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Typography. The art or process of printing with type. Categories of typefaces. Serif: has tiny brackets at the end of a letter stroke. This type is a serif font.
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Typography The art or process of printing with type
Categories of typefaces • Serif: has tiny brackets at the end of a letter stroke. This type is a serif font. • Sans Serif: No serif. Letter strokes are all the same thickness. They appear streamlined and modern. This is a sans serif font. • Script: looks like handwriting or cursive. This is a script font. • Decorative: like artwork. They are often called novelty or display type. This is a decorative font.
Typeface families • Each type family has a name and a personality. • Each member of a “type family” may vary in size, proportion, thickness, and slant. • Ex: Arial • Arial Black • Arial Narrow • Arial rounded bold • Arial unicode
Typeface terms • ASCENDERS: letter strokes that rise above the x-height (b, d, f, h…) • X-HEIGHT: the height of the body of a lowercase letter (such as x) w/o ascenders or descenders • DESCENDERS: strokes that dip below the x-height (g, j, p, q…) • LEADING: also called spacing, it is the space between the lines of type and it’s measured in points
Type is measured in points • Point size refers to the measurement between ascenders and the bottom of descenders. • 72 points in an inch. 36 pt. font is ½ inch tall. • 72 point font • 36 point font • 10 point font • 8 point font
Readability • We want our type to be readable, serif or sans serif. • It shouldn’t distract reader from content. • It need not be extra bold or extra light. • Alignment • Left: Most readable and natural; type set flush to the left • Right: distinctive, but less naturally readable; type set flush to the right • Justified: structured and blocky, uneven word and letter spacing • Center: symmetrical, balanced, formal, and potentially boring
Typography in design • Create contrast • Size difference • Typefaces • Letter shapes (caps/lowercase, roman/italics)