Calvino's If on a Winter's Night a Traveler

Type size:  14pt
Leading: 12pt
Head: 5 p 6
Bottom: 6p
Sides: 4p
Page Size:  25 in
Text Block: 22 p width
33 lines

Text set in Tiffany and New Century Schoolbook, serif fonts.

If on a winter's night a traveler (Italian: Se una notte d'inverno un viaggiatore) is a 1979 novel by the Italian writer Italo Calvino. The post modern narrative, is about the reader trying to read a book called "if on a winter's night a traveler". Each chapter is divided into two sections. The first section is in second person, and describes the process of the reader attempting to read the next chapter of the book he or she is reading. The second half is the first part of the new book that the reader (you) finds. Confusing, I know.

Considering the switching of narratives throughout the novel I truly think that a traditional layout alla Beatrice Warde is the only way in which this novel would be legible and understood . There is two fonts being used in the book but in an extremely subtle fashion. The new chapter number (used only when introducing the beginning of a new chapter) and the first page book title is the Tiffany typeface and the text block is in New Century Schoolbook--both work cohesively together. The running head is aligned left and italicized which separates the head from the text block.  The page number is also aligned left which keeps the with the readers natural reading rhythm. The book was written to envelope the reader in a trance, having no big paragraph breaks or spaced leading allows the reader to do so without a strain of the eye because the font is at 14.

This will influence my work as it demonstrated the importance of transparency with particular stories and how a consistent alignment makes for an easy read. Also, it shows how using two fonts in a traditional layout is possible as long as you make the shift in type almost undetectable.