Phil Hodge
LEGIBLEPRAGMATICTYPOGRAPHYSEMANTICPOWERFULDYNAMICbeautiful
Building a Foundation
TYPOGRAPHY BUILDING A FOUNDATION
PREFACEType is one of those things that is around each one of us everyday that we all take for granted. It is much more than just black letters on white paper, it is the side of design that is less obvious but of significant impor-tance.. Typography II has opened the door to expand ones knoledge on just how beautiful type, and the space surrounding, can be.
CONTENTSBUILDING A FOUNDAION
Classifications.....................................................10Anatomy..............................................................12
THE FOUNDATION
Tracking.............................................................16Kerning...............................................................18ColumnWidth...................................................20Alignment...........................................................22Leading..............................................................24Rags....................................................................26
Hierarchy..........................................................30 Semantics............................................................32
BRINGING IT TOGETHER
THE ESSENTIALS
“ ”...beauty, however defined, is key. The beauty of precision; the beauty of expression; the beauty of how one letter conjoins with others on either side of it and above and below; the beauty of how it looks on the page or screen.
Steven Heller
THE FOUNDATIONSECTION ONE
1 Classifications
2 Anatomy
THE FOUNDATIONSECTION ONE
The Foundation . Classifications
CLA
SS
IFIC
AT
ION
S
HumanistJenson MT Std - BoldOl daja e g T jap{ASDMKBACRPER[slkjgalkalk [pa9r4mp
TransitionalBaskerville - SemiBoldOl ieg dapa Hi{ASDMKBPRMOPE[skpaklk [p9ar4mp
Old StyleGaramond - BoldOl i e g dap HiTrnch{ASDMK{ASDMKBACRPER[slkpgalkalk [pa9r4mp
ModernBodoni - BoldOl ieg dap Hi{ASDMKBACRPER[slkpgalkalk[pa9r4mp
11
Slab SerifBaskerville – RegularOlieg dapa Hi{ASMKBPRMOPE[skpaklk no italic
Humanist SansGill Sans - Regular Olieg dapa Hi{ASMKBPRMOPE[skpaklk italic
Grotesque SansHelvetica Neue – Regular Olieg dapa Hi{ASMKBPRMOPE[skpaklk italic
Geometric SansFutura Extra BoldOlieg dap Hi{ASMKBPRMOPE[skpak no italic
The Foundation . Anatomy
AN
AT
OM
Y
TypefaceStem
Serif
Ascender
Spur
Cap Line
X-Height
13
AnatomyCrossbar
Aperture
Crossbar
Descender
Base Line
1 Tracking
2 Kerning
3 Column Width
4 Alignment
5 Leading
6 Rags
THE ESSENTIALSSECTION TWO
Because kerning removes space between letters, it is often mistak- enly referred to as ‘letterspacing.’ In fact, letterspacing means adding
space between letters, not removing it. For our purposes, the term ‘track- ing,’ used in most computer programs that incorporate typesetting, best describes the addition or removal of space between letters. Keep in mind that even the best tracking table sometimes requires minor adjustments, especially at larger point sizes
The Essentials . Tracking
TR
AC
KIN
G
ImaginationImaginationImaginationImagination
Imagination-40
-20
0
20
40
17
Imagination
To imagine is like flying a kite. The mind, loosely tethered, is free to be blown about. Usually the direction it takes just happens but sometimes by tweaking the string it can arrive at an unlikely destination. Take Einstein who, struck with the thought of riding on a shaft of light in outer space while looking at himself in the mirror, interpreted the imagery to come up with the principles of his Theory of Relativity.
Imagination, an unimaginative person once wrote, is what hap-pens when a drunk loses his watch and has to get drunk again to find it. Although fantasy and make-believe flourish in child-hood they rapidly atrophy as one is moulded to fit the adult’s grey consensus of reality. A child, out on a walk with its mother, suddenly cries out, ‘Look, a purple cow,’ The mother, perhaps rather tired and domestically harassed, snaps, ‘Don’tw be silly.’ And then delivers the crunch line: ‘There’s no such thing as purple cows.’
So the child, a vagabond in the backwoods of rationality, is brought up to see the world in prosaic terms of grown-ups and eventually forgets it ever saw a purple cow. Now purple cows walk around unseen by anyone.
The body of text to the right displays typeface ITC Franklin Gothic Std, size 9.5pt with tracking set to 0.
