Visual research Unit 1.2 by maya littman

Visual Research Unit 1.2

MA CTM Visual Research/Unit1.2 Maya Littman

Contents

Legibility

What is legibility? Tinker the printed word and legibility Sofie Beier Who is she? Where does she come from? What does she do?

12-21

Ralf Herrmann full on action with legibility

22-27

Beatrice Warde and her Crystal Goblet

28-31

Gunnar Swanson

32-37

Ellen Lupton â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Thinking with typeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Zuzana Licko Mattew Carter Rolf F. Rehe Loomis Bibliography

6-7 8-9

38-45 46-49 50-53 54-57 58-59 60-63

Legibility

What does is mean Legibility? 6

Legibility Tinker’s definition of legibility is: ‘concerned with perceiving letters and words, and with reading of continuous textual material. The shapes of letters must be discriminated, the characteristic words forms perceived, and the continuous text read accurately, rapidly, easily, and with understanding. In the final analysis one wants to know what typographical factor foster ease and speed of reading.’

Tinker the printed word and legibility 8

Miles Albert Tinker is an American author. He is “an internationally recognized authority on legibility of print” who published the results of some of the most comprehensive studies on the legibility of print ever conducted. Tinker conducted studies on the effect of typography on reading at the University of Minnesota for 32 years. “Much of what is known—rather than intuitively felt—about type legibility is derived from Tinker’s work.” He published prolifically in various journals during this period. Tinker also authored or co-authored seven books. Legibility of Print, published in 1963, summarized the results of his studies in 1927–1959 and is the “seminal study on how we read printed type”. (information accessed on the web: wikipedia)

Tinker’s definition of legibility is: ‘Concerned with perceiving letters and words, and with reading of continuous textual material. The shapes of letters must be discriminated, the characteristic words forms perceived, and the continuous text read accurately, rapidly, easily, and with understanding. In the final analysis one wants to know what typographical factor foster ease and speed of reading.’ (Tinker, Paterson, 1963 p. 7-8)

Different test methods conducted for continious reading by Miles A. Tinker. We can observe a large difference in performance by the various typeface. (Illustration based on Sofie Beierâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s) The typefaces used are digital fonts but have similar style to the metal ones applied by Tinker.

Sofie Beier. Who is she? Where does she come from? What does she do? 12

Sofie Beier is a research assistant professor employed at the School of Design under The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts. She is the author of the book â&#x20AC;&#x153;Reading Letters: designing for legibilityâ&#x20AC;?, published by BIS Publishers in 2012, and holds a PhD from the Royal College of Art in London, on the subject of typeface familiarity and its relation to legibility. 13

yes

What was interesting is the fact that the visual memory recall a skeleton of a letter and stores it unconsciously. And we are able to spit it out again and use it. The researchers that where looking into identifying letters stated that the identification of was â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;independent of duration, overall contrast, and eccentricity, and only weakly dependent on size, suggesting that letters are identified similarly across this wide range of viewing conditions. Efficiency is also independent of age and years of reading.â&#x20AC;&#x2122; In a sort of odd way this fact relates to everyone compared to the continuous reading (silent and oral) where you have to take in count: the environment, the age ectâ&#x20AC;Ś 15

Ralf Herrmann full on action with legibility. 22

Ralf Herrmann studied graphic design at the Bauhaus University Weimar. He is the author of several typography books and founded the type foundryfonts.info and the German typography communityTypografie.info. With a partner he founded the design studio Seite7 in 1999. Since 2009 he is the editor of the German typography magazine TypoJournal. Currently Ralf Herrmann is doing his PhD at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna. In his dissertation he will research the implications of cognitive map research applied to the design of maps and wayfinding systems. Ralf Herrmann is also teaching typography in the Master of Science course Traffic & Transport Information Design organized jointly by the International Institute for Information Design (IIID) and the University of Applied Sciences FH St. Poelten, Austria, under the auspices of UNESCO.

Beatrice Warde and her Cystal Goblet. 28

Beatrice Warde The typographer, writer, and historian of printing Beatrice Warde was educated at Barnard College, Columbia, where she developed an interest in calligraphy and letterforms. From 1921-1925 Warde was the assistant librarian at the American Type Founders Company, pursuing her research into typefaces and the history of printing. In 1925 she married the book and type designer Frederic Warde, Director of Printing at the Princeton University Press. The couple moved to Europe, where Beatrice worked on The Fleuron: A Journal of Typography, then edited by Stanley Morison. Her reputation was established by an article she published in the 1926 issue The Fleuron, written under the pseudonym “Paul Beaujon,” which traced types mistakenly attributed to Garamond back to Jean Jannon of Sedan. In 1927 she became editor of The Monotype Recorder, in London. Beatrice Warde was a believer in the power of the printed word to defend freedom, and she designed and printed her famous manifesto, This Is A Printing Office, in 1932, using Eric Gill’s Perpetua typeface. She rejected the avant-garde in typography, believing that classical forms provided a “clearly polished window” through which ideas could be communicated. The Crystal Goblet: Sixteen Essays on Typography (1955) is an anthology of her writings. 29

