Law of Optical Volumes: The Math Behind Wired’s New Logo

When the February issue of Wired Magazine debuted with a new logo, we explained inside the magazine that it “obeys the Law of Optical Volumes.” We were being coy –many readers went scurrying to Wikipedia and Google to investigate this curious law, only to find … nothing.

Here’s the skinny: The Law of Optical Volumes is Wired creative director Scott Dadich’s term for a typography rule that governs the spacing of characters within a font. The theory behind it has been evident on newsstands for years now, thanks in part to typography guru Jonathan Hoefler, whose firm Hoefler & Frere-Jones designed Wired’s new typefaces used throughout the magazine. You can also see Hoefler’s work at typography.com – or in The Wall Street Journal, Esquire and Martha Stewart Living.

And here’s a definition: The Law of Optical Volumes states that the area between any two letters in a word must be of equal measure throughout the word, and remain consistent throughout the body of text.

The Law boils down to the science of kerning. In typography jargon, kerning is the act of adjusting the space between two letters to make words and sentences lay out more evenly. For example in the word “VAST,” there is usually reduced space between the V and A, and maybe extra space between the S and T. Otherwise the “VA” would seem too far apart and the “ST” would seem cramped.

[Paul Boutin: wired.com]

Via Slashdot.