Design space: the Yellow Pages redesigns its typeface Design: Johnson Banks and The Foundry Territory: UK In 1999, the UK's Yellow Pages telephone directory was still the main source of business contact details. The company gave London design company Johnson Banks the job of updating the entire directory, including redesigning the typeface used for the small unpaid entries of a single line. The aim was to reduce the number of pages from about 1,000 to save money on paper. It would also help to accommodate the impending longer telephone code changes. But the entries, printed in 5.5 point type, still had to be legible. Johnson Banks commissioned London-based The Foundry to design a condensed typeface that took less space both vertically and horizontally. To save space vertically, the new typeface had contracted "ascenders" and "descenders," the upward strokes and downward tails of letters. Horizontal space was saved by chiselling slices off rounded letters, so that the ink did not bleed, which can be a problem in small point sizes. Letters could be closer together without affecting legibility. The typeface cut the directory by about 50 pages, resulting in a saving of approximately 500 tonnes of paper or £500,000 per year.