2 VISUAL THINKING
Mia Jamieson
WHAT IS VISUAL THINKING? 'Visual Thinking' focuses on extending your visual awareness, individual creative language and understanding of contemporary practice while examining the fertile and complex semiotic and aesthetic nature of word, image and object.
TYPOGRAPHY AS A SEMIOTIC RESOURCE
Distinctive Characters: Typography as a Semiotic Resource
A
For this project we had to work in groups of two, and pick a letter out of a hat then create that 3D letter which representing a word beginging with our chosen letter. We chose the letter ‘A’, which had to have a height of 300 mm. In addition, the word has to be related to Graphic Design.
Idea Generation: Apple Abacus Alignment Acrobat Accend Animal Ant Autumn Architecture Avatar
Alphabet Accident Art Alien Ark Arch Astronomy Atlas Afro Angle
These are some the first words which came to our heads when we thought of the letter ‘A’. However we did not want to choose a word which was too obvious, so we originally went for arch because we did not realise it had to be related to the theme Graphic Design.
Initial Idea: Arch
Arches are very historical structures which have been built for hundered of years. Being known for their interesting and decorative features, with thought, creating an arch in the style of the letter ‘A’ could be a unique way of approaching this brief.
This image is a mock macette of what the model could potentially look like. Being harder than first imagines, the difficulty of creating such a complex shape out of paper shows in the final product. Considerations into the materials used is to be experimented to achieve a high quality outcome.
Review: After having a tutorial and re-reading the brief, we’ve just realised than the word needs to be directly related to graphic design. So, after going over ther list of words we originally had we are going to explore the word ‘alignment’ and how we can created this word based around the letter ‘A’.
RESEARCH & PLANNING
THE ARRANGEMENT OR POSITION IN STRAIGHT OR PARRELLEL LINES. IN TYPOGRAPHIC TERMS, ALIGNMENT OR RANGE IS HOW A TEXT FLOW OR IMAGE PLACEMENT IS SET RELATING TO A PAGE, COLUMN, TABLE CELL OR TAB
TYPOGRAPHIC
FLUSH LEFT: The text is aligned a type of alignment is and European langu
CENTRED The text is central be gins on each line. Th present data tables.Th align- ment hard to
ALIGNMENT
JUSTIFIED The text is aligned along the left margin however the letter and word spacing falls between both margins. This meaning the spaces between words is stretched to both the left and right margin.
C ALIGNMENTS
FLUSH RIGHT: along the left margin. This The text is aligned along the right margin. s noticably seen in English This is notciably seen in Arabic and Hebrew uages. languages.
etween the left and right margins. The is an even gap between both marThis can be seen as symmetrically lined. Centred text is usually used to The ragged edges in the formation of a chunk of text can make centred read
IDEA ONE: LEFT ALIGNMENT The material to be used is wood to create a bold and 3 dimensional fnish. I feel that this idea would work well in comprehending to our brief.
This idea still follows the previous, in the sense of alignment. However we need to consider how the model will be fxed to the stand, and yet the top can still move from left to right to show alignment. One idea is to use clear acrylic, which may look better visually. Or we could use both, so it contrasts?
This is a mock out of our brief specified that the ‘A’ designing and making th and top of the ‘A’ need
The idea on creating the moving letter, the ability to be able to slide the ‘A’ to the right which will show alignment. I think it will work best with the composition, having the ‘A’ made out of wood and possibly painted. Then, having the stand made out of clear acrylic.
r model. When given the letter, the must be 300mm/30cm high. When he model, the gap between the base ds to be taken into consideration.
REQUIREMENTS 150 mm
50 mm
100 mm
IDEA TWO: Top and Base Alignment. This idea follows the alignment of the top and bottom of the letter- also known as top and base. Following the same idea of using letter movement, the structure provides a solid letterform which can be moved to the left and right. Overall the alignment lies at the top and bottom of the letterform which can be shown by two thin broken lines. This idea can be shown through a transparant perspex L shaped base which the solid letter will be fixed to using a hidden screw fixed to a short, cut out strip allowing the horizontal movement. The broken lines will be noticable in a thin, (around 2pt) black line.
