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Typose: Typography for Beginners Published by Blurb.com au.blurb.com RRP $0.00 GST inc 38 pages, hard cover Copyright © 2017 by Kara Brown All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher, addressed “Attention: Permissions Coordinator,” at the address below.
Thank you to my parents for always allowing me to follow my dreams and supporting me throughout my life. I would not be where I am today without you both.
Printed in Australia Publisher’s Cataloging-in-Publication data Author: Brown, Kara. A title of a book : Typose: Typography for Beginners p. cm. ISBN 575-0-6000000-0-0 1. The main category of the book —Typography—Other category. HF0000.A0 A00 2010 299.000 00–dc22 2010999999
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Pages
Contents 4
Intro to Typography
06 - 11
Kerning & Tracking
12 - 17
Leading & Alignment
18 - 23
Type Classification
24 - 27
Type Families
28 - 31
Punctuation
32 - 35
Bibliography
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What is Typography? Typography is, quite simply, the art and technique of arranging type. It’s central to the skills of a designer and is about much more than making the words legible. Your choice of typeface and how you make it work with your layout, grid, colour scheme, design theme and so on will make the difference between a good, bad and great design.
Typefaces vs. Fonts: Difference?
Intro to Typography
A lot of people use the terms “typeface” and “font” interchangeably. But they’re two very distinct things. Before we get started talking about typography, let’s get our terms straight. A typeface is a set of typographical symbols and characters. It’s the letters, numbers, and other characters that let us put words on paper (or screen). A font, on the other hand, is traditionally defined as a complete character set within a typeface, often of a particular size and style. Fonts are also specific computer files that contain all the characters and glyphs within a typeface.
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01 Aperture
12 Ear
02 Apex
13 Finial
03 Arm
14 Hairline
04 Ascender
15 Link
05 Axis
16 Loop
06 Bar
17 Serif
07 Bowl
18 Shoulder
08 Counter
19 Spur
09 Cross Stroke
20 Stem
10 Crotch
21 Tail
11 Descender
22 Terminal
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How Letters sit on a line
Ascender height
Cap height
Some elements may extend slightly about the cap height.
The distance from the baseline to the top of the capital letter determines the letter’s point size.
X-height
Overhang
Descender height
Baseline
it is the height of lowercase letters (or the height of a lowercase x), excluding its ascenders and descenders.
The curves at the bottom of the letters hang slightly below the baseline. Commas and semicolons also cross the baseline. Without overhang, rounded letters would look smaller than their flat-footed companions.
The length of the character’s descenders contribute to its overall style and attitude.
The baseline is where all the letters sit. This is the most stable axis along a line of text, it is a crucial edge for aligning text with images or with other text.
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What is Kerning? Kerning also adjusts space, but of the distance between two letters. Set too closely together, words are indecipherable; set too far apart, and they’re awkward to read. Worse yet, if some letters have wider spacing and others narrower, it can be frustrating for someone to read without fully understanding what’s wrong. One of the most important aspects of successful kerning is to have proportional spacing between each letter, taking into consideration any serifs or stylistic flourishes that may need special attention. Most of the time, it just takes a keen eye, practice and diligence to kern a font to precision.
What is Tracking?
Kerning & Tracking
Tracking is often confused for kerning, but the concept is a little different. Tracking involves adjusting the spacing throughout the entire word. Once you’ve determined the right spacing between each letter, tracking can be used, with great restraint, to change the spacing equally between every letter at once. Tracking is generally used to fill a space that’s larger or smaller than currently suits the type’s parameters or to make a single word seem airy and impressive. You should be very careful when changing the tracking, as it can quickly lead to difficulty in reading.
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Kerning: Equal & Optical Spacing
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Tracking Types
Flowers Flowers
Flowers
-50 Tracking
0 Tracking
+50 Tracking
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What is Leading? The leading is measured from the baseline of each line of text where the letters “sit.” Descenders, the parts of certain letters that are longer, such as a lowercase g, fall below the baseline. Ascenders are the opposite, letters with taller features, such as the letter h. They need to be considered as well when determining the leading distance. The leading is measured from the baseline of each line of text where the letters “sit.” Descenders, the parts of certain letters that are longer, such as a lowercase g, fall below the baseline. Ascenders are the opposite, letters with taller features, such as the letter h. They need to be considered as well when determining the leading distance.
