TypograpyTypograpy

What is Typography?Typography is the art and technique of arranging type, and type design.

Typography is performed by typesetters, graphic designers, art directors and of course, typographers. Typography with moveable type was invented in 11th -

century China. In 13th – century China, modular moveable metal type (uses movable components to reproduce the elements of a document) was introduced,

and developed again in mid 15th – century Europe with the development of specialized techniques for casting and combining cheap copies of letter-punches

in the large quantities required to print many copies of text.

Uses Of Typography• Typesetting and Type Design• Handwriting and Calligraphy

• Graffti• Advertising

• Inscriptional and Architectural lettering• Poster design, signage and billboards

• Kinetic typography in motion picture flms and TV• Business communications (logos, letterheads, business cards)

• Newspapers• Clothing

• Magazine Covers• Web Pages

Typography Rules! And Terminology If there is one typographical rule you remember, let it be this... NEVER use the

typeface Comic Sans, it's terrible. (this is comic sans...gross)

Some other good rules are as follows:

When you have alot of body text, don't use very fancy or calligraphic typefaces, they tend to be hard on the eyes. (like this example here)

And while we are on the topic of being easy on the eyes, serif typefaces are easier to read than sans-serif, also ALL CAPITALS are more diffcult to read due

to the fact that there are no ascenders or descenders to defne the shape of the word.

Avoid underlining text you want to bring more attention to. Insteaditalicize or bold words you would like to emphasize.

Typography TermsThere are many typographical terms that are good to know so you know

what people are talking about in the land of typography.

Ascender: the stem of lowercase letters (such as k, b, and d) that risesabove the x-height of the other lowercase letters in the typeface.

Descender: the part of the lowercase letter (such as y, p and q) thatsit below the baseline. In many typefaces, the uppercase J and

Q also descend below the baseline.

Baseline: the imaginary line on which most of the charactersin a typeface sit.

Projected Use of Comic Sans

Terminology ContinuedTypeface: a design for the letters, numbers, and symbols comprising a font, often part of a family of

coordinated designs. Individual typefaces are usually identifed by a family name and some additional terms indicating style, weight and width.

Font: one style, weight and width of a typeface. An example is Times Bold Extended. Times is a typeface family, Roman is a style, Bold is a weight, Extended is a width. Another style would be Italic,

other weights are be thin, light, extra-bold and black and other widths are condensed and normal.

X-height: traditionally, x-height is the height of the lowercase letter x. As a general rule, it is the height of the body of the lowercase letters in a font, not including the ascenders and descenders.

Some lowercase letters may extend a little bit above or below the x-height as a part of their design, even without ascenders and descenders. The x-height will most likely be different among other

typefaces with the same point size.

Kerning: the adjustment of horizontal space between letters to create perception of uniformity; critical when large typefaces are used.

Ligature: two or more letters drawn as a unit. In some typefaces, certain pairs of letters might end up being joined together. Many times this combination is usually f and i.

Like this --> f

Importance of Typography in Design

Typography is everywhere. It's impossible to walk out your door everyday and not come in contact with typography. Street signs, store signs, billboards, the slide shows your professors us

for lessons, you can't escape it, especially in the world of graphic design. It would be very diffcult to have a job as a graphic designer and not eventually get a job that needed something

typographical. Every web page you visit, magazine you read, newspaper you pick up has typography, mind you it is not always necessarily good. Everyone who is looking to get into

graphic design, web design, or any feld where you would come in contact with type should have a good grasp on how to use typography, and use it well.

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a30/onthepage/various/typo2.jpg

This is a typographic calendar I made for an assignment in

college.

✻ The End ✻Well, this concludes my slideshow on the wonderful thing that is typography. If

this has fuelled some love for typography, or you are just interested in more examples of typography, I suggest that you check out some (or all) of the sites

found on the reference (or next) page. To fnish off, I hope that if you go away with only one memory of this slide show,

may it be the bit about never using Comic Sans (because it's terrible!)Cheers!!

References

www.posttypography.com

www.bancomicsans.com

www.wikipedia.org

www.nhsdesigns.com

www.rsub.com/typography

http://informationarchitects.jp/the-web-is-all-about-typography-period/

ilovetypography.com

www.adobe.com/studio/print/pdf/typography_terms.pdf

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a30/onthepage/various/typo2.jpg

www.veer.com