BASE ALI
IGNMENT:
LE CE
EFT, RIGHT AND ENTRE ALIGNMENT: After previous research in types of alignments, i found that there are 4 mains types that this follows. Thinking about ways to show the 3 more no- ticed alignements i came up with the idea of a movable letter that chang- es the way the letter falls. The sketch (left) describes the way a solid 3 dimenional letter can be shown to be aligned in left flush, centre align and right flush. When creating the model, it will be shown on a freestanding board with the ability to be wall mounted. The solid 3D letterform will be able to be moved from left to right which ultimately shows the letter in all 3 forms. The guidlines, following the same style format as a ruled paper page will be visable to enhance the overall image.
TWO:
LEFT, CENTR
RIG RE
LANIF
FINAL O
POSTCARD
TASK TWO: POSTCARD
For this brief I had to design an A6 postcard, which had an image of my alignment model. It also had to have a quote which either related to the word I chose or something to do with typography.
This is the layout for the postcard, with the slug and bleed lines.
QUOTE RESEACH:
I started researching into quotes about alignment, to see if any related to typography in some way. However, the only one I found which remotely related was this one:
“With best thoughts, words and actions we align our past, present and future.”John R. Dallas Jr The other one I found, which was more appropriate is: “Typographical design should perform optically what the speaker creates through voice and gesture of his thoughts.” -El Lizzitsky
FINAL OUTCOME
“Typographical design should perform optically what the speaker creates through voice and gesture of his thoughts.” -El Lizzitsky
TASK THREE: POSTCARD
Next, I hand to design an A2 poster with the alignment model on it with the quote.
“Typographical design should perform optically what the speaker creates through voice and gesture of his thoughts.” -El Lissitsky
A LEXICON OF URBAN TYPOGRAPHY
BRIEF: This unit begins with a visit to Poole where you will identify, collect and photograph, examples of vernacular letterforms in the town. Your images could be literal interpretations of details of road signs, hand painted signs, neon signs, fragments of words, individual characters, manhole covers, gravestones or shop-front signs. Documenting these typographic havens is crucial to rebuff the constant threat from planners and councils that choose to subvert local history and ignore the rich traditions of vernacular heritage. Alternatively, you could choose to record a slightly more challenging abstract collection of ‘hidden signs’ drawn from architectural forms, found objects, and unintentional typographic structures. You will be working teams of two and planning which letterforms you each photograph in order to create a lexicon of vernacular letterforms. Remember, you will need a full alphabet It is important that you keep accurate notes for each of the pictures: ie Photographer, Location, Date, Description before returning to AUB and uploading your pictures to hard drive. You will then go through a process of picture editing and retouching in readiness to prepare layouts for the book they will be published in. Technical specifications: Trimmed size: 300 x 300 mm Four Colour Pix to be saved as 300dpi CMYK Tiffs. Binding: French Fold
LETTERS:
LECTURES
NOTIONS OF TASTE, AESTHETIC JUDGEMENT AND CONSUMER CULTURE: - Our relationship with objects and how we respond to and give value to ‘things. - How our aesthetic judgements and purchase decisions relate to consumer culture. Coolhunting.com -collects stuff thats cool/trends, products in the intersection of art, design Oakley- headquarters of design by Cloin Beaden -Genderisation of objects -Alluring advertising to seduce and persuade Edward Bernays USA Today- image management Neomania Taste- Derives from an old french term - To touch or to feel, metaphor for judgement Cultural consumption different tastes in different countries- cultural preferences, social taboo Design that you use everyday? How important is it to you google floride Mass production- profileration of standardised goods Planned obsolescence- consume- dispose- waste Rediandancy is designed into industry We invest profane things with sacred meanings Mass consumer market- Styles, fads and trends Visual language Lifestyle- possesions bespoke,unique limited edition, prestige- status- Luxury (James Twitchell) Thorstein Veblen- Conspicious consumption mark of status Luxury- Twitchell, james B (2003) living it up How do we judge design?- Subjectively - Objectively - Experience of objects - Influence - Education - Fashion, Styles