â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;the front door of the science of typography. Within lies hundred of rooms, but unless you start by assuming that printing is meant to convey a specific and coherent idea, it is very easy to find yourself in the wrong house altogetherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;. (Warde, 1923, p.92)

â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;type well used is invisible type, just as the perfect talking voice is unnoticed vehicle for the transmission of words, ideasâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;. (Warde, 1932, p.92)

Gunnar Swanson 32

Gunnar Swanson graphic designer, educator, and design writer, currently living in Greenville, North Carolina where I am an associate professor of graphic design in the School of Art & Design at East Carolina University. Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve taught graphic design history at Loyola Marymount University, was the director of the multimedia program at California Lutheran University, taught design and design history at the University of California Davis, headed the graphic design program at the University of Minnesota Duluth, and taught design, design history, and computer illustration at various schools in the Los Angeles area. 33

â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;the wine is the medium that connects the wine maker and the drinker- it is not more important than the otherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;. (Swanson, 2000, p.1)

Ellen Lupton. ‘Thinking with type’. 38

Ellen Lupton is a writer, curator, and graphic designer. She is director of the Graphic Design MFA program at Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) in Baltimore, where she also serves as director of the Center for Design Thinking. As curator of contemporary design at Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum since 1992, she has produced numerous exhibitions and books, including Mechanical Brides: Women and Machines from Home to Office (1993), Mixing Messages: Graphic Design and Contemporary Culture (1996), Letters from the Avant-Garde (1996), and Skin: Surface, Substance + Design (2002). Her book Thinking with Type (2004) is used by students, designers, and educators worldwide. D.I.Y.: Design It Yourself (2006), co-authored with her graduate students at MICA, explains design processes to a general audience. D.I.Y. Kids (October 2007), coauthored with Julia Lupton, is a design book for children illustrated with kids’ art. The Lupton twins’ latest book is Design Your Life: The Pleasures and Perils of Everyday Things (St Martin’s Griffin, 2009). 39

Adjusting the spacing across a word, line, or column of text is called tracking, also known as letterspacing. It is common practice to letterspace capitals and small capitals, which appear more regal when standing apart. By slightly expanding the tracking across a body of text, the designer can create a more airy field. Negative tracking is rarely desirable. This device should be used sparingly, to adjust one or more lines of justified type. â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Ellen Luptonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;

Based on the Ellen Lupton ‘Thinking with type’. 41

Classification of typefaces: Since many words describing typefaces (example : gothic, antique, humanist..) have different and sometimes opposite meaning in different languages, French designer Maximilien Vox (1894-1974). Maximilien Vox created the Vox Atypl in 1954 where he made it possible to classify typefaces in eleven general classes. It was adapted in 1962 by the Association Typographique Internationale (ATypl) and in 1967 as a British standard. This classification tends to group typefaces according to their main characteristics, often typical of a particular century (15th, 16th, 17th, 18th, 19th, 20th century), based on a number of formal criteria: downstroke and upstroke, forms of serifs, stroke axis, x-height, etc. Although the Vox-ATypI classification defines archetypes of typefaces, many typefaces can exhibit the characteristics of more than one class.

‘if letters in a typeface are spaced too uniformly, they make a pattern that doesn’t look uniform enough. Gaps occur, for example around letters whose forms angle outward or frame an open space ( W, Y, V, T, L). In metal type, a kerned letter extends past the lead slug that supports it, allowing two letters to sit more closely together. In the digital typefaces used today, the space between letters is controlled by a table of kerning pairs, which specify spaces between different letter combinations’. Ellen Lupton Originally the term ‘kern’ described the portion of a letterform that extended beyond the body of the type slug. Kerning is meant to remove the space between the letters. Must be careful about misunderstand the term ‘kerning’ with ‘ letterspacing’. Letterspacing means adding space between the letters, not REMOVING IT. A little tip keep in mind the bigger the type size, more the space the between the letters will requires a specific adjustment.

Akzidenz-Grotesk Std 12/12

Tasting the mint and tasting the whiskey And I love to roll through the streets full of birds And I steal the pigeon wings I’m a bird, I’m a board, I’m flying horse Tasting the mint and tasting the whiskey For the longboard blues... Tasting the mint and tasting the whiskey For the longboard blues...

