204 | thinking with type
data tables
new jersey transit, northeastern corridor timetable Original schedule with redesign
by Edward Tufte. From Edward Tufte, Envisioning Information (Cheshire, Conn.: Graphics Press,
1990). The original design (top) is organized with heavy horizontal and vertical divisions. Tufte calls
this a “data prison.” His redesign uses the alignment of the typographic elements themselves to express
the table’s underlying structure.The design of charts and graphs is a rich
area of typographic practice. In a data table,
the grid acquires semantic significance.
Columns and rows contain different types of
content that readers can scan and quickly
compare. Designers (and software defaults)
often over-emphasize the linear grid of a
table rather than allowing the typography to
command the page and stake out its own
territory. As columns of text align visually, they
create implied grid lines on the page or screen.
type crime: data prison The rules and boxes used in data
tables should illuminate the relationships among data, not trap
each entry inside a heavily guarded cell.