Old newspapers are good examples of poorly used text. Although Lupton states that density of the text is key, there is also a point where the line spacing becomes uncomfortable. Newspapers used to squeeze as much text onto on page as possible, using very small font and minuscule line spacing. There is also an issue of hierarchy when it comes to old newspapers. Many old newspapers squeezed multiple major headlines onto one page, pulling a reader's attention in multiple directions, and distracting the reader for the main article.
The constant changing of font size on this newspaper drive my eyes crazy! My eye keeps jumping around and can't settle down in one place to read. Thank god newspapers do not look like this anymore and have adopted a style that guides the reader better.
ReplyDeleteI agree. Looking at that old newspaper is incredibly overwhelming visually. The reader has no idea which articles the headlines correspond to. The density of the words also make it extremely difficult to focus on one single article. This also makes it difficult to focus on the main article of each edition of the paper.
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