Typography

Ina Saltz

Important and beauty of letter forms.

Traditions, practices and functions of its own.

Can help form critical first impression of the message.

Can appear trad vs modern, friendly, expressive.

Choose message and type that fits together.

People – more visually sophisticated – can sense the difference.

Type has a personality.

Powerful boost to the message

Some examples – matter of life and death.

For example – signage on highways.

Also signage on prescription pills

Proper proportions.

Elements interacting with each other.

Relationships between elements.

Sum total of good decision making.

Some resources in the exercise files.

Serifs – extenders, little feet.

Capital and little letters.

Angles of serifs change.

Shapes and weights of serifs vary too.

Bracketed – curved transitions

Unbracketed – sharp 90 degree angle into serif

Slab – horizontal strokes – same width as vertical strokes (very blocky or shabby)

Sans Serifs – no serifs.

Text type -designed to be read in large quantities, in small sizes. Also called body copy, body type.

Display type – designed to be reading small quantities at large sizes.

Text type – easy to read.

Smooth reading is the goal.

Some examples – open spaces, medium weight, easy to identify.

Display Type – unique form – meant to be very visible.

Text – can be display, but display very rarely as text.

Carved greek letters

Roman capitals – creation of serifs.

Charlemagne – letter forms

Movable Type – Gutenberg – black letter forms.

Era of type

Belong to a recognised tradition.

No single universal system.

Oldstyle (15th century): Caslon, Sabon, Bembo, Garamond – low contrast between thick and thin strokes. Long extenders, descenders.

Transitional (mid 18th century): Baskerville, Bell, Bulmer, Georgia – sharper, flatter serifs, tighter curves, stress in vertical letters – more obvious.

Modern (late 18th century): Bodoni, Didot, Modern No. 20, New Caledonia – contrast, unbracketed serifs.

Slab Serifs (late 18th century): Rockwell, Memphis, Serifa, Vitesse – lack of contrast between strokes.

Sans Serif – Grotesque, Humanist (Gill, Myriad), Geometric (Futura, Kable, Century Gothic)

All display types.

Scripts – Snell, Dorchester, Bickham

Informal scripts – dakota, mistral, zapfino

Add a a bit of pizzazz.

Blackletter or Fraktur – fete fraktur

Heavy in appearance.

Too many – visual cacophony.

Helvetica – lots of weights, widths.. Family members work together well.

Contrast/ differentiation: body vs headline.

Don’t need more than 2.

Basic characteristics – historical era

Same designer- Eric Gill

Opposites

Similar Body Height.

Stylistic conflict – be careful.

Third typeface – slab serif.

Upper case vs lower case.

Upper case – majuscules.

Stronger presence – more visual weight, command more attention.

Miniscules – lower case.

More personal, friendly, warmer.

Work better together

Baelline,

x-height

Ascenders, descenders = extenders.

Cap height.

Serifs – feet

Bowls – rounded part.

Stem, arms

G – ear.

S – spine

M – shoulder

Foot, leg.

Q – tail

A – crossbar

Bar – e

Enclosed space – counter space.

Dot – jot

Endpoint of letter – terminal

G – loop.

A – apex.

Single or double story forms – a, g.

ligatures – joined letters

Measured in points.

1 inch = 6 picas = 72 points

There are 12 points in 1 pica.

Based on traditions of movable type.

Set width – x height might be same, but different x -height.

Measure – width of line type.

Also measured in picas.

Family – related type faces. Meant to work together.

Combinations of weights, widths, slopes.

Trajan – quite small family.

Universe – very large family

Chronicle – more than 100.

Names come from

Weight – extra light, roman, semibold,

Width – condenses, roman, extended.

Slope – italic or oblique version. Italic – more refined, oblique – slanted roman.

Masthead

Main Cover Line, Secondary Cover Line

Logo, Date, Headline

Headline, Description, Byline.

Folio – page number, date of issue.

Captions and credits.

Legal language – Indicia

Grayscale or tonal weight

Typeface, size leading and tracking.

Edward Johnson – father of modern calligraphy.