Originally, the term ‘kern’ described the portion of a letterform that extended beyond the body of the type slug. As the example shows,
this adaptation was required in letterforms with angled slopes, so that spacing between letters within a word would remain optically consistent. Today the term ‘kerning’ describes the automatic adjustment of space between letters as prescribed by a table embedded within the digital font.
KE
RN
ING
The Essentials . Kerning
ke
19
kerning
kerning
The example to the left shows text with kerning adjusted.
The example to the left shows text without kerning adjusted.
The area separating fields from each other. The height of a hori-zontal gutter is typically based on the lead- ing of the text type. The
width of a vertical gutter is a distance sufficiently larger than an em space (the width of an uppercase M in the text type) to distinguish columns of text from each other.
The Essentials . Column Width
CO
LU
MN
WID
TH
21
20 pica
Imagination
To imagine is like flying a kite. The mind, loosely tethered, is free to be blown about. Usually the direction it takes just happens but sometimes by tweaking the string it can arrive at an unlikely destina-tion. Take Einstein who, struck with the thought of riding on a shaft of light in outer space while looking at himself in the mirror, inter-preted the imagery to come up with the principles of his Theory of Relativity.
Imagination, an unimaginative person once wrote, is what happens when a drunk loses his watch and has to get drunk again to find it. Although fantasy and make-believe flourish in childhood they rapidly atrophy as one is moulded to fit the adult’s grey consensus of real-ity. A child, out on a walk with its mother, suddenly cries out, ‘Look, a purple cow,’ The mother, perhaps rather tired and domestically harassed, snaps, ‘Don’t be silly.’ And then delivers the crunch line: ‘There’s no such thing as purple cows.’
So the child, a vagabond in the backwoods of rationality, is brought up to see the world in prosaic terms of grown-ups and eventually forgets it ever saw a purple cow. Now purple cows walk around unseen by anyone.
24 pica
Imagination
To imagine is like flying a kite. The mind, loosely tethered, is free to be blown about. Usually the direction it takes just happens but sometimes by tweaking the string it can arrive at an unlikely destination. Take Einstein who, struck with the thought of riding on a shaft of light in outer space while looking at himself in the mirror, inter-preted the imagery to come up with the principles of his Theory of Relativity.
Imagination, an unimaginative person once wrote, is what happens when a drunk loses his watch and has to get drunk again to find it. Although fantasy and make-believe flourish in childhood they rapidly atrophy as one is moulded to fit the adult’s grey consensus of reality. A child, out on a walk with its mother, suddenly cries out, ‘Look, a purple cow,’ The mother, perhaps rather tired and domestically harassed, snaps, ‘Don’t be silly.’ And then delivers the crunch line: ‘There’s no such thing as purple cows.’
So the child, a vagabond in the backwoods of rationality, is brought up to see the world in prosaic terms of grown-ups and eventually forgets it ever saw a purple cow. Now purple cows walk around unseen by anyone.
The four modes of alignment (centered, justified, flush left, and flush right) form the basic grammar of typographic composition. Each
one has traditional uses that make intuitive sense to readers
The Essentials . Alignment
ALIG
NM
EN
T
Imagination
To imagine is like flying a kite. The mind, loosely tethered, is free to be blown about. Usually the direction it takes just happens but some-times by tweaking the string it can arrive at an unlikely destination.
Take Einstein who, struck with the thought of riding on a shaft of light in outer space while looking at himself in the mirror, interpreted the imagery to come up with the principles of his Theory of Relativity.
Imagination, an unimaginative person once wrote, is what happens when a drunk loses his watch and has to get drunk again to find it. Although fantasy and make-believe flourish in childhood they rapidly atrophy as one is moulded to fit the adult’s grey consensus of real-ity. A child, out on a walk with its mother, suddenly cries out, ‘Look, a purple cow,’ The mother, perhaps rather tired and domestically
harassed, snaps, ‘Don’t be silly.’ And then delivers the crunch line: ‘There’s no such thing as purple cows.’
So the child, a vagabond in the backwoods of rationality, is brought up to see the world in prosaic terms of grown-ups and eventually forgets it ever saw a purple cow. Now purple cows walk around
unseen by anyone.