What is Alignment?
Leading & Alignment
In typesetting and page layout, alignment or range is the setting of text flow or image placement relative to a page, column (measure), table cell, or tab. The type alignment setting is sometimes referred to as text alignment, text justification, or type justification.
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Examples of Leading
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A helicopter is a type if rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by one or more engine driven rotors. Typeface: Chaparral Pro Weight: Bold Size: 24pt Leading: 28.8pt
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A helicopter is a type if rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by one or more engine driven rotors.
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Typeface: Chaparral Pro Weight: Bold Size: 24pt Leading: 22pt
A helicopter is a type if rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by one or more engine driven rotors. Typeface: Chaparral Pro Weight: Bold Size: 24pt Leading: 72pt
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Alignment Breakdown
Centered Remember to exercise caution when using centered alignment there is nothing worse than poorly set centered text. There is no shared point where the line begins and ends, so it can be very hard to read. Centered text looks best when there are only a
Flush Left Flush left is basically text the is aligned to the left. This alignment compliments the natural way we read text in western culture. When done correctly, it is one of the biggest factors in improved readability.
few lines of text (2-3 lines). Be sure that your text area is wide enough to break the text into logical lines and that there is enough contrast between the line length to make the text inviting.
Be sure to pay attention to the right-hand side (or the rag). It is important to make sure there is a good balance with line length; make sure that they are not too similar but also not too far apart.
Justified
Flush Right
Justification works by adding white space between the words in each line so that all the lines are the same length. This alters the ideal spacing of the font, but in paragraphs of the reasonable width, it’s usually not distracting. Compared to the left-aligned text, justification gives the text a cleaner and more formal look.
Text is aligned to the right If we read from left to right, flush right can hamper the natural flow of the text. Use it as a contrast to the main body of text to highlight complimentary copy. Watch out for punctuation marks on the right-hand side as they can disrupt the alignment.
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What is Type Classification? There are thousands of different typefaces and fonts available to designers, printers, publishers, artists and writers. The vast amount of type available makes specific classification of every one nearly impossible and somewhat frivolous. However, it is important to have an understanding of the basic styles of typefaces to help narrow down the research and selection of the correct typeface.
Calligraphic
Blackletter
lillyBelle
Ancient Medium
Letters associated with the art of calligraphy and the fonts developed from their production can be classified as calligraphic.
Type Classification
Blackletter typefaces are a script style of calligraphy that were popularized in Germany, although they were used all over Europe from the middle ages through the Renaissance.
Great Day Script typefaces are based on the forms made with a flexible brush or pen and often have varied strokes reminiscent of handwriting.
Pixel
Decorative
Minecraft
Circus
Pixel fonts developed from the invention of the computer and were based on the on-screen display format of pixels. They are based on an array of pixels.
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Script
Decorative is less of a classification and can include a wide variety of typefaces underneath the umbrella of the term.
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Sans-Serif Fonts Humanist
Transitional
Geometric
Old Style
Transitional
Modern
Egyptian
Gill Sans
Helvetica
Futura
Garamond
Baskerville
Bodoni
Rockwell
The Old Style or Humanist serif typefaces developed in the 15th and 16th centuries and are characterized by a low contrast in stroke weight and angled serifs.
The bridge for the gap between Old Style and Modern serifed typefaces, Transitional type has a more vertical axis and sharper serifs than humanist forms.
Modern serifed typefaces developed in the late 18th and early 19th century and were a radical break from the traditional typography of the time with high contrast of strokes, straight serifs and a totally vertical axis.
Egyptian, or slab-serifed, typefaces have heavy serifs and were used for decorative purposes and headlines because the heavy serifs impeded legibility at small point sizes.
Humanist characteristics include proportions that were modeled on old style typefaces, open strokes and a slightly higher contrast in strokes in comparison to other sans-serif typefaces.
Closely related to the characteristics of transitional serifed typefaces, these typefaces include a more upright axis and a uniform stroke.
