Here’s a fun game you can play to help you What Is Typogaphy? identify and sans-serif : http://www. tothepoint.co.uk/more/fun/shoot_the_serif/ is the art of arranging text so that it is easy for the viewer to take in the content that is being typeset. Some designers feel that the type should not interfere with the content, but just exist as a container, while some believe that the type should say something about the content. This is a secondary issue that Sans-serif is very subjective and a good designer knows when to use which approach.

The focus will be on the primary objective of typography: legibility. When a document, poster or website, a designer must take into account a number of parameters such as , size, , , justification and layout to name a few. Besides knowing what these terms mean and what values to use for them, a good designer also use three other things: their own judgement Old style serif and aesthetic, attention to detail and consistency.

Helvetica Neue Light 10 pt

This is the typeface Neue Light. Helvetica Neue Light 12 pt font I Shot The Serif Helvetica Neue Light 14 pt font Transitional serif This is probably one thing everyone knows about typefaces. A serif is the small line attached to the end of Times New Roman Italic 9 pt font a stroke in a letter, which are basically an artifact of the This is the super- typeface Times Times New Roman Regular 10 pt font pens used to typeset text before the printing New Roman. press was invented. Conversely, sans-serif typefaces Times New Roman Bold 11 pt font do not have the lines at the ends of the strokes. Serif typefaces are generally considered to be less ‘modern’ Modern serif What The Font than sans-serif typefaces — sans-serif typefaces have a ‘cleaner’ look. First things first: a designer needs to know the difference between a typeface and a font. These are some of the most commonly mixed-up terms when discussing As a rule of thumb, it is best to use serif typefaces when typography. A typeface is actually what most people think of as a font: Helvetica designing for print and sans-serifs when designing Light or Times New Roman. However, these are actually called typefaces, or for the screen. But of course, it is up to the designer families of . A font would be a particular variation of the typeface, such as, to make what they think is the best decision for their Helvetica Light in 12 or Times New Roman in 11 point with bold font weight. project.

5 Does This Typeface Make Me Look Fat? Don’t Weight!

There is also another subclass of typefaces, known 2 Some typefaces do not Okay, this one’s easy. Font weight refers to the come with variants, in as fixed-width or monospace. These are basically thickness of the character outlines relative to the 1 As opposed to which case your computer proportional typefaces, typefaces where each character occupies the might fake this by offsetting character height. Usually the bold variant2 of a where thinner characters 1 the typeface. (Designers take up less width. same width , making it easy to line up characters. don’t like this very much.) typeface is specially designed and not created just However, they make lines longer and take more by increasing the thickness of the strokes. This space. also means that the regular weight of one typeface might be bolder than the regular weight of another These typefaces can be serif or sans-serif. They are typeface. usually associated with digital things such as coding, where lining up indention is important. Of course, they can also help achieve a certain aesthetic. Aa Aa Aa Aa Aa Aa From left to right, Helvetica Neue UltraLight, Thin, Light, Regular, Medium and Bold. Fixed-width typefaces line up nicely. Proportional typefaces are considered Aa Aa Aa Aa Aa Aa easier to read. From left to right, Helvetica Neue, Univers Std, Century Gothic, Minion Pro, Times New Roman and Georgia — all regular weight. Fixed-width typefaces line up nicely. Proportional typefaces are considered easier to read. Size This Opportunity Now!

Font size is measured from the descent line to the ascent line. One way to think about this is from the bottom of a lowercase ‘p’ to the top of a lowercase ‘b’. Font size is usually measured in points, where 1 point = 1/72 inch. An alternative unit is ems, where 1 is the width of the the uppercase ‘M’. Hence, an em varies from font to font, which is why points are more commonly used.

There is also a more qualitative way to measure the size of a font: x-height. This is simply the height, in points, of a lowercase ‘x’. Generally, a typeface with a larger x-height is easier to read, especially as body text.

cap-height point size

x-height 7 Lines That Go On And On And On And I Kern’t Track This Anymore On And On And On And Kerning and tracking are two very important concepts in typography that are often overlooked. Below is some text with Measure, when talking about typography, usually a longer . refers to the line length of body text. This is crucial Tracking is the space between letters in a block Isn’t the text at right so much easier to read? in not only legibility, but also in aesthetics. Lines Credit: Ironic Sans of text. Kerning is more specific — referring to the that are too long make it hard for the reader to tracking between two particular characters. This follow across the , while lines that are too short is where attention to detail comes in, because interrupt the reader’s flow. The recommended line sometimes two characters that sit next to each other length is between 55 and 75 characters, or about 10 might be too close and hard to read. words on average. Aesthetics are also affected by line length. When glancing at a page, a body of text with very long lines, but only 3 lines, will seem very oddly shaped as Don’t Leave That Rag Lying Around opposed to 6 shorter lines.

Related to measure are rags. A rag is just the uneven edge of each . This occurs mostly in non-justified and/or non-hyphenated , This is the rag. Here, where some lines are shorter than others. A good it isn’t ‘balanced’ designer aims for a more even rag, which can be automatically by InDesign. Lead It Go achieved by tweaking things like typeface, font size, tracking or even switching to justified text. 8 pt font with 7 pt Leading, or more simply line spacing, is — you guessed leading: Definitely it — the space between two lines of text. In general, you not enough leading. want there to be enough leading between two lines such Don’t Leave That Rag Lying Around that reader’s eye doesn’t skip over lines but also that a 8/21 pt: Too Related to measure are rags. A rag is just the much leading. flow is maintained from line to line. uneven edge of each paragraph. This occurs mostly in non-justified and/or non-hyphenated paragraphs, This is an automatically balanced rag. You can also where some lines are shorter than others. A good manually balance a rag, but designer aims for a more even rag, which can be that would change every time your text changed. achieved by tweaking things like typeface, font size, tracking or even switching to justified text.

9 When A Widow Dies, She Leaves An Orphan

Widows and orphans Sometimes widow or either the line at the end are terms specific orphan can also refer or the beginning of a to layouts to a lone word on a column. where the end or the new line at the end beginning of has only of a paragraph. The one line of a paragraph, conventions for widow detached from the next and orphan vary — or previous column. widow could refer to

Can You Justify Your Alignment?

Alignment refers to the along which your text lines up. In left-aligned text, the beginning of There’s also center- each line falls along the same vertical line. In right- aligned text, but that’s just plain ugly. aligned text, on the other hand, the end of each line fall along the same vertical line. In justified text, the lines are stretched (by adjusting the spaces between words) so that both the beginning and end of each line lines up with the margins.

Left-Aligned Justified Right-Aligned Ectecae is ulparum nost Oluptatem esedis Mus re dollaborerum et laborem ame nonsedis ium quis alibus. Sed voluptatquo excerovit, pro te cusdam volupta que coriae corrum alis de enis erupta velessincto quiatur, faceprescia non etus velia que poribus volent as niminct sumetur apere laute archill uptatem hilic otatiatiNam, officipsa con eaque pero tecepe tem eum eat. Excepre porion eatur, conempore volupic ienditae nitatios ruptatur, volupta veri nitam, to conecto erro explit harum dolum omnis dolorum quisinci doluptatiis explautae acit molorun tiusam remMagnihillibus pla magnati nctectendae. tecepe volupic ienditae. volorerorro et ea nim.

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