Imagination
To imagine is like flying a kite. The mind, loosely tethered, is free to be blown about. Usually the direction it takes just happens but some-times by tweaking the string it can arrive at an unlikely destination.
Take Einstein who, struck with the thought of riding on a shaft of light in outer space while looking at himself in the mirror, interpreted the
imagery to come up with the principles of his Theory of Relativity.
Imagination, an unimaginative person once wrote, is what happens when a drunk loses his watch and has to get drunk again to find it.
Although fantasy and make-believe flourish in childhood they rapidly atrophy as one is moulded to fit the adult’s grey consensus of real-ity. A child, out on a walk with its mother, suddenly cries out, ‘Look,
a purple cow,’ The mother, perhaps rather tired and domestically harassed, snaps, ‘Don’t be silly.’ And then delivers the crunch line:
‘There’s no such thing as purple cows.’
So the child, a vagabond in the backwoods of rationality, is brought up to see the world in prosaic terms of grown-ups and eventually forgets it ever saw a purple cow. Now purple cows walk around
unseen by anyone.
Center Right
23
Imagination
To imagine is like flying a kite. The mind, loosely tethered, is free to be blown about. Usually the direction it takes just happens but sometimes by tweaking the string it can arrive at an unlikely destina-tion. Take Einstein who, struck with the thought of riding on a shaft of light in outer space while looking at himself in the mirror, interpreted the imagery to come up with the principles of his Theory of Relativity.
Imagination, an unimaginative person once wrote, is what happens when a drunk loses his watch and has to get drunk again to find it. Although fantasy and make-be-lieve flourish in childhood they rapidly atrophy as one is moulded to fit the adult’s grey consensus of reality. A child, out on a walk with its mother, suddenly cries out,
‘Look, a purple cow,’ The mother, perhaps rather tired and domestically harassed, snaps, ‘Don’t be silly.’ And then de-
livers the crunch line: ‘There’s no such thing as purple cows.’
So the child, a vagabond in the backwoods of rationality, is brought up to see the world in prosaic terms of grown-ups and eventually forgets it ever saw a purple cow. Now purple cows walk around unseen by anyone.
Imagination
To imagine is like flying a kite. The mind, loosely tethered, is free to be blown about. Usually the direction it takes just happens but sometimes by tweaking the string it can arrive at an unlikely destina-tion. Take Einstein who, struck with the thought of riding on a shaft of light in outer space while looking at himself in the mirror, interpreted the imagery to come up with the principles of his Theory of Relativity.
Imagination, an unimaginative person once wrote, is what happens when a drunk loses his watch and has to get drunk again to find it. Although fantasy and make-be-lieve flourish in childhood they rapidly atrophy as one is moulded to fit the adult’s grey consensus of reality. A child, out on a walk with its mother, suddenly cries out, ‘Look, a purple cow,’ The mother, perhaps rather tired and domestically harassed, snaps, ‘Don’t be silly.’ And then de-livers the crunch line: ‘There’s no such thing as purple cows.’
So the child, a vagabond in the backwoods of rationality, is brought up to see the world in prosaic terms of grown-ups and eventually forgets it ever saw a purple cow. Now purple cows walk around unseen by anyone.
The example above is similar to what one would find in news print or magazines achieving an equal colum look with justified body text
Appropriate leading for text is as much a function of line length as it is a question of type size and leading. Shorter lines require less
leading; longer lines, more.
The Essentials . Leading
LE
AD
ING
ImaginationImagination
25
18 pt
Imagination
To imagine is like flying a kite. The mind, loosely tethered, is free
to be blown about. Usually the direction it takes just happens
but sometimes by tweaking the string it can arrive at an unlikely
destination. Take Einstein who, struck with the thought of riding
on a shaft of light in outer space while looking at himself in the
mirror, interpreted the imagery to come up with the principles of his
Theory of Relativity.
Imagination, an unimaginative person once wrote, is what happens
when a drunk loses his watch and has to get drunk again to find it.
Although fantasy and make-believe flourish in childhood they rapidly
atrophy as one is moulded to fit the adult’s grey consensus of real-
ity. A child, out on a walk with its mother, suddenly cries out, ‘Look,
a purple cow,’ The mother, perhaps rather tired and domestically
harassed, snaps, ‘Don’t be silly.’ And then delivers the crunch line:
‘There’s no such thing as purple cows.’