Task – make beautiful letters and arrange them well.

Spacing – arranging

kerning – individual letters

tracking – group of letters

Typefaces – often already adjusted.

Larger sizes – more manual.

Create the appearance of even spaces between letters.

Curving with serifs – a bit trickier – harder to get them together.

Tracking – overall adjusting

Leading – space between baseline and baselines

Tracking – minimal adjustments.

Avoid unsightly widows and orphans.

Can also avoid rivers of text

Normal leading is 2 points greater than text size.

Five kinds  left right, justified, catered, asymmetrical.

Flush left, rag right.

Justified – created by varying tracking.

Can also mix alignments

Hyphenation and Justification

These are called h and js

Good word spacing – should be invisible.

Just enough space to read groups

6 words per line minimum.

Too short – creates rivers

Indents – new paragraph.

Where one starts, one ends.

Should be easily visible.

One pica – good starting point.

More dramatic – very wide indent.

Also typographic device.

extend beyond the justified text – hanging punctuation.

Larger ones – don’t extend.

Use mart quotes

Use the right font –

Don’t add letter outlines – strokes

Avoid stacking type – especially lower case.

Reduce Acronyms/ small caps

Use numbers – reduce them

Space out upper case letters, not lower case.

Originated with handmade writing

Pictographs – ideographs -> sounds -> words.

Calligraphy – never been more popular – part of our visual culture.

Sketches of type faces in early stages.

Sketch before digital

Shapes of letters – far from random.

Underlying design characteristics.

Groupings – ONARS

Optically equal vs mechanically equal.

Sizing of bowls – depends on bottom.

Stroke width, cap height, curved letters – slightly above (appears to be the same

Terminal strikes – same angle

Shapes of serifs – all match

Fontlab

Legibility – ability to decipher something

See the differences between one letter and another – function of type design.

serif – more legible

Readability- how much the reader wants to read the text.

Many ways to make the same text more inviting

Creating entry points – ways to dip in the text

Legibility – how well they can see.

E.g. highway typography

Space between lines.

Line length

52-70 characters per line.

Size of type – 8-10, 12 point.

Screen type – increase tracking and leading.

High contrast makes for easier reading.

Texts/ images

White on black – not ideal

Package separation

Within package hierarchy.

Formality vs informality

Symmetry and asymmetry

Complexity vs simplicity

Traditional roman – formal, justified also

Informal – bright colour, imagery.

Symmetry – formality, quiet authority.

Asymmetry – action, excitement.

Simplify – can be very powerful,

Complexity – needs to be powerful and organised. Authority and tradition

Building blocks of design.

Arranging type text etc.

Built into inDesign.

More complex – varies.

12 column – classic grid.

More flexible – better a grid is.

Break through the grid- allow for sense of action

Cohesion

Scale and contrast – make it more visually dynamic.

Start by figuring out what and who you want to communicate.

HIerarchy.

Bigger is better – more important.

The higher – more important

Convey an idea

Example – Herb Lubalin

Massin – french example

Message – match the words with the image.

Needs a sense of play.

Modify the shapes of the letters.

Need a good idea.

Emotional component – always present

Identify and use this

Often linked to repeated use.

Logos – engraved on collective consciousness.

Also history – childhood memories.

Type – uses special effects

Also type that is physically 3D

Pitfalls to avoid – drop shadows etc – less is more

One or two is probably fine.

More you pile on – ignore the type’s counterspaces.

Needs to do more than just look cool

Type sculptures.

Link to history – height width and depth.

Impression of depth.

Wrap around the edge

Floating above building

Legible, readable, distraction.

Arabic numerals

Different o our latin letters.

Some fonts have numbers all the same height – line numbers

Work well with capital letters.

Tabular number – same height and fixed width – for use in charts.

Old style – different – defenders – more for in text.

Look for a typeface with lining and old face.

Most fonts have a set of the most common fractions.

Properly weighted fractions.

Not part

Dingbats, printer characters.

Thousands of fonts – just hold ding bats.

Alternate character sets.

Optional characters.

Expert sets.