Copyright © 2003/4 Bolton Institute Typography We have looked at signs, colour, shape, images and...

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Typography

• We have looked at signs, colour, shape, images and texture to represent meaning

• Today we will look at the content its self.• Text and how we read it

Use of Text

• We use text to list, write reports, give directions

• But text is not simply a way of representing the spoken word

• We need to consider its readability and legibility as well

Use of Text

• Most should be familiar with word processing, hopefully!!!

• Probably the main use up until now has been that ability to create, check and export a document at speed and with a degree of accuracy over and above pen and paper

• We tend to take this for granted nowadays• Writing documents on screen forces us to consider

typeface as much as the text as hand writing is important on paper

History of Type

• Capital letters• Derived from Roman letter forms 2000 years old

• Lowercase letters• Mutations of the Roman forms and tended to appear on

parchments/scrolls ‘illuminated’ letter forms

• Numbers• Originate from Hindu-Arabic marks only reaching Europe

approximately 700 years ago

• Punctuation• Earliest Roman times as pieces of information became

indistinguishable from one another

• During the past 500 years this has not changed a great deal apart from typography

Type Anatomy

• We apply unique understanding to letter types and forms that can distinguish one typeface from another

Readability/Legibility

• Legibility • The ability to successfully

find, identify and absorb content

• Readability• The ease of interpretation

and the text’s aestheticism

• Other elements of character anatomy

Typography

• It affects the way the text appears• It controls shape, space and size• Multimedia provides and extra challenge as screen

type tends to be fuzzy

• We need to classify different type styles

Types of Type

• Ornamentation at the ends of letters or holdovers give a very distinguishable quality

• They derive from pen strokes and chip marks of old text styles

• Generally best suited to display larger text as they merge as they get smaller

• Smaller on printed as representation is better in print and letters are easily identified

• Quite old fashioned and used predominantly in business situations

Types of Type

• These are fonts without a serif

• Characters are less distinctive

• They work better on screen in both large and small sizes however

• Tend to be used for more up-beat companies and web based design because of their portability, especially Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica and Veranda etc

• Lowercase is also popular here to provide consistency and reduce emphasis until needed

Types of Type

• Mono spaced – courier• They can have serifs or can be without

• The difference is the fact that each letter occupies the same amount of space

• M and I in other fonts have different letter spacing but mono spaced means that there is uniformity in design

• Used heavily in technical documentation as the need for accuracy of programming for instance in critical, other letters in other font choices are not so easily recognisable

Types of Type

• Cursive – • Mimic hand writing

• Highly stylised

• Reserved for illuminated documentation

• Not great at a distance

• Limited use provides good juxtaposition against san-serif types

• Not good on screen in large chunks of text

Types of Type

• Fantasy – • Decorative fonts that do not fit into any of the previously

described

• Ornamental use only or graphical – logos, icons

• They can add to the general look and feel of a screen based interface

• Provide simple and easily scaleable navigational system identifiers

• Semiotically useful

Type on screen

• We could use any font on screen but we have to be aware of strengths and weaknesses in this

• Html text is limited• Consider different platforms

• Audience

• Size

• Graphic text• We can use any font and it is represented perfectly but

pixilation

• Not correctable on screen / selectable

• Increased file size

Browser safe

• To design for the web particularly we need to consider browser safe

• Certain text and fonts work better at different sizes and styles in different browsers, platforms and screens

• Audience!

Logo’s

Copyright © 2003/4 Bolton Institute Typography We have looked at signs, colour, shape, images and...

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