So the child, a vagabond in the backwoods of rationality, is brought
up to see the world in prosaic terms of grown-ups and eventually
forgets it ever saw a purple cow. Now purple cows walk around
unseen by anyone.
13 pt
Imagination
To imagine is like flying a kite. The mind, loosely tethered, is free to be blown about. Usually the direction it takes just happens but sometimes by tweaking the string it can arrive at an unlikely destination. Take Einstein who, struck with the thought of riding on a shaft of light in outer space while looking at himself in the mirror, interpreted the imagery to come up with the principles of his Theory of Relativity.
Imagination, an unimaginative person once wrote, is what happens when a drunk loses his watch and has to get drunk again to find it. Although fantasy and make-believe flourish in childhood they rapidly atrophy as one is moulded to fit the adult’s grey consensus of real-ity. A child, out on a walk with its mother, suddenly cries out, ‘Look, a purple cow,’ The mother, perhaps rather tired and domestically harassed, snaps, ‘Don’t be silly.’ And then delivers the crunch line: ‘There’s no such thing as purple cows.’
So the child, a vagabond in the backwoods of rationality, is brought up to see the world in prosaic terms of grown-ups and eventually forgets it ever saw a purple cow. Now purple cows walk around unseen by anyone.
The Essentials . Rags
RA
GS Imagination
To imagine is like flying a kite. The mind, loosely tethered, is free to be blown about. Usually the direction it takes just happens but sometimes by tweaking the string it can arrive at an unlikely destination. Take Einstein who, struck with the thought of riding on a shaft of light in outer space while looking at himself in the mirror, interpreted the imagery to come up with the principles of his Theory of Relativity.
Imagination, an unimaginative person once wrote, is what happens when a drunk loses his watch and has to get drunk again to find it. Although fantasy and make-believe flourish in childhood they rapidly atrophy as one is moulded to fit the adult’s grey consensus of reality. A child, out on a walk with its mother, suddenly cries out, ‘Look, a purple cow,’ The mother, perhaps rather tired and domestically harassed, snaps, ‘Don’t be silly.’ And then delivers the crunch line: ‘There’s no such thing as purple cows.’
So the child, a vagabond in the backwoods of rationality, is brought up to see the world in prosaic terms of grown-ups and eventually forgets it ever saw a purple cow. Now purple cows walk around unseen by anyone.
Hard
27
Imagination
To imagine is like flying a kite. The mind, loosely tethered, is free to be blown about. Usually the direction it takes just happens but sometimes by tweaking the string it can arrive at an unlikely destina-tion. Take Einstein who, struck with the thought of riding on a shaft of light in outer space while looking at himself in the mirror, interpreted the imagery to come up with the principles of his Theory of Relativity.
Imagination, an unimaginative person once wrote, is what happens when a drunk loses his watch and has to get drunk again to find it. Although fantasy and make-believe flourish in childhood they rapidly atrophy as one is moulded to fit the adult’s grey consensus of real-ity. A child, out on a walk with its mother, suddenly cries out, ‘Look, a purple cow,’ The mother, perhaps rather tired and domestically harassed, snaps, ‘Don’t be silly.’ And then delivers the crunch line: ‘There’s no such thing as purple cows.’
So the child, a vagabond in the backwoods of rationality, is brought up to see the world in prosaic terms of grown-ups and eventu-ally forgets it ever saw a purple cow. Now purple cows walk around unseen by anyone.
Soft
1 Hierarchy
3 Semantics
BRINGING IT TOGETHERSECTION THREE
Bringing it Together . Hierarchy
HIE
RA
RC
HY
Crea
tivity
is a
com
pulsive
hum
an u
rge
which
dem
ands
mor
e th
an
ritua
l act
ions
or r
outin
e re
spon
ses, a
nd is
only v
alid w
hen
one
is tr
ad-
ing
expe
rienc
e.Crea
tivi
tyTh
e wo
rd ‘c
reat
ivity’
is fr
eque
ntly
appr
opria
ted
to e
nhan
ce th
e m
ediocr
e or
just
ify th
e m
un-
dane
. Tha
t cea
seless
and
fren
etic
activ
ity -
easy
to m
ista
ke fo
r pur
pose
ful a
ction
- which
with
out a
nyth
ing
new
to s
ay o
nly p
rodu
ces
noise
and
aggr
egat
e. N
o ne
w th
ough
ts, n
o m
agic
mom
ents
, jus
t mor
e pa
tchw
ork
and
finge
rpaint
ing.
