TYPOGRAPHY

The art and technique of arranging type to make written

language legible, readable, and appealing when displayed

Typography - 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.

Typography – font vs. Typefaces

Typography is the art and technique of arranging type to make written

language legible, readable, and appealing when displayed. The

arrangement of type involves selecting typefaces, point size, line length,

line-spacing (leading), letter-spacing (tracking), and adjusting the space

within letters pairs (kerning).

The term typography also is applied to the style, arrangement, and

appearance of the letters, numbers, and symbols created by the process.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typography http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/font

Typography – font vs. Typefaces

A font is a set of printable or

displayable text characters in a

specific style and size. The type

design for a set of fonts is the

typeface and variations of this

design form the typeface family .

Thus, Helvetica is a typeface family, Helvetica italic is a typeface, and

Helvetica italic 10-point is a font. In practice, font and typeface are often

used without much precision, sometimes interchangeably.

Typography - font vs. Typefaces Font is the most misused term in all of typography

http://xk9.com/bones/tt-006/

. A typeface is comprised of fonts

and those variations make up the typeface family. As seen in the

example, Cala is a typeface. A font is a set of characters in a specific

iteration of a typeface – 54 point Cala light italic is a font. A font is a

specific size, weight, and style of a typeface. More often now it refers

simply to the typeface, weight, and style, as in Cala light italic.

“If you were to ask me what the font is used in the second line of the graphic above, the correct answer would be “54 point Cala medium.” If

you asked me to name the typeface, I’d answer “Cala, and it’s spectacular.”

• Legibility: Making sure the audience can read and understand your text.

• Proximity, Similarity, Alignment: Using typography to create relationships between similar kinds of information

• Uniformity or Consistency: Repeating familiar elements to focus your audience’s attention.

• Contrast: Creating interest and distinguishing different types of information with different typefaces. One element of contrast is hierarchy—making sure the audience understands that information has different levels of importance.

Typography - Design principles for typography

Typography - Typography and legibility

Legibility is a combination of factors:

• Font family

• Font size

• Letter, word, and line spacing

• Alignment

Typography - Legibility and font families

In typography, a serif is a small line attached to the

end of a stroke in a letter or symbol. A typeface with

serifs is called a serif typeface (or serifed typeface).

A typeface without serifs is called sans serif or sans-

serif, from the French sans, meaning "without". Some

typography sources refer to sans-serif typefaces as

"Grotesque" (in German "grotesk") or "Gothic", and

serif typefaces as "Roman".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serif

Typography - Legibility and font families

In typography, a sans-serif, sans serif, gothic, san

serif or simply sans typeface is one that does not have

the small projecting features called "serifs" at the end

of strokes. The term comes from the French word

sans, meaning "without" and "serif" from the Dutch

word schreef meaning "line". Sans-serif fonts tend to

have less line width variation than serif fonts.

In print, sans-serif fonts are often used for headlines

rather than for body text.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serif

Typography - Legibility and font families

Stroke

Line

Stroke

Typography - Legibility and body text size

Legibility of body text varies for different audiences:

• Younger audiences may be able to read fonts sized at 8 or 9 points.

• Older audiences may be able to read font sizes around 10 points or

above.

• Font sizes above 14 points break down the continuity of the text,

making text appear too gray.

Typography - Legibility and spacing

• If letters, words, or lines are too close together, readers have a hard

time because text blocks tend to look too dark.

• If letters, words, or lines are too far apart, readers have a hard time

because blocks of text tend to look too light, causing readers to lose

a sense of continuity.

• Spacing between words needs to be consistent to promote legibility;

too much variation leads to eyestrain.

Typography – Legibility, Spacing & Leading

Typography - Legibility and alignment

• Left-aligned text is most legible, because

spacing between words is uniform.

• Justified text is also legible, though less so

with shorter line lengths because it tends to

create uneven spaces between words.

Typography - Legibility and alignment

• Center-aligned and right-aligned text

is generally harder to read, because

your readers’ eyes are used to

following text from left to right.

