formal type rules

1. formal type rules

2. ? what is typography design of any letters/words lasting form of expression form of communication

3. ? play with all the instruments in the orchestra

5. you know it all… roman style, gutenberg, wood type, bauhaus, etc. the look of letters – always been influenced by the tools that made them history

6. communication : of words : of emotion some fonts meant to be seen and not read type is one of your best friends function

8. form the manipulation of forms communicate a message.

9. a good workingfont

10. is a regular weight, not too thin or too thick has at least one other weight (bold) has very legible numbers is economical

11. Sans serif workhorses: Futura Myriad News Gothic Franklin Gothic Lucida Sans FF Meta Frutiger ITC Officina FF Profile Verdana Univers Gill sans Tahoma Rotis Stone Serif workhorses: Garamond Palatino Jenson Caslon Bodoni Times New Roman Sabon Officina Rotis Stone Other: Optima Stellar

12. when we look at words, we recognise the shapes of the words, not the letters themselves shape the shape is determined by the ascenders and descenders within a word

14. ex pression type needs to be eyecatching and often expressive in order to catch the attention type is practical but can also express emotions

15. pression ex the more characters there are in a word, the more chance for expression you express yourself simply by choosing a typeface

17. formal rules of type

18. [good designers learn all the rules before breaking them]

19. 001 letters always need to be far enough apart to be distinguished from one another. b u t n o t s o f a r a p a r t t h a t t h e y s e p a r a t e i n t o i n d i v i d u a l s i g n s.

20. 002 for headline settings leaveiaispaceibetweeniwordsthatiisitheisameiwidthiasialowercaseii.

21. 003 leading space between lines. kerning space between letters & words. tracking generalised adding of space between letters & words.

22. 004 in text the space between the lines needs to be larger than the space between the words.

23. 005 the more words per line, the more space needed between the lines.

24. 006 justification alignment of text. justified left justified centre justified right J u s t i f i e d.

25. 006 text is easiest to read when it is justified left.

26. 007 horizontal scaling makes the letters taller or fatter

27. 007 never use horizontal or vertical scaling - it bastardises typefaces.

28. hyphenation short dashes are used to separate words (co-operation) en dash. long dashes are used to separate ideas – like this em dash 008

29. 009 widows and orphans avoid widows – text which leaves one word on a line. avoid orphans – text that leaves one letter words at the end of a line.

30. 010 Reversed type looks heavier than positive type.

31. 011 serif fonts are more legible than sans serif fonts when used for body copy.

32. 012 type for extended reading shouldn’t be smaller than 9pt or larger than 14pt.

33. the ideal number of characters per line for easy reading is between 70 to 80 characters (including spaces). 013

34. 014 use only bold, italic or light fonts that are designed as part of the font family. clicking on the bold button in word simply bastardises the font.

35. the best way to add typographic impact is to use extended typeface families which include a sans serif and a serif.

37. proportionally spaced fonts are easier to read, occupy less space, allow for more expression, and are nicer to look at.

39. type faces to avoid

40. typefaces that have a lot of individual character come with a lot of baggage and preconceptions.

41. very condensed fonts are difficult to read

42. techno is overused and badly designed according to its spacing.

43. sand typeface went out of fashion 4 years ago (thank goodness) and is simply horrible to look at.

44. script typefaces also come with obvious baggage and are difficult to read.

45. rather use your own handwriting - handwriting fonts tend to be a little kitsch.

46. comic sans is overused and badly designed. there are many other informal fonts that are well designed.

47. apart from its monospacing, courier is the font that print and repro houses substitute with when fonts are not included in print documents. it therefore always looks like it is a mistake.

48. text that only uses capital letters is a lot more difficult to read because it has no ascenders and descenders.

49. some fonts are just plain ugly and should never have been produced in the first place.

50. illegible fonts are pointless.