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INTRODUCTION This publication will briefly cover a range of topics that are often overlooked within Graphic Design. People often think they have an understanding of many of the subjects I have touched on but very often this understanding is either very basic or misconstrued. The publication looks at topics surrounding the effective use of type and colour within design and should hopefully leave the reader with a better understanding of this.
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CONTEN TS
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WHAT IS A TYPEFACE? A typeface is not a font. A font is not a typeface. It’s been said before, but confusion still resigns supreme; even the Online Etymology Dictionary and the holders of the rights to Georgia get it wrong.
A typeface is a family of fonts. Within a typeface there will be fonts of varying weights or other variations. E.g., light, bold, semibold, condensed, italic, etc. Each such variation is a different font. Shown above are six variations of the Minion Pro typeface.
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Before scalable type, there was little distinction between the terms font, face, and family. Font and face still tend to be used interchangeably, although the term face is usually more correct.
In traditional print, the distinction is easy: a font was a typeface set at a certain size, weight and style and cast in metal. There was no way to buy just a typeface. Instead you bought a font: Garamond Bold at 13 points.
In its digital form, fonts are more flexible and the moment when a typeface becomes a font is way more nuanced. In fact, it’s common to use the two interchangeably.
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TYPE HIERARCHIES
A typographic hierarchy expresses the organization of content, emphasizing some elements and subordinating others.
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Hierarchy: the use of size, weight, placement and spacing to express the parts of a page or document and their relative importance. A typographic hierarchy expresses the organization of content, emphasizing some elements and subordinating others. A visual hierarchy helps readers scan a text, knowing where to enter and exit and how to pick and choose among its offerings. Each level of the hierarchy should be signaled by one or more cues, applied consistently across a body of text. A cue can be spatial (indent, line spacing, placement) or graphic (size, style, color). Infinite variations are possible. Emphasizing a word or phrase within a body of text usually requires only one signal. Italic is the standard form of emphasis. There are many alternatives, however, including boldface, small caps, or a change in color. A full-
range type family such as Minion Pro has many weight and style variations designed to work together. You can also create emphasis with a different font. If you want to mix font families, such as Minion Pro and Gotham, adjust the sizes so that the x-heights align. Complex content requires a deeply layered hierarchy. In magazines and websites, a typographic format is often implemented by multiple users, including authors, editors, designers and web producers. If a hierarchy is clearly organized users are more likely to apply it consistently. Designers create style guides to explain the principles of a hierarchy to the system’s users and demonstrate how the system should be implemented.
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READABILITY/LEGIBILITY OF SERIF AND SANS SERIF FONTS Legibility can be defined as the ability to read something without effort. It can depend on many things. Often, the size of font chosen restricts legibility. Readability can be defined not on a letter by letter basis, but how the combination of letters are read within a larger body of text. In other words, readability is defined by the amount of effort one needs to make to read text, not single characters.
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An argument has been raging for decades within the scientific and typographic communities on what seems a very insignificant issue: Do serifs contribute to the legibility of typefaces, and by definition, are sans serif typefaces less legible? To date, no one has managed to provide a conclusive answer to this issue.
