font sizes for lyrics

[Jimboyaka]

I'm laying out a cd, and they want the lyrics inside, but it's only a 4 page insert ( left and right inside for info). Discmakers recommends no smaller than a 6 point font, but doesn't look like that will allow the lyrics to all fit. does anyone have experience with using a smaller sized font and it still being legible? i'm just using Arial and doing it Illustrator, nothing fancy

[austininin]

whenever i run out of room i like to utilize the space underneath where the cd goes. but i guess if you have to get them that small a good idea would be to make sure you don't put white/light text on a dark background. the ink will eat up all of your counters.

[electr.]

excactly!
If you use a typeface in solid black on a white background, you can even go to 4 pt.
why not using a condensed typeface?
trade gothic condensed for exampel is still pretty good legible around 5 pt and will only use 70 percent of the space that arial will use. you have to increase the spacing though, otherwise it'll look like shite.

[Jimboyaka]

thanks. looks like they're gonna have to settle for black on white

[vastagh]

i did 4-5.5pt. type on the new Old Crow package, dk. brown on some faint 'weathered paper' texture and it came out really nice. lots of lyrics. 16 panels maybe.

seemed super small screen but it did the job in the actual print.

[HomeBrewed]

i did 4-5.5pt. type on the new Old Crow package, dk. brown on some faint 'weathered paper' texture and it came out really nice. lots of lyrics. 16 panels maybe.

seemed super small screen but it did the job in the actual print.

Yes- it looks great!

[uglybogus]

You can work with the band to edit down the lyrics, sometimes just including a chorus and a verse is enough to get the idea of the song across. You can also play wiht diffrnt fonts, some are amde to work better at smaller sizes. Since arial was created as a screen font back in the day, it was never really supposed to be used in print.

[standard]

seriously, who reads 16 panels of 4-5 pt lyrics?

that's not a jab at the designer. that's a jab at the lyricist.