Week 2: Typography

Five Principles and Six Groups

Typography Five guidelines for picking and using fonts (adapted

from Dan Meyer’s article “What font should I use?”: Five principles for choosing and using typefaces, found at http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2010/12/14/what-font-should-i-use-five-principles-for-choosing-and-using-typefaces/ .)

Dress for the occasion Know your families: Grouping fonts Don’t be wimp: The principle of decisive contrast A little can go a long way Rule number five is “there are no rules”

Dress for the occasion Appropriateness is the acid test that should

guide your choice of font.

Know your families Old Style

Oldest typefaces (Times New Roman, Garamond, Baskerville)

Best for Body Text

Know your families Modern

Geometric, sharp (Onyx, Bodoni) Not good for extensive body copy

Know your families Slab serif

Very specific, yet often contradictory, associations (Courier, Rockwell)

Most often used in ads and children’s books, because of their association powers

Know your families Sans serif

Strict geometric form (Helvetica, Franklin Gothic, Arial) Good for headlines, subheads

Know your families Script

Use sparingly, “stunning” (Brush Script MT, Freestyle Script, Parchment)

Wedding invitations?

Know your families Decorative

Only for ads, please! (Jokerman, Algerian, Rosewood Std Regular)

Don’t be wimp: Use decisive contrast Size Weight Structure Form Direction Colors

Size Use a stark contrast, not 12-pt. vs. 14-pt. If you use an item in unusual size, see if you

can use it elsewhere.

Weight Refers to the thickness of the strokes (regular,

bold, extra bold, etc.) If the contrast in weight is not strong enough,

it will look like a mistake.

Structure Never put two typefaces from the same

category on the same page. The best families to use for different

structures are Sans serif and Serif.

Form Refers to shape, e.g., upper and lowercase

letters or Roman vs. Italic font

Direction Type on a curve/slant; and horizontal type vs.

columns

Colors Not just red, white and blue, but good use of

bold and different weights. Experiment with the “colors” of black text.

A Little Can Go a Long Way “Do not exceed recommended dosage.”

A Little Can Go a Long Way

Rule Number Five Is “There are No Rules” There are only conventions, no ironclad rules. Do your best to follow the conventions.

Huh?