“Serifs have an important role in the readability of type, providing... accentuation to the ends of strokes that may help the reader read faster and avoid fatigue.” Rubinstein (1988) In the typographic literature, serifs are generally believed to have a significant impact on readability. There are two main reasons cited to explain why serifs should enhance legibility. First, they are believed to increase letter discriminability by making the spatial code of letter forms more complex... On the other hand, there are also good reasons to believe that serifs have little effect on legibility. Being small relative to letter size, and generally being ornamental, rather than essential parts of the letter form, one might suspect that they would have little impact on letter identification. If they do affect legibility, it might be reasonable to suppose that they interfere with letter recognition, since to a simple letter-form template, they might simply act as a form of noise. Aries Arditi, Jianna Cho (2008) ‘Serifs are used to guide the horizontal “flow” of the eyes; The lack of serifs is said to contribute to a vertical stress in sans serifs, which is supposed to compete with the horizontal flow of reading’ ( De Lange et al., 1993 ) Some research has shown that serifs may actually become visual noise at very small sizes, detracting from the main body shape of the letter form. ( Morris, 2001)
Below are the conclusions for a study named ‘Which are More Legible: Serif or Sans Serif Fonts What initially seemed a neat dichotomous question of serif versus sans serif has resulted in a body of research consisting of weak claims and counter-claims, and study after study with findings of “no difference”. Is it the case that more than one hundred years of research has been marred by repeated methodological flaws, or are serifs simply a typographical “red herring”? It is of course possible that serifs or the lack of them have an effect on legibility, but it is very likely that they are so peripheral to the reading process that this effect is not even worth measuring ( Lund, 1999 ). Indeed, a greater difference in legibility can easily be found within members of the same type family than between a serif and a sans serif typeface. ( Tinker, 1963 , Zachrisson, 1965 ). There are also other factors such as x-height, counter size, letter spacing and stroke width which are more significant for legibility than the presence or absence of serifs. Poulton, 1972 ; Reynolds, 1979 ) Finally, we should accept that most reasonably designed typefaces in mainstream use will be equally legible, and that it makes much more sense to argue in favour of serif or sans serif typefaces on aesthetic grounds than on the question of legibility. ( Bernard, 2001 ; Tinker, 1963 ) PAGE 9
TYPE CLASSIFICATION
Oldstyle has uppercase letterforms based on Roman inscriptions, and lowercase based on Italian humanist book copying. It is typified by a gradual thick-to-thin stroke, gracefully bracketed serifs, and slanted stress As the name implies, transitional bridges the gap between oldstyle and modern. Largely due to technological advances in casting type and printing, transitional embodies greater thick-to-thin strokes, and smaller brackets on serifs. Stress moves to be more vertical. Dates around 1750. Furthering the trends started with transitional, modern pushes to extreme thick-to-thin strokes, and unbracketed (square) serifs. Many modern typefaces lose readability if set too tight, or at too small a size, particularly with strong vertical stress. Dates from 1775. Slab or square serif was developed for heavy type in advertising. Also known as Egyptian (it appeared during the Egyptology craze in Europe), slab serif generally has little variation in stroke weight: it’s generally uniformly heavy. Also with slab serif, letterforms are becoming more geometric, and less calligraphic. Dates from 1825.
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Humanist sans serif typefaces became common in the twentieth century. These typefaces are calligraphic in structure, often with higher stroke contrast than other sans serifs. They have open forms that lead the eye horizontally, making them the best sans serifs for long reading and small text.
Grotesque or transitional sans serifs are the first commercially popular sans serif typefaces. Contrast in stroke weight is most apparent in these styles, there is a slight “squared” quality to many of the curves, and several designs have the “bowl and loop” lowercase g common to Roman types. In some cases the R has a curled leg, and the G usually has a spur. This category also includes more modern, sans serif designs patterned after the first grotesques.
Simple geometric shapes influence the construction of geometric sans serif typefaces. Strokes have the appearance of being strict monolines and character shapes are made up of geometric forms. Geometric sans tend to be less readable than grotesques.
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BASIC TYPE ANATOMY APEX - The point at the top of a character such as the uppercase A where the left and right strokes meet is the apex. ASCENDER - An upward vertical stroke found on the part of lowercase letters that extends above the typeface’s x-height. BOWL- The curved part of the character that encloses the circular or curved parts (counter) of some letters. BRACKET - The bracket is a curved or wedge-like connection between the stem and serif of some fonts. COUNTER - The enclosed or partially enclosed circular or curved negative space of some letters. CROSSBAR - The horizontal stroke across the middle of uppercase A and H is a crossbar. The horizontal or sloping stroke enclosing the bottom of the eye of an e is also a crossbar DESCENDER - The part of the letters that extends below the baseline. EAR - Typically found on the lower case g, an ear is a decorative flourish usually on the upper right side of the bowl.
FINIAL - a somewhat tapered curved end on letters such as the bottom of C or e. LOOP - The enclosed or partially enclosed counter below the baseline of a double-story g. OPEN COUNTER - The partially open space within a character that is open on one end. SERIF - A stroke added as a stop to the beginning and end of the main strokes of a character. SHOULDER - The curve at the beginning of a leg of a character, such as in an “m.” STEM - Tvhe main, usually vertical stroke of a letterform. TAIL - A descending stroke, often decorative. TERMINAL - The end of a stroke that does not include a serif. X-HEIGHT - The distance between the baseline of a line of type and tops of the main body of lower case letters.