An
activ
ity in
which
pro
cess
bec
omes
prod
uct.
The t
rue cr
eativ
e ac
t is
som
ething
else.
It pr
oduc
es s
omet
hing
whic
h ne
ver e
xiste
d be
fore
.
Whe
ther
of s
mall c
onse
quen
ce o
r am
azing sig
nific
ance
, it’s
usu
ally
gene
rate
d by
a s
pont
ane-
ous
insigh
t. A
glim
pse
of th
e blinding
ly ob
vious
ignite
d by
the
heat
off
the
wire
s ca
used
by
shor
t-circ
uitin
g th
ough
ts. I
nsigh
t is
unre
ason
ing.
Geor
ge N
elso
n pu
t it a
noth
er w
ay: ‘
Wha
t the
cre
ative
act
mea
ns’,
he w
rote
, ‘is th
e...s
udde
n
realiza
tion
that
one
has
take
n a
lot o
f disco
nnec
ted
piec
es a
nd fo
und,
not
don
e, a
way
of
putti
ng th
em to
geth
er.’
It wa
s pu
t in
yet a
noth
er w
ay b
y Ber
nard
Sha
w, w
ho in
his la
te 8
0’s
was
inte
rviewe
d by
a re
porte
r who
rem
arke
d th
at o
ver t
he ye
ars
a gr
eat m
any i
nter
estin
g
things
mus
t hav
e ha
ppen
ed to
him
. ‘No
,’ re
plied
Shaw
, ‘inte
rest
ing
things
nev
er h
appe
n to
me.
I ha
ppen
to th
em.’
Whi
le P
aul K
lee
said
that
he
knew
whe
n a
pict
ure
was
finis
hed,
as th
at w
as w
hen
he s
topp
ed lo
okin
g at
it, a
nd it
sta
rted
look
ing
back
.
31
The goal of visual design is to communicate. How you organize and prioritize your elements conveys valuable information about their relative importance. Visual hierarchy aids com-
prehension, reinforces your message, and guides your visitor through your story.
LOOK HERE FIRST
Bringing it Together . Semantic
SE
MA
NT
ICS
CREATIVITY
Creativity is a compulsive human
urge which demands more than ritual
actions or routine responses, and is
only valid when one is trading experi-
ence. The word ‘creativity’ is frequently
appropriated to enhance the mediocre
or justify the mundane. That cease-
less and frenetic activity - easy to
mistake for purposeful action - which
without anything new to say only
produces noise and aggregate. No
new thoughts, no magic moments,
just more patchwork and fingerpaint-
ing. An activity in which process
becomes product.
The true creative act is something
else. It produces something which
never existed before. Whether of
small consequence or amazing
significance, it’s usually gener-
ated by a spontaneous insight.
A glimpse of the blindingly obvi-
ous ignited by the heat off the
wires caused by short-circuiting
thoughts. Insight is unreason-
ing.George Nelson put it another way:
‘ What the creative act means’, he
wrote, ‘is the...sudden realization that
one has taken a lot of disconnected
pieces and found, not done, a way of
putting them together.’ It was put in
yet another way by Bernard Shaw, who
in his late 80’s was interviewed by a
reporter who remarked that over the
years a great many interesting things
must have happened to him. ‘No,’
replied Shaw, ‘interesting things never
happen to me. I happen to them.’
While Paul Klee said that he knew
when a picture was finished, as that
was when he stopped looking at it,
and it started looking back.
33
The word ‘creativity’ is frequently appropriated to Enhance the mediocre or justify the mundane.
Semantics in a general sence refers to the relationships between symbols and what they represent. Writers often play with seman-tics to create interesting stylistic effects or to create a style suited
to a particular context or audience. The example call out above uses semantics to convay a particular mood to the viewer by changing line weights, point sizes and variations adding meaning to the words.
35
This book was designed by Phil HodgeBody text is displayed in Janson MT Std 10/13 point.Example text is displayed in ITC Franklin Gothic Std 9.5 point. Headings are displayed in Helvetica Neue LT Com 85 Heavy Content was quoted by John Kane and Phil HodgePrograms used in process included Adobe InDesign CS5, Photoshop CS5 and Illustrator CS5.
CO
LO
PH
ON
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