Bookman Old Style 12/12

Zuzana Licko 46

Zuzana Licko is the co-founder of Emigre, together with her husband Rudy VanderLans. Licko was born in 1961 in Bratislava, Czechoslovakia and emigrated to the U.S. in 1968. She graduated with a degree in Graphic Communications from the University of California at Berkeley in 1984. Emigre Magazine was founded in 1984 and garnered much critical acclaim when it began to incorporate Licko's digital typeface designs created with the first generation of the Macintosh computer. This exposure of her typefaces in Emigre magazine led to the manufacture of Emigre Fonts, which Emigre now distributes as software, worldwide. 47

“Typefaces are not intrinsically legible. Rather, it is the reader’s familiarity with faces that accounts for their legibility. Studies have shown that readers read best what they read most. Legibility is also a dynamic process, as readers’ habits are everchanging. It seems curious that blackletter typestyles, which we find illegible today, were actually preferred over more humanistic designs during the eleventh and fifteenth centuries. Similarly, typefaces that we perceive as illegible today may well become tomorrow’s classic choices” (“Interview with Zuzana Licko”, Emigre, no.15, 1990 p. 12.).

Matthew Carter 50

Matthew Carter is a type designer with more than forty years' experience of typographic technologies ranging from hand-cut punches to computer fonts. After a long association with the Linotype companies he was a cofounder in 1981 of Bitstream Inc., the digital typefoundry, where he worked for ten years. He is now a principal of Carter & Cone Type Inc., in Cambridge, Massachusetts, designers and producers of original typefaces. His type designs include ITC Galliard, Snell Roundhand, and Shelley scripts, Helvetica Compressed, Olympian (for newspaper text), Bell Centennial Address (for the US telephone directories), ITC Charter, and faces for Greek, Hebrew, Cyrillic, and Devanagari. For Carter & Cone he has designed Mantinia, Sophia, Elephant, Big Caslon, Alisal, and Miller. Carter & Cone have produced types on commission for Apple, Microsoft (the screen fonts Verdana, Tahoma, and Georgia), Time magazine, Wired, Newsweek, U.S. News & World Report, Sports Illustrated, The Washington Post, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Boston Globe, The New York Times, El PaĂs, and the Walker Art Center. 51

Tahoma Designed in 2006

Georgia Pro Designed in 2011

â&#x20AC;&#x153; Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s difficult to measure readability. Legibility can be measured because successive degradations demonstrate how letterforms hold up. But readability is difficult to measure. People read and comprehend best those typefaces which they are most familiar. There is a congeniality factor where type is concernedâ&#x20AC;? Matthew Carter

Rolf F. Rehe 54

Rolf F. Rehe is an internationally active media designer who has served clients in 32 countries on all continents. His major projects include newspapers in the United States, South America, and in many European countries. He is the author of Typography and design for newspapers and Typography: how to make it most legible. Rehe was trained as craftsman-typographer in Germany and studied psychology, design and journalism at Indiana University. For ten years he taught typography and design at the Herron School of Art of Indiana University, his alma mater. 55

Loomis 58

Bibliography

Books: Baines, Phil and Haslam, Andrew, 2002, Type & Typography. London: Laurence King Publishing Ltd Beier, Sofie, 2012, Reading Letter, designing for legibility. Amsterdam: BIS Publishers Berger, John, 1972,Â Ways of seeing. London: British Broadcasting Corporation; London : Penguin Drucker, Johanna, 1994, Visible word : experimental typography and modern art. Chicago: University of Chicago Press Garfield, Simon, 2010, Just my type: a book about fonts. London: TJ International Heller, Steven and Meggs, Philip B., 2001, Texts on type: critical writings on typography. New York: Allworth Press Helmut, Schmid, 2003, Typography today / concept and design. 3rd ed. Hall, Inc. Shinko Makoto statement Hochuli, Jost, 2003, Detail in typography: letters, letterspacing, words, wordspacing, lines, linespacing, columns. Switzerland: Hyphen Press Kane, John, 2011, A type primer, 2nd ed. London: Laurence King Publishing Ltd Lupton, Ellen, 2004, Thinking with type: a critical guide for designers, writers, editors & students. New York: Princeton Architectural Press McLean, Ruari, 2000, Thames and Hudson manual of typography. 3rd ed. London: Thames and Hudson McLuhan, Marshall, 1962, Gutenberg galaxy: the making of typographic man. Toronto : University of Toronto Press 61

