
> complete idiot but that I'd look around for something darker than Jenson.
> 
> So I'm crowdsourcing here. Anyone have a [polite] suggestion?
> 
> Thanks!
> 
> Dick

Try Comenia Text Pro from Typographica