#lang pollen

◊(define-meta title "text formatting")
◊(chapter-from-metas metas)

◊margin-note{Specimen of fonts offered by William Caslon, 1728.}

◊image["caslon-specimen.jpg"]

When I tell people I write about typography, they often say, “Oh, you mean fonts?”

Yes and no. Sure, fonts are an important part of typography. But as you've been finding out, there's much more to typography than fonts.

Similarly, there’s more to text formatting than what font to use. Text formatting includes everything that affects the appearance of the characters on the page — not just fonts, but also ◊xref{point size}, ◊xref{bold or italic} styles, and ◊xref{letterspacing}.

The first part of this chapter covers basic and advanced formatting rules. The second part is a gallery of ◊xref{font recommendations} — for those ready to look beyond the limitations of ◊xref{system fonts}.

In this chapter, there aren’t as many bright lines between correct and incorrect habits as in the last chapter. You won’t be able to get by on rote application of rules. You’ll need to start making typographic judgments of your own.