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How to Create a Type Specimen Book

A type specimen is a book or catalog that displays various types of fonts or typefaces. A type specimen book is published by printers or type font developers as a marketing tool. Its purpose is to advertise and display various fonts available and their qualities. To do this, a type specimen book often has pages of type and font examples. The old versions of specimen books can be quite valuable, as type specimen books are continuously created for the web.

Things You'll Need

  • Different types of font specimens
  • Information about the font specimens chosen
  • PDF software
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Instructions

    • 1

      Gather different fonts for the type specimen book. These can be fonts from software programs, such as Microsoft Word, or include unique and different fonts that you may have to find online through library websites.

    • 2

      Open a Microsoft Word document and save it as your type specimen book. Add one font per page, so create pages as necessary. The fonts should start on page 3.

    • 3

      Add the fonts to their respective pages in the document. Create a header for each font type with its name.

    • 4

      Write each letter of the alphabet in uppercase and lowercase. Place each letter's upper- and lowercase next to each other, so the reader can distinguish and analyze each letter at a time. Distinguish the two cases by making the lower case a color other than black. Use a subtle color, such as navy blue or army green.

    • 5

      Write a couple of lines with the font to show the reader how the font type looks in practice. While it may look good as a singular letter, font can drastically change the overall look of the paragraph.

    • 6

      Add a small section about the font. Include the designer and developer, along with the year and place of development, if possible. This should be short and precise.

    • 7

      Create a title page and an index for the book. Insert them on page 1 and 2 respectively.

    • 8

      Save the document, once you are done with each font type specimen description. Save the file as a PDF file. Publish the book as an ebook or send it to a printer, who can print it for you.

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