Dracula Book Project Synopsis

Choosing a Text

When I chose to use Dracula as my source text for my book, I knew that this text would help give me some direction as to how I would format my book. I took a Gothic Literature J-Term class two years ago in which Dracula was one of our required readings. Knowing this book came from the Gothic era helped me make some informed decisions for my book.

Choosing a Layout

Dracula is a piece of Gothic Literature. I looked up what book layouts were used during the Gothic era and the Golden Ratio is what came up, which was helpful since that was what we had learned in class.

Choosing Typefaces

Dracula was published in 1897 in England. When choosing text for my body copy I knew I wanted an English typeface that would have been around during that time. I chose Baskerville, Caslon, and Clarendon as my typeface options. In the end I chose Caslon because I thought the wide x-width and serifs made it easy to read in long paragraphs as well as the fact that Calson is an English typeface that existed at the time of the publishing of Dracula. I experimented with various different font sizes and leadings and found that Caslon at 11 pt size and 14 pt leading was the most legible. 

For my headings I knew I wanted a more classic gothic style font. Initially I chose Olde London, but after some discussion thought that the typeface had some elements that were a bit too delicate. From here I chose to use Fraktur - a gothic typeface but without those delicate features. Also, Fraktur has a nice "f" and "p" with terminals that look like daggers, which fits into the more sinister themes of Dracula quite nicely.