Typography - Font families and audience

• Each font family has a different “personality.”

• Use different font families to evoke tone and mood.

An advertisement for a school, for example, might use an “elegant” font such as

An advertisement for a financial firm, on the other hand, might use a more

“modern” font such as

Typography - Font families for headings

• For body text, you may want to use something fairly conventional

and legible.

• For headings, consider audience: teenagers respond to different

fonts than businesspeople or academics.

• Choose font families that support your subject matter, or

deliberately use a contrasting font to create interest.

Typography - Similarity and alignment

• Aligned text creates a line in

your design; such lines help

readers draw connections

between different parts of a

document.

Typography - Uniformity and font families

• To maintain overall uniformity, limit

the number of different font families

per page to one or two.

• Use the same font for headings and

body text to produce a uniform look;

this is known as

Typography – Proximity & Alignment

• Proximity, as defined by the "Universal

Principles of Design," states that elements that

are close together are perceived to be more

related than elements that are further apart.

• Proximity in web design is most commonly

achieved by grouping information. By

organizing elements on a page into clear

groups, it is apparent to site visitors that those

elements are somehow related. Conversely,

elements that are far apart or not clearly

grouped convey that they are not related.

Typography - Proximity & Alignment

• When several items are in close

PROXIMITY to each other, they become

one visual unit rather than separate units.

• The basic purpose of proximity is to

ORGANIZE

• Group related items together, move them

physically close to each other so the related

items are seen as one cohesive group rather

than a bunch of unrelated bits

• Items or group of information that are not

related to each other should not be in close

proximity to the other elements.

Typography – Proximity & Alignment

Avoid too many separate elements on a page

Avoid leaving equal amount of white space

between elements unless each group is part of

a subset

Do not create relationship with elements that

don’t belong together. If they are not related,

move them apart from each other.

Do not put thing around with out any though.

White space is GOOD.

–Jim Krauser

Typography - Imply Emotion & Importance

• Decorative typefaces provide a way to express

emotion with type. Certain typefaces are designed

to represent certain feelings. Decorative typefaces

are best when used in moderation, and never for

long lines of text. You should have a reason for

using these typefaces. It’s also important to use a

typeface that represents the desired response. For

instance, a typeface that invokes fear is probably

inappropriate for a story about the benefits of

holiday giving.

Typography - Contrast and font families

• Using the same font family throughout creates uniformity

but may make documents seem “flat” or uninteresting.

• You can add interest by contrasting the display type and

body type.

Typography - Contrast and font families

• To create ,

you could use two

font families, one

serif and one sans

serif.

Heading is set in Impact

—a sans serif fontSubheading is set in Georgia

—a serif font

Heading is set in Palatino—a serif font

Subheading is set in Georgia—also a serif font

Typography - Conflict and font families

• To avoid conflict, many designers avoid using two font families of the same variety, such as two serif fonts.

Heading is set with wide tracking

Typography - Contrast and tracking

• Tracking refers to the space between all of the letters in a line.

• Font families have built-in tracking that works well for body text.

• For headings, you can change tracking to create contrast.

Typography - Contrast and baseline shift

• Designers shift baseline to create interest:

Dropping the first letter adds a playful look.

Moving other letters around creates a “jittery” effect.

Typography - 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.

Typography - Hierarchy and typography

• Hierarchy helps your audience distinguish between levels of

information, such as headings versus body text.

• Many documents are divided into hierarchical sections:

Main title

Section

Subsection

Or

Book

Chapter

Subheading

Sub-subheading

Typography - Example of hierarchy

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

Typography - Summary

• Typography can play a key role in design.

• Good typography starts with font family; choose these to meet your design goals, but

keep them limited.

• Use text alignment to create relationships between different kinds of information.

• Create contrast by using a serif font for headings and a sans serif font for body text

(or vice versa). You can also use italics, bold, tracking, or color to create contrast.

• Use contrast to indicate hierarchy.