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  • Chapter 9 - Dictionary Typography

  • from Part II - Dictionaries as Books
  • Edited by Edward Finegan, University of Southern California, Michael Adams, Indiana University, Bloomington
  • Book:
    The Cambridge Handbook of the Dictionary
    Published online:
    19 October 2024
    Print publication:
    31 October 2024, pp 173-188

  • Summary

    Dictionaries, both print and digital, rely on type fonts, styles, and sizes to make hierarchies of information within entries clear to dictionary readers. This chapter introduces a doctrine of dictionary typology: The more information of different kinds that a dictionary entry attempts to convey or the more information that readers of a dictionary entry try to manage and absorb – including relations among types of information – the more typography assists in the organization and reception of that information. A corollary principle suggests that the relative value of information should be emphasized typographically, as well. Besides its role in conveying information structure, dictionary typography also contributes to the aesthetics of the dictionary page, along with space, lines, boxes, and pictures of various kinds. Finally, while sighted persons understand typography through the eyes, blind persons know it through their fingers and construe information hierarchies differently, as a result.