Noble, Ian and Bestley, Russell, 2003, Visual research: an introduction to research methodologies in graphic design. Switzerland: AVA Publishing SA Ruder, Emil, 2001, Typographie: ein Gestaltungslehrbuch =Typography : a manual of design =Typographie: un manual de creation, 7th ed. Switzerland: Heer Druck, AG, Sulgen Spiekermann, Erik and Ginger, E. M.,1993, Stop Stealing Sheep & find out how type word. Mountain View, California: Adobe Press Sudjic, Deyan, 2009, Language of things, 2nd ed. London: Penguin Â Swanson, Gunnar, 2000, Graphic design & reading: explorations of an uneasy relationship. New York : Allworth PressÂ Tinker, Miles A., 1969, Legibility of print, 3rd ed. Ames: Iowa State University Press Warde, Beatrice, 1956, The Crystal Goblet-Sixteen essays on Typography. Cleveland OH and New York: World publishing Co

Web Links: Buswell, Guy T., Fundamental reading habits: a study of their development, 1922 (digitalised book), Available at: http://ia600407.us.archive.org/29/items/ fundamentalreadi00buswuoft/fundamentalreadi00buswuoft.pdf (Accessed 12 February 2012). De Lange, Rudi W., Esterhuizen, Hendry L. and Beatty, Derek, 1993, Performance differences between Times and Helvetica in a reading task (ELECTRONIC PUBLISHING) Available at: http://cajun.cs.nott.ac.uk/ compsci/epo/papers/volume6/issue3/rudi.pdf (Accessed on 13 February 2012) Do typefaces matter? 20 July 2010 Last updated at 12:34(Article), Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-10689931 Accessed 6 March 2012].

Franz, Laura, 2010, Is the Font Easy to Read? Anatomy and Legibility, (Online) Available at http://www.goodwebfonts.com/legibility_twd.pdf (Accessed on 18 march 2012) Haley, Allan, Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s About Legibility (Article), Available at: http://www.fonts. com/aboutfonts/articles/typography/legibility.htm (Accessed 16 February 2012). Hermann, Ralf,Does a large x-height make fonts more legible?, 2012 (article), Available at: http://opentype.info/blog/2012/04/10/x-height-and-legibility/ (Accessed 10 April 2012). Hermann, Ralf, What makes letters legible?, 2011 (article), Available at: http://opentype.info/blog/2011/08/01/what-makes-letters-legible/ (Accessed 16 March 2012). Het Wereld Boek, Amsterdam, 2008, A view of latin typography in relationship to the world. Available at: http://www.peterbilak.com/texts/a_ view_of_latin_typography (Accessed on 18 march 2012) INCUNABULA,2007, History of typography: Humanist (essay), Available at: http://ilovetypography.com/2007/11/06/type-terminology-humanist-2/> (Accessed 11 February 2012). International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, 1968, (Bibliography) Available at: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-3045000915.html (Accessed on 1 April 2012) Loomis, J. Jack, 1990, A Model of Character Recognition and Legibility, (essay) Available at: http://www.psych.ucsb.edu/~loomis/loomis_90.pdf (Accessed on 22 febuary 2012) Lupton, Ellen, 2004, The science of Typography (essay) Available at http://www.typotheque.com/articles/the_science_of_typography (Accessed on 22 febuary 2012)

Lupton, Ellen, 2004, Writing lessons: Modern Design Theory, (essay) Available at: http://www.typotheque.com/articles/writing_lessons_modern_ design_theory (Accessed on 22 febuary 2012) Pelli, Denis G., Burns, Catherine W., Farell, Bart, and Moore-Page, Deborah C., (essay) Feature detection and letter identiﬁcation Available at: http:// www.cs.ucl.ac.uk/staff/ucacsjp/Reading/FeatDetec.pdf (Accessed 15 February 2012). Pelli, Denis G., Burns, Catherine W., Farell, Bart, and Moore-Page, Deborah C., Identifying Letters, Available at: http://www.isr.syr.edu/faculty/bfarell/ Pelli,Burns,Farell&Moore_2005.pdf [Accessed 15 February 2012). Segalini, Alessandro, Basic Glossary of typeface Anatomy, (Glossary), Available at: http://www.as8.it/handouts/type-classification.pdf (Accessed 10 April 2012). Part 3: Siècle des Lumières,2008, History of typography: Transitional (essay), Available at: http://ilovetypography.com/2008/01/17/type-terms-transitionaltype/ (Accessed 11 February 2012). Swanson, Gunnar, Clarety: Drinking from the Crystal Goblet, 2011 (essay), Available at: http://www.gunnarswanson.com/writing/Clarety.pdf (Accessed 16 February 2012). Swanson, Gunnar, Emigre 31, Summer 1994 and Emigre No. 70: The Look Back Issue—Selections (article/letter), Available at: http://www. gunnarswanson.com/writing/UglyLetter.pdf (Accessed 16 February 2012).