mario garcia
Think text first When we paint the canvas of a page, or screen, most of our strokes are going to be text. We fill entire columns with text, we incorporate headlines, bylines and captions under photographs; we highlight quotations or facts, include boxes with statistics, and we dress up the pages with headers made up of words. About 80 uercent of what appears on a page is going to be text, not photos or illustrations. It is no wonder, then, that good designers begin strategizing by thinking about typographic elements for the page. Combining good text fonts, with an interesting architecture, and adding touches of contrast (bold, italics, light, condensed) as well as color, completes the package. Here are some tips on using text:
Start your design by selecting a text font, since that will lead to the rest of your choices. Find a text font that allows for high levels of contrast, so that hierarchy as well as highlighting of certain words is possible. Look at the text font in various sizes, so that a story could begin, with, say, 12 or 13 point, and then decreases to 10 point.
Don’t make text smaller than 9 points; go with 10 when possible.
Pay attention to leading —the space between lines.
Remember that when you dip your design brush in the can, it is mostly text that you will be painting with! 48
pure design
In-depth and readable: The Wall Street Journal is text-driven product that was designed with text as the first and foremost consideration. Occasional graphics and illustrations are employed to help the story along. Notice theuse of white space to make the page easier to follow.
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