Schuyler Quentel
Reflections on the groundbreaking design of one of the premier luxury bibles on the market today
Requirements
In the spring of 2013, Schuyler approached 2K/DENMARK with considerations for a new line of luxury editions. We were supplied with a list of values to be expressed in the design: Legibility, Attention to Detail, Elegance, Clarity and Beauty. These were not to be small, thinline or portable bibles, but full on, luxurious reading editions. It's a pleasure to be given such a task, an opportunity to flex some typographic muscles. The standout qualities are Elegance and Beauty. Legibility and Clarity is key to every bible we design, but it's rare that economy and small size gives way to beauty. Formal requirements from Schuyler were:
1500 - 1600 pages
6" x 9" Trim Size
1.5 cm margins
serif typeface
two colour text
high legibility
paragraph headings
italics for inserted text
references and notes separated from the bible text
footnote and cross reference callers should visually distinct
verse numbers should be prominent
running headers with chapter numbers
Hebrew characters in the acrostic poems
Challenges
The NASB translation is medium length at 4,200,000 characters, 23.6 words pr. sentence, paragraphed with subheadings and with a large amount of cross references, footnotes and poetic text. As such, it does not pose any extraordinary challenges to the design – apart from the number of cross references and footnotes (up to 100 on a page!).
We identified the following issues that needed special attention in these editions:
Running headers tend to clash with subheadings when they appear at the top of columns.
Cross references take up a lot of space, which decreases elegance and increases page count.
Cross reference- and footnote callers need to be visually distinct.
Solutions
Running headers printed in secondary colour to separate them from subheadings
Saving space in cross reference
Use short names of books in cross references.
Run on individual cross references, separated by white space.
Set in sans serif; decreases optical weight of cross references and saves space.
Only indicate referred chapter-verse number once, in bold for easy reference.
Set with less leading than the bible text.
Cross references are called out with alphabetical markers, and footnotes with numerals. Both systems reset each page. The references are grouped and preceded by their chapter-verse, which disambiguates references in case the numbering resets to “a” on a page.
General design considerations
The NASB was typeset as a red letter version, substituting for black letter before going to press. In this way, a potential later red letter version can be output from the same set of files, and there is only one set of files to keep current. For a red letter edition, the secondary colour would not be used for the chapter numbers.
Many typefaces were considered for this design and a lot of standard workhorse typefaces were discarded in favour of the luxurious beauty of Milo Serif from American type designer Michael Abbink. Milo Serif has the added advantage of combining well with the Milo sans serif companion typeface, that we are using for non scripture materials. We are very happy with the performance of this type family in these editions.
Finesse and innovation
It was clear that the large amount of cross references were going to impact the elegance of the page. We needed to typeset the cross references very space efficiently but also make the pages look elegant and clearly separate the cross references and notes from the bible text. We came up with the idea of treating footnotes and cross references as a single element, tied together by a red hairline. Our normal approach is to lock every element to the baseline grid to ensure line on line printing, so in this case we've kept everything locked around the space of the hairline separator. That way there is a clear rhythm to the whitespace around it. The footnotes are anchored to the hairline from the bottom and grow upwards from there, so they form an element with hairline and cross references. The innovation is in how the cross references are allowed to grow. They are locked by their top to the hairline and grow downwards from there. We then define a minimum and a maximum lower page margin and when the footnotes exceed the maximum, the whole system of footnotes, hairline and cross references are moved up by one unit of the baseline grid. So for the first time we have a system where we can prioritize white space on the page when the amount of cross references allow it, or a maximum efficiency setting of the cross references when needed, all of which gives way to the larger priority of spacious and elegant bible text. This is a truly groundbreaking setup and one that wouldn't be possible without the coding prowess of the 2K/DEVELOPMENT team. While the cross references are spanned across both columns at the bottom of a page in a nice taper, the footnotes are kept in the outside column, creating symmetry across a spread, gathering the scripture text towards the centre of the spread. We believe it helps readability and makes for a cleaner and more attractive page if we can use whitespace and extras to gather rather than fracture the arrangement of elements on the page.
In renaissance book printing it was customary to taper the bottom of the column on exit-pages. We have echoed this tradition on our exit-pages, by moving the footnotes/cross references up below the end of the scripture text, finishing out the page nicely as well as reinforcing the concept of the fluid bottom margin. The footnotes span both columns on exit-pages to create symmetry on the single page, mirroring the renaissance ideal. It's important for us to always carry through design concepts in as many areas as possible. We believe this helps create a unified whole, when the reader can recognize subtle design principles throughout the bible. It's the same principle at work when we use serif typefaces to signify scripture text throughout the bible.
The front endpapers are printed as presentation pages with an Arts and Crafts style vignette, to reinforce the hand-crafted, luxurious feel of the book-block and binding style.
These editions are furnished with a full map section from Oxford Cartographers – arguably the finest maps available. We have worked together with Oxford Cartopgraphers to integrate the map signature in this design, including creating a new typesetting of the map index in the design of the interior pages as well as laying out a page template to fit the maps into.
Conclusion
We would like to thank Schuyler for the opportunity to meet the challenges of the Quentel luxury editions. The special considerations of the cross reference/footnote system pushed our Design team to come up with innovative solutions that again challenged the development team to develop new automation techniques. Working on this project has given us new tools and techniques, and given Schuyler a new line of luxury editions. It's a process we are very proud to have been part of.
No expense is spared when finishing out the Schuyler Quentel bible line. The best paper, the best print and truly luxurious book binding with real goatskin and 4 reading ribbons.
The table of content has been layed out to reflect the structure of the bible. The scripture content is grouped by testament and is typeset in Milo Serif to echo the design of the actual text. Both long and short names of the books are listed as an explanation of the abbreviations. The non scripture materials are listed before and after the testaments in the sans serif Milo typeface, and indented to clearly separate it as additional content. Preliminary pages are numbered with roman numerals, so that page 1 starts on the half title page of genesis. The map section is printed in the rear endpapers, and as such are not numbered.