A problem with Alegreya

Fiz de la Peña

Hello everyone,

Several months ago, I discovered a French web site called Cairn (https://www.cairn.info), which publishes articles on the Internet from magazines dealing with the human and social sciences. Some of the articles are set on Alegreya (a typeface from Google Fonts) and I was piqued from the start by the shape of it. It has a touch of the rustic, which is completely the opposite of the kind of fonts that I use and love, but I definitely thought that I should give it a try.

I used it in a small document of no more than 1 500 words and was (again) extremely disappointed with the final result. As it has happened in the past, the outcome seems to have very little to do with the letters that I had seen on the screen where the original article was. Is it because of the space between lines? Maybe the space between letters? Should I max out the typeface and force it to surpass the 100 % mark?

I am enclosing two screen captures. I think the one that is attached to the message (and not the one within the message) is the one having the actual size. At least, that's how I visualize it on my 13'3 inches MacBook Air. I hope the image helps you to see how Alegreya is deployed on the article. My aim is to get this same result on a printed sheet of paper.

Could anyone please help with this issue?

Thanks for your help and advice.

Andreas Stötzner

Fiz, would you care to explain what differences you watch between the print output and the screen renderings of Alegreya?

John Savard

What differences you see. The word "observe" would also work, although it is a synonym for both "see" and "watch", which, of course, doesn't mean that see and watch are synonyms of each other. If you notice a difference, then you have seen it. If you watch something, that means you are continuing to look at it over a span of time - to see, perhaps, if it changes, if it does anything. Since ink on paper doesn't usually move around, one would not watch the differences between two typefaces.

I mention this for information; I understand such mistakes are easy if English is not your first language.

Examples:

I watched the bird in the nest, to see when it would fly away.

I observed the bird in the nest, to see when it would fly away.

I saw the bird take flight..

I observed the bird taking flight.

Now, why the last two examples change the form of "take flight" is a characteristic of English so complicated that I don't recall offhand how to explain it.

Andreas Stötzner

thank you John.

although, after your explanation, I have to admit that I actually do watch typefaces (over a long span of time).

Fiz de la Peña

Andreas Stötzner said:

Fiz, would you care to explain what differences you watch between the print output and the screen renderings of Alegreya?

I have just realized that I have only enclosed one single document featuring Alegreya and not two. 

I really cannot tell you what the differences are. Maybe it's due to the tracking and interlining settings they have used on the web page, but the output I get using my printer looks just different to the beautiful composition of the Cairn website. I guess I must be doing something wrong, as the printed page I get renders the shape of the letters correctly - that is, there are no smudges or ink blotches.

Cristóbal Henestrosa

What about putting the image of the website below a textbox in your document? Maybe even with the very same text, if you can copy & paste from the website. That way it might be easier to compare both samples in detail, and adapt/correct your document accordingly (point size, tracking, leading, and so on).

Cristóbal Henestrosa

It is also worth noting that, if it works perfectly on some screen, it probably won’t work very well when printed. It is likely that you should/must design specifically for every single medium to get optimal results.

Fiz de la Peña

Cristóbal Henestrosa said:

It is also worth noting that, if it works perfectly on some screen, it probably won’t work very well when printed. It is likely that you should/must design specifically for every single medium to get optimal results.

Thanks for your help and advice.