Typography

TYPOGRAPHYThe art of using text to produce professional looking publications.

WORDING THAT CAN BE THE SAME Font is also commonly called type or

textThey all mean the same thingYou can say font face or type face but they

mean the same thing

FONT/TYPEFonts are categories of text. Common groups of fonts include:

• Times New Roman• Arial

• Garamond• ScriptComic

FONT/TYPE FAMILIESFonts are grouped into families and given a

name: Arial Garamond Comic Times

WITHIN A FONT/TYPE FAMILY THERE CAN BE MANY MEMBERS INCLUDING: Arial Black Arial Narrow Arial Rounded MT Bold Arial Unicode MS It’s like your own Family. We have the Smith familyDad- Frank SmithMom- Mary SmithSon- Sam SmithEach are part of the Smith family but they are all

individuals (type style) who have the same last name.

FONT/TYPE STYLEStyles are applied to fonts to change the

way they look. Examples of the most common type styles include:Bold ItalicsBookRoundHeavy

IF YOU HAVE A TYPE STYLE YOU HAVE: Sam Smith with cowboy appeal Mary Smith with Gothic appeal Frank Smith with Business appeal

You can take away their styles but they are still members of the Smith family.

TYPEFACE A font/type becomes a typeface/ font face

once a style has been applied to it. For example;

Arial ItalicTimes New Roman narrowRockwell Extra Bold

Family+Style =Type/Font Face

FONTS ARE USED TO HELP CREATE

A MOOD OR A FEELING IN A PUBLICATION. FONTS CAN ALSO LIMIT OR ENHANCE READABILITY SO CHOOSE YOUR FONTS CAREFULLY.

USE IF YOU HAVE LOTS OF TYPE YOU WANT PEOPLE TO ACTUALLY READ:

Oldstyle Thick/thin transition

in strokes

Diagonal stress

SerifSerifs on lowercase letters are slanted

Goudy

MODERN Not good choices for extended amounts of body copy Thin lines almost disappear, thick lines are

prominent

Effect on the page is called “dazzling”

SERIF Used in children’s books because of

clean, straightforward lookExamples:

Times New RomanCalifornian

SANS SERIF “sans” (without) in French No thick/thin transition Same thickness all the way around Great for creating eye-catching pages

SCRIPTLike cheesecake- they should be used sparingly so nobody gets sick

DECORATIVE Easy to identify. If the thought of

reading an entire book in that font makes you want to throw up, it falls under decorative.

Fun, distinctive Powerful use is limited Often used in headlines

Juice Chilly cooldots

SERIF OR SANS SERIF Serif

A typeface with lines on curves extending from the ends of the letters

A B C a b c

SERIF OR SANS SERIF

Sans SerifA typeface that is straight-edged

A B C a b c

ALL ABOUT LETTERS x-height

The height of the body of all lowercase letters such as the letter x in a typeface. All lower case letters are designed to be no taller then the x-height.

a x cBaseline

An imaginary horizontal line on which the bottom of letters rest.

PARTS OF LETTERS Ascender

The lowercase letter that extend above the x-height – b, d, f, h, and l

b x h

PARTS OF LETTERS Descender

The lowercase letters that fall below the baseline – g, j, p, and q

g x j

A design element in which a letter (usually the first letter of the paragraph) is much larger font and embedded into the surrounding text.

Drop Caps

CHARACTER SPACING Tracking

A feature that enables you to adjust the relative space characters for selected text Adjusts the space between a group of characters or

words (applied to the whole word)

CHARACTER SPACING Kerning

The process of “fine tuning” spacing by adjusting the space between characters Adjusts the space between two characters

LEADING

The vertical distant between base heightsadjusts the space between lines

ALIGNMENT The placement of text or graphics

relative to the margins.LeftRightCentered Justified

UNITS OF MEASUREMENT Pica

Traditional typographic measurement of 12 points or 1/6 of an inch. These letters are 12 points or 1 pica high.

Spacing is often measured in picas. For instance, in a yearbook spread, all elements should be at least one pica apart.

UNITS OF MEASUREMENT Points

The basic measurement system used to measure the size of type. There are 72 points to an inch.

72 point font

REVERSE TYPE Reverse Type

White or light colored text that appears against a darker background

Reverse Type

LEADERS Dots, dashes, or

characters that proceed text or a tab setting.

SMALL CAPS SMALL CAPS ARE LETTERING THAT IS IN

ALL CAPS, EXCEPT THOSE LETTERS THAT WOULD NORMALLY BE LOWER CASE ARE IN SMALL CAPS.