Lord of the Rings Fonts

[Greg Davis]

There may be someone out there (aside from Doug) who could answer this, so I thought I'd toss up a post and see if I can get a helpful response.

Does anyone know what fonts (aside from Galahad, which I found out about on the Decipher messageboards) are used in the Lord of the Rings books. I've been thinking about messing around with writing some things up, and I thought it would be cool to make them look as Decipher-like as possible. Also, if someone more clued in on typse-setting than me can help a bit more, what fonts are used where (like headings, sub-headings, general text, etc).

Thanks in advance!



Greg

[Ineti]

I dealt with this very issue on Friday during a slow day at work.

Here's what I've come up with:

It appears that the LOTR RPG uses Galahad for the main chapter titles, and first and second level headings. The font is set in small caps.

For third level headings, sidebar headings, and the headings for certain pieces of info (such as Race:, Reactions:, etc. in stat blocks) they use Albertus, also small caps.

All of the above are colored text, and are all the same color (i.e., all headings are the same color, be they in Galahad or Albertus).

All other body text is in Jenson Pro. Body text is either black or white, depending on the background of the page.

Galahad, Albertus, and Jenson Pro are all available at adobe.com. Albertus and Jenson Pro are excessively expensive, at least for my thin pocketbook. Galahad's only $29, and you can get it cheaper elsewhere on the 'net.

I couldn't find a similar font to Galahad anywhere, so I went ahead and bought that one.

I found that a font called "FlareSerif 821 BT" is a very close approximation for Albertus.

And I found that Goudy is a good replacement for Jenson Pro.

You should be able to find Goudy and FlareSerif free for download somewhere on the net. I already had Goudy on my computer, and FlareSerif was one of the first fonts I found on Friday.

Hope this helps!

[Ineti]

Oh, also, as near as I can measure, most of their pages are laid out in three columns. The three columns are each 2.2" wide, and they are separated by a 0.2" space.

Margins are 0.75" on the bottom, right, and left, and a 1" margin at the top.

And, no, I'm not obessing over this.

Much.

[Greg Davis]

Thanks, Ineti!

I've got Adobe Font Folio 9.0, so I've got all the fonts that you listed, I was just too lazy to dig through the almost 3000 fonts that are installed on my computer to find the right ones.

By the way, thanks for the margin and column information, too. Now, if I could only duplicate the page borders, I'd be set.

Again, though, thanks for the info!



Greg

[Don Mappin]

Like Ineti said, a lot of commerical fonts are used which you can't get cheap. Font Folio is a good place to start ($ expensive).

I have the info you want (typesetting) but that's covered under Trade Dress, which is copy protected. Meaning, replicating the books is a no-no.

Eyeball it and use your best guess and you probably won't get in trouble.

[Greg Davis]

Originally posted by Don Mappin
Like Ineti said, a lot of commerical fonts are used which you can't get cheap. Font Folio is a good place to start ($ expensive).

I have the info you want (typesetting) but that's covered under Trade Dress, which is copy protected. Meaning, replicating the books is a no-no.

Eyeball it and use your best guess and you probably won't get in trouble.

Ok, I'll admit to a bit of confusion here, as I've never heard of 'Trade Dress' before. I'm presuming that it has something to do with style, typesetting (which you already mentioned) and formatting, which would seem to essentially say that "unless you work for Company X, or are liscensed by Company X, you can't design a product (or document) that uses the same design parameters as Company X".

Is that accurate, Don?



Greg

[Don Mappin]

I'm no lawyer, so I'll refer you to the following article.

[Greg Davis]

Thanks for the link, Don...it was an interesting article (and fully explains why it is that you can't go into certain details).


Greg

[Ineti]

Originally posted by Greg Davis
I've got Adobe Font Folio 9.0, so I've got all the fonts that you listed, I was just too lazy to dig through the almost 3000 fonts that are installed on my computer to find the right ones.

By the way, thanks for the margin and column information, too. Now, if I could only duplicate the page borders, I'd be set.

Hey, you're welcome. I priced Font Folio 9 on Amazon and fell out of my chair. If you already have it, bully for you. Us poor peons'll just have to make do with the alternatives.

As for the margin info, you're welcome too, though it was just my eyeballing the pages with a ruler. I'm not even sure the paper is 8.5 x 11, but it's close enough for me.

Don, thanks for that article.

I think that any fan material I come up with and distribute will try to fit in with the design already established by Decipher. I will add a disclaimer to the effect that it is fan-made material and is in no way to be construed as coming from Decipher or is in any way "official." I love the design of the products, and I'd like my fan stuff to look similar, not identical.

Greg, as for the page borders, I bet something could be done in Photoshop or a similar program. Heck, play around with watermarks...

Maybe we could create a fan-based design studio for formatting our fan stuff.

[Jason Durall]

Originally posted by Greg Davis
By the way, thanks for the margin and column information, too. Now, if I could only duplicate the page borders, I'd be set.

You might check with the webmaster over at Valinor, as he's got some sort of page layout which mimics the Decipher LotR RPG one fairly well.

Also, you might also just do things the old-fashioned way, getting a page of parchment paper and staining it with tea, weathering it, and scanning it for the default background for your pages.

[Greg Davis]

I'd never even thought about trying that, Jason! Thanks for the heads-up!



Greg