Geometric sans-serif typefaces, as their name implies, are based on geometric forms. In some cases letters, such as the lower case 'o', are perfect geometric forms.
Serif Fonts 26
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Where it began When typefaces were first invented, the notion of having a family of type hadn’t occurred to anyone. All fonts were simply roman designs. In the early 16th century, cursive – or italic (named after Italy, where the idea was popularised) – type was introduced. There were still no typeface families; romans were one style of type and italics were another – much like serif and sans serif.
Extended Type Families Some typeface families are made up of two or more sub-families. ITC Stone is a good example. Its sub-groups consist of Serif, Sans, Humanistic and Informal. Each design has roman and italic versions in three weights for a total of 24 individual typefaces. The four designs share the same cap height, lowercase x-height, stem weight and general proportions. Each typeface, however, is designed to stand on its own as a useful, distinctive communication tool. Thesis and ITC Legacy are two other popular typeface families that are made up of sub-families.
Type Families 28
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Adobe Garamond Pro Typeface Family
adobe garamond pro, designed by Robert Slimbach, 1988
The roman form is the core or spine from which a family of typefaces derives.
adobe garamond pro regular
The roman form, also called plain or regular, is the standard, upright version of a type face. It is typically conceived as the parent of a larger family.
Italic letters, which are based on cursive writing, have forms distinct from roman.
adobe garamond pro italic
The italic form is used to create emphasis. Especially among serif faces, it often employs shapes and strokes distinct from its roman counterpart. Note the differences between the roman and italic a.
small caps have a height that is similar to the lowercase x-height.
adobe garamond pro regular (all caps)
Small caps (capitals) are designed to integrate with a line of text, where full-size capitals would stand out awkwardly. Small capitals are slightly taller than the x-height of lowercase letters.
Bold (and semibold) typefaces are used for emphasis within hierarchy.
adobe garamond pro bold and semibold
Bold versions of tradition text fonts were added in the twentieth century to meet the need for emphatic forms. Sans-serif families often include a broad range of weights (thin, bold, black, etc).
Bold (and semibold) typefaces each need to include an italic version, too.
adobe garamond pro bold and semibold italic
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The typeface designer tries to make the two bold versions feel similar in comparison to the roman, without making the overall form too heavy. The counters need to stay clear and open at small sizes. Many designers prefer not to use bold and semi-bold versions of traditional typefaces such as Garamond, because these weights are alien to the historic families.
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Lining & Non-Lining Numerals Lining numerals take up uniform widths of space, enabling the numbers to line up when tabulated in columns. They were introduced around the turn of the twentieth century to meet the needs of modern business. Lining numerals are the same height as capital letters, so they sometimes look big and bulky when appearing in running text. Non-lining numerals, also called text or old style numerals, have ascenders and descenders, like lowercase letters. Non-lining numerals returned to favor in the 1990s, valued for their idiosyncratic appearance and their traditional typographic attitude. Like letterforms, old style numerals are proportional; each one has its own set width.
Punctuation 32
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LINING NUMERALS
FUTURA MEDIUM
NON-LINING NUMERALS
HELVETICA NEUE BOLD
ADOBE GARAMOND PRO
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SCALA SANS PRO BOLD
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http://www.creativebloq.com/typography/what-is-typography-123652 https://www.noupe.com/essentials/icons-fonts/a-crash-course-in-typography-the-basics-of-type.html http://www.designishistory.com/1450/type-classification/ http://martinsilvertant.deviantart.com/art/Typography-Series-01-Anatomy-of-typography-329617642 http://yordanh.deviantart.com/art/Anatomy-of-Typography-175055537 http://practicaltypography.com http://thinkingwithtype.com/letter/ https://www.fonts.com/content/learning/fontology/level-1/type-families https://creativemarket.com/blog/whats-the-difference-between-leading-kerning-and-tracking http://www.edgee.net/typography-tutorial-paragraph-alignments-the-ins-and-outs-of-justified-flush-leftflush-right-and-centred-text/ https://www.bopdesign.com/bop-blog/2013/07/what-is-typography/ http://theconversation.com/kerning-spacing-leading-the-invisible-art-of-typography-19699
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