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PANTONE The Pantone Color Matching System expands upon existing color reproduction systems such as the CMYK process. The CMYK process is a standardized method of printing colour by using four inks—cyan, magenta, yellow and black. The majority of the world’s printed material is produced using the CMYK process. The Pantone system is based on a specific mix of pigments to create new co- lours—referred to as Spot Colours. The Pantone system also allows for many ‘special’ colours to be produced such as metallics and fluorescents. While most of the Pantone system colours are beyond the printed CMYK gamut, those that are possible to simulate through the CMYK process are labeled as such within the company’s guides. Pantone colours are described by their allocated number (typically referred to as ‘PMS 130’). PMS colors are almost always used in branding and have even found their way into government legisla- tion (to describe the colours of flags). In January 2003, the Scottish Parliament debated a petition (reference PE512) to define the blue in the Scottish Flag (saltire) as ‘Pantone 300’. Countries such as Canada and South Korea and organizations such as the FIA have also chosen specific Pantone colours to use when producing flags.
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The PANTONE MATCHING SYSTEM® is a solid color communication system based on the visual matching of individual, premixed colors. The PANTONE MATCHING SYS- TEM is a series of books with thousands of precisely printed colors alongside printers’ formulas for mixing those The original system included 504 colors and has since been expanded to include 1,012 colors along with their printing ink formulations.
THE HISTORY OF PANTONE
“the first colour matching system” Pantone, as it is today, was founded in 1962, when the company, at the time a small business which manufactured colour cards for cosmetics companies—was bought by Lawrence Herbert, who had been an employee since 1956. He immediately changed its direction, developing the first colour matching system in 1963. Herbert remains the CEO, Chairman, and President of the company. The company’s primary products include the Pantone Guides, which consist of a large number of small (approximately 6×2 inches or 15×5 cm) thin cardboard sheets, printed on one side with a series of related colour swatches and then bound into a small flipbook. For instance, a particular “page” might contain a number of yellows varying in luminance from light to dark. The idea behind the PMS is to allow designers to ‘colour match’ specific colours when a design enters production stage—regardless of the equipment used to produce the colour. This system has been widely adopted by Graphic Designers, Reproduction and Printing Houses for a number of years now. Pantone recommends that PMS Colour Guides be purchased annually as their inks become more yellow over time. Colour variance also occurs within editions based on the paper stock used (coated, matte or uncoated), while inter-edition colour variance occurs when there are changes to the specific paper stock used.
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RGB & CMYK As a designer, it is essential to know when to use CMYK: cyan, magenta, yellow, and black (In the printing press days when plates were being used the black plate was typically call the “key� plate because it carried the important key information relating to the artistic detail.), and when to use RGB: red, green, blue colors on projects. A good rule of thumb is anything dealing with the web should always be in RGB and printed material should be in CMYK. But very few designers and clients know why this is the standard.
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Back in the printing press days, to achieve color, each ink (cyan, magenta, yellow, and black) had its own plate. First the printer would lay down one color, wait for it to dry, lay down another color, wait for it to dry and so on. Printing presses still work on that same theory to this day with the exception that offset printers can use a “spot” color which can be added to achieve a specific color swatch (usually a Pantone color). As the printing age has progressed, the digital printer has come a long way, allowing to print in RGB as well. But the standard still stays the same – use CMYK on all printing needs, as the color will appear differently if printed in RGB. On the other end, computer monitors give off colored light known as RGB
(CMYK is colored ink.). This is because monitors are limited on the color spectrum range that they can produce due to the cathode ray tubes. Computer monitors have a larger color gamut than printing that can be achieved, which is why a computer can display a million more colors than what can be achieved with printing. Printing deals with absorption and reflection of wavelengths of which we perceive as color (CMYK). Printing also has its own limited color gamut. A lot of times customers will note that something looked different on screen than it does on paper and it is because of the different limited color ranges that computer monitors and printing allows.
