Monster Movie Fan's Guide To Japan: New Cover Tweak

Well, we did some additional "tweaking" to the cover of the Monster Movie Fan's Guide To Japan. Here's the result (click on it to see it larger):



Originally, we used the free "Godzilla font" that's available online. With the additional effects by Archie Waugh, the finished looked good to me. (Hey, I'm easy to please!)

However, Bill Bussone provided us with the "G-FAN" version and Archie dived right in and changed the cover. It seems that Archie wasn't 100% satisfied with the other font anyway (something about "kerning" or alignment) and he is very pleased with the new (and, hopefully, final) version.

As Archie explained it:

Armand, look at the spacing on the word locations between the a and the t, and the word accommodations between the a and the t...see that unnatural spacing? That's a kerning problem. Kerning is the way letters fit together in a typeface; with an old typewriter, the letters are evenly spaced, which actually looks bad. In professional typesetting, and computer word processing, each font has it's own properties to make the letters fit smoothly together...

For example, an A does not just go next to a T, it actually tucks slightly under the T: ATA. See? This was not happening properly in the free Godzilla font, and it bothered me. If you open both the new and last ones at the same time, or print them out and compare, you will instantly see the difference.

Kerning is how Charles Johnson and also Powerline recognized that something was wrong with the Dan Rather/Mary Mapes/Lucy Rodriguez national Guard "documents" regarding President Bush...while an attempt had been made to age them, the kerning clearly indicated that the letter could not have been typed on a typewriter (a typewriter can't kern...that is, it can't make tiny adjustments for the shape of individual letters), but had been done in Microsoft Word, and therefore were bogus. Kerning made history!!!

Ah, yes, I do remember that! I also see the difference between the cover with the "free" G-font and the one Bill sent.

Speaking of the Guide, J. D. told me the other day that he is done with the corrections/additions and is shipping the final layouts to me.

Thanks, guys!