Typography on screen

Page 1

TYPOGRAPHY

ON SCREEN


a

File

Edit

Fonts

About type on screen Alarm clock Calculator Chooser Control Panes Find file

About type on screen

Key caps Scrapbook

Text has been present on digital computers from their in ception in the 1940s in the form of programming languages (input) and program result (output). For several decades the representation of text was quite limited, initially to single case since that is all that was necessary to represent programs and output. Support for upper- and lower- cas letters came only after the introduction of 8-bir computers in the 1960’s. Finally there were presented on the screen as pattern of dots in cells of a uniform size. Text came in and out of computers on a teletype ( a typewriter that communicated over a distance) or terminal (from the sense of that word meaning the end of an electrical connection). The computer could accept, store and retrieve a code for each letter, which coukd be presented on the terminal screen as a single dot patters in the form of 80 such patterns to the line and 24 lines to the screen. Computers that supported a graphical user interface on bitmap displays were created at Xerox PARC in the 1970’s. These computers changed the way text was represented on the computer screen in a deamatic and decisive way. Once all points on the screen could be addressed, a computer could present text in a wide variety of forms. Formatted text appeared on the screen representing different letter designs, sizes and weights. By the mid-1980’s the Xerox Star, the Apple Lisa and finally the Apple Macintosh had brought type to the computer screen in a fashion that has defined the computing envitoment we work in today.


D

System Tools 1

D

System Tools 2

T Trash

The original 1984 Mac OS desktop featured a radically new graphical user interface. Users communicated with the computer not through abstract textual commands but rather using a metaphorical desktop that included real life items that the user was already familiar with.


a

File

Edit

History Information Characteristics Aspects Details Data Print

Fonts Tails Serif Ascender Descender Dot per inch Ear Loop Anti-Aliased Arm Crossbar Apex

Scrapbook

11point m at 96 dpi

Scrapbook

11point m at 1000 dpi


Text edit

Finding the right design of font to use for your printed media can be difficult enough, finding the right font that will work on screen will be even more of a challenge. Fonts that work well on screen are usually developed to a very high technical specification, in addition to being of sound design, and finding fonts made to this level in the plethoraSystem of fontsTools 2 available today can be very difficult.

D

The problem of type on screen lies in the resolution, that is the number of dots (or pixels) available to define the design of each letter. Monitor screens use 72 to 96 dot per inch to display the image, compare that to desktop laser printers that use 600dpi or more and imagesetters that use 1000dpi and above.

T Trash


a

File

Edit

History Information Characteristics Aspects Details Data Print

Fonts Tails Serif Ascender Descender Dot per inch Ear Loop Anti-Aliasing Arm Crossbar Apex

Text edit

Computer displays are based on pixels and fonts are forced into that square grid, on-screen type tends to naturally look a bit blocky. Anti-aliasing technology blurs the font’s edges slightly, allowing it to look fuller and more closely match the appearance of the printed page.

D

It takes only a quick glance to realize that anti-aliasing is extremely important to making text legible. With few exceptions, anti-aliased text can dramatically reduce eye strain, not to mention that it renders glyphs much

closer to their intended design. Because of this, designers must decide how, not if, anti-aliasing should be used. This decision is based on a number of factors that one has to consider in the process from design to delivery.


Scrapbook

Anti-Aliasing


a

File

Edit

Fonts Geneva London Los Angeles Chicago Monaco New York San Francisco Venice Athens Cairo

Verdana Helvetica Georgia Times

Scrapboo

Trebuchet Courier Avenir Century Gothic Univers Din ...

Text edit

In these days is usual that people read on screen different texts during the day. Reading speed reduced 30% and legibitity reduced 50%. Sans-serif typefaces have better legibility, on screen serif and ornaments decrease speed and crarity of reading.

D


ok

Chicago was the first font to be developed for the Macintosh


a

File

Edit

Fonts

History Information Characteristics Aspects Details

Scrapboo

Data Print

Screen typographies are not des

Screen typographies are not des

Screen typographies are not des ERROR

W

Screen typographies are not des An unexpected error ocurred. Impossible to print this file.

Screen typographies are not des

D QUIT

Screen typographies are not des


ok

signed for printing on paper!

signed for printing on paper!

signed for printing on paper!

signed for printing on paper!

signed for printing on paper!

signed for printing on paper!



Turn static files into dynamic content formats.

Create a flipbook
Issuu converts static files into: digital portfolios, online yearbooks, online catalogs, digital photo albums and more. Sign up and create your flipbook.