RGB colors are also known as “additive color” because to begin with, there are no colors and the colors are being added together to achieve further colors or until the outcome is white. While in return, subtract cyan – magenta – yellow – black and you will get the RGB colors. CMYK colors are subtractive for this very reason that it starts with all colors and when colors are subtracted the outcome is black
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COLOUR HARMONY
For most people, one of the first decisions of the day concerns colour harmony. What am I going to wear? This question is answered not only by choosing a style and fabric appropriate to the season, but by making the right colour choices. And it goes on from there. Whether you’re designing a new kitchen, wrapping a present or creating a bar chart, the colours you choose greatly affect your final results. The photograph above is a brilliant example of colour harmony in photography. How often have you caught your breath at the sight of a flowerbed in full bloom? Most likely the gardener has arranged the flowers according to their colour for extra vibrancy. Have
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you ever seen a movie in which a coordinated colour scheme helps the film create a world unto itself? With a little knowledge of good colour relationships, you can make colours work better for you in your business graphics and other applications. The concept of the colour wheel was invented when Sir Isaac Newton bent the colour spectrum into a circle. Since then, the colour wheel has been used as a tool for understanding colour relationships and creating harmonious colour schemes. The colour wheel clearly shows which colours are warm and cool, complementary, split complementary and analogous.
“Color harmony represents a satisfying balance or unity of colors”
Cool colours range from blue to violet, the half of the colour wheel with shorter wavelengths. Cool colours have a calming effect. They are frequently used for backgrounds to set off smaller areas of warm colours. Used together, cool colours can look clean and crisp, implying status and calm. However, it is important to note that usage of bright cool colours generates more excitement than light, medium or dark cool colours. Warm colours range from red to yellow, essentially the half of the colour wheel corresponding to the longer wavelengths. Warm colours are active, attention-grabbing and aggressive. They stimulate the emotions, motivate and seem to come forward off the screen or page. Complementary colours lie opposite each other on the colour wheel. They complete or enhance each other. Impressionist painters in the 19th colour century often placed dots of pure complementary pigment on a colour’s surface to make the colour come alive. While the dots weren’t apparent to the viewer, the colour appeared especially vibrant. When mixed together equally, subtractive complements, such as paints, should theoretically produce
black or grey. In practice, the pigments are never perfect and the result is a muddy brown instead. Using complementary colours in an image is quite pleasing to the eye. The colours seem to belong together. The most effective use of complements is to let one of them dominate by giving it a bigger area or a fuller saturation, while using the other as an accent. The science of colour harmony categorises colours and determines harmonious groupings, such as complements, s p l i t complements, triads and analogies. Where science becomes art is in knowing how to use these colours, in what proportions and in what order. In colour and music, contrasts intensify each other. Complementary colours bring out the attributes of each other. White becomes brighter on a black background, blue enhances the warmth of orange; opposite hues are especially attention-getting. This hue contrast can cause tension in the image, if you are using fully saturated colours. Complementary colours can be brought into harmony by reducing the saturation or by mixing a little of each colour with the other.
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GRID SYSTEMS “ The grid system is an aid, not a guarantee. It permits a number of possible uses and each designer can look for a solution appropriate to his personal style. But one must learn how to use the grid; it is an art that requires practice. ” Josef Müller-Brockmann The grid system in graphic design is a way of organizing content on a page, using any combination of margins, guides, rows and columns. It is commonly seen in newspaper and magazine layout with columns of text and images. One grid, or a collection of grids, may be used across an entire project to achieve a consistent look and feel. In a finished product, the grid is invisible, but following it helps in creating successful print and web layouts.
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Every time you open a new document in a page layout program, you are prompted to create a grid. The simplest grid consists of a single column of text surounded by margins. By asking for page dimensions and margin widths from the outset, layout programs encourage you to design your page from the outside in. (The text column is the space left over when the margins have been subtracted.) Alternatively, you can design your page from the inside out, by setting your margins to zero and then positioning guidelines and text boxes on a blank page. This allows you to experiment with the margins and columns rather than making a
commitment as soon as you open a new document. You can add guidelines to a master page after they meet your satisfaction. While single-column grids work well for simple documents, multicolumn grids provide flexible formats for publications that have a complex hierarchy or that integrate text and illustrations. The more columns you create, the more flexible your grid becomes. You can use the grid to articulate the hierarchy of the publication by creating zones for different kinds of content. A text or image can occupy a single column or it can span several. Not all the space has to be filled.
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