Typography(The study of font)

What is “Typography?”

• The study and “process” of typefaces, and the art and technique of printing

• “Study”• Legibility or readability of typefaces and their layout

• Attractiveness of typefaces and their layout

• Functionality and effectiveness of typefaces and their layout

• How a typeface/layout combo “enhances” or “honors” content

• “Process”• Artistic composition of individual type

• Setting and arrangement of type

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Goals of typographic design• Typography plays an important role in how

audiences perceive your document and its information.

• Good design is about • capturing your audience’s interest and

• helping your audience gather information quickly and accurately.

• Typography creates relationships between different types of information, both organizing this information and keeping it interesting.

Serif: has lines, curves, or edges extending from the ends of the letter.

Sans Serif: is straight-edged or without lines.

Script: looks like handwriting.

Example Text

Example Text

Example Text

(Serif)

Typeface

Each design has a name and is intended to convey a specific feeling.There are basically three types of faces: serif, sans serif, and script.

Font

• Definition: A font is a specific member of a typeface family such as roman, bold, or italic. Changing the size also changes a font.

• EXAMPLE:• Arial: abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz

abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz

• Each set includes upper- and lowercase letters, numerals, and punctuation.

Serif vs. Sans Serif

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Legibility and font familiesOnline Print

Serifs create distinctions between characters (uppercase “I” and lowercase “L” )

Appears blurry

Helps the reader follow text easily

Serif fonts have contrasting strokes and lines

Helps move reader’s eye character to character

Helps move reader’s eye character to character

Sans serif fonts have uniform strokes throughout

Helps readers easily read text

Makes words in a sentence hard to follow

Stroke

Line

Stroke

Some Typeface Examples• Quick brown foxes jump – Arial Black

• Quick brown foxes jump - Times New Roman

• Quick brown foxes jump - Bookman Old Style

• Quick brown foxes jump - Courier New

• Quick brown foxes jump - Trebuchet MS

• Quick brown foxes jump - Comic Sans MS

• - Webdings

Size

Definition: Font size generally refers to the height of the font, usually measured in points.

There are 72 points to an inch.

This is 10 point type.

This is 12 point type.

This is 18 point type.

This is 24 point type.

This is 36 point type.

This is 48 point type.

Match the Job

To choose an appropriate typeface, generate adjectives that describe the mood or feeling that you want achieved. (Ex: masculine, strong, elegant, romantic, friendly, dramatic, etc.) Then choose a typeface with a personality that matches the adjectives. Remember that the typeface must be compatible with the content of the words and the document message.

BULLDOZER (Appropriate)

(Inappropriate)

Select a typeface that matches the document content.

Typography and Print

• Typography is defined in relation to print

• History of (Western) printing• Johannes Gutenberg

• Europe’s first printer (42-line Bible, 1455), first designer of typeface

• Gothic type: modeled after German script

• Goal: To replicate the look of a manuscript Bible

• Aldus Manutius• Designed “Italic” type (“of Italy”) in the 1490s

• Modeled on handwriting of Venetian clerks

• Compact form allowed for printing of smaller books

Typography and PrintGerman

ScriptGothic Type

Manutius’ Italic

Creating Type

“Anatomy of a letter” - Some terms eventually associated with the potential features of type design

Movable Type

• Made of Cast Metal

• One per character, space, punctuation, etc.

• A page would be filled with thousands of these

Movable Type

Typography and Print: Creating Type

Leading

Kerning

Alignment / JustificationLeft-aligned text is the most legible, because it matchesthe way that we read left-to-right. 

Center-aligned text is considered less legiblebecause the ragged starting edges make it difficult

for the reader to track from one line to the next.Center-aligned is often used for titles.

 Small amounts of text on the right

side of the page should be right-aligned.This text is difficult to read because

of the ragged left edge.

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Similarity and alignment

• Aligned text creates a line in your design; such lines help readers draw connections between different parts of a document.

Readability

Readers only want information that is easy to read, understand and use.

• Choose legible typefaces appropriate for the subject matter

• Ensure readability by making sure the type:

• is big enough to read

• is set at a line length that

• is not too long or too short provides a contrast to the background

• Use no more than two type faces per document (variety is accomplished by using styles such as bold, italic, etc.).

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Contrast and font families• To create contrast,

you could use two font families, one serif and one sans serif.

Heading is set in Impact—a sans serif font

Subheading is set in Georgia—a serif font

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Hierarchy and typography

• Use typography to guide readers through the levels of your document.

• Use different headings by changing font family, font type, font size, font color.

• To promote uniformity and help your audiences navigate, keep typographic choices consistent for each subsection throughout the document.

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These headings look the same because they express the same level of hierarchy

Different levels use different font sizes, font families, font colors, and leading.

Top-level headings can use unconventional fonts