Form follows function- Louis Sullivan (American Architect) Function & form Use Ergonomics Size, Handling, Storage Recycling Shape Colour Style Materials Production Process Manufacture cost Target audience competitors marketing Less is more- Mies van der rote Minimalist, functional Dieter rams, 1987- Braun Designers Germany Modernist Creed Less is not more, less is a bore. Robert (American) Alessi Classic design- What factors do we consider Philippe Starck- Juicy Salif The frankfurt school- Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer (1944) the culture industry- Enlightenment as mass deception power of capitalism Adorno - mass produced with an illusion of individuality Culture jaming- Subversion of the message “have nothing in your name that you don’t believe to be useful or beautiful”. William Morris Baudrillard Semiotics Kitsch: -Visual pleasure, cheap, mass produced, poor quality, non functional, superficial, copy, take, vulgar, ignorant, sentimental, souvenir, personal, decorative. Clement Greenburg- Says its fake Bordieu- Taste The art pf Chindogu Baudelaire: Whats so intoxicating about bad taste is the aristocratic pleasure of being displeased. Elsa Schiaparelli- Italian Fashion designer
PROPAGANDER, POWER AND PERSUASION: PROPAGANDER- information to asdsist or damage the cause of a government or movement The spreading of ideas, info, or rumour for the purpose of helping or injuring an institution, a cause or a person. Ideas facts or allegations spread deliberatly to furtehr ones cause or to damage an opposing cause also a public allegation Have religious background/origin cencorship Beniton Magazine Propogate- to grow and spread (info and ideas) reproduce. 3 forms of propaganda- balck, white and grey. Black- unidentified source, unreliable, artificial lies Grey- Some facts, questionable source, half truth, un/reliable truth/source White-- reliable source and facts Cencorship- Advertising, facebook, youtube 4 varieties of propaganda - Black (big lie)- changing what happened i.e. twin towers -itdoesn’t have to be the truth, as long as its plausible -tell the truth but withold some of the info -Most productive, tell the truth and reinforce it Genetically modified organisms Adbusters Variety of propaganda techniques to influence opinions and to avoidthe truth Persuasion techniques Denver airport- America Apocolypse memorial painting Cover up- The engeneering of consent is the very essense of covering up Using selective stories that come over as under covering objects Partial facts/ or historical context Repeated affirmation, weapons of mass destruction Reframing newspeak Delusion False flag terroism Distraction and denial celebrities in the news distracts from key issues Negative imitaive learning i.e. GTA Language reinforces sterotypes Repetition- helps meta size the delusion Persuaion technology Why does it work? People wish to believe the best, wish to live in a bubble
CINEMATIC BODIES: - PSYCHOANALYSIS- what does it mean to be -using cinema to explain complex ideas what is the reel? Gender and masculinity in relation to art practise men giving birth to themselves and transforming Metamorphisis- 1900 -what is the value of life? How do we value it Sladvoy zizek cinema reflects the reality inside fiction films district 9, the fly, the moon human productivity Desires are arteficial- cinema tells you what to desire
WORKSHOPS
LETTER M PRESS Letter m press is a digital printing press, which allows you to get the same effects as physically doing it, except it is a faster process and it doesn’t produce any mess. These are some of the compositions I produced:
JAPANESE BOOK BINDING Japanese book binding has been around for many years, as is one of the best ways to bind pages as it last a lot longer than other methods. Tostart with, you align all of your papers and mesaure out where the holes need to be drilled. Next, you use bulldog clips to hold the papers together, so it makes it easier to drill through it. The traditional method is to use a Japanese hand drill, however I used a electric drill as this is a lot quicker due to the amount of paper I wanted to bind. After you have drilled the holes, you need to remove the top piece of paper, which you made the guidedine marks on for drilling the holes. Next you measure out the string to be six times the length of the edge you are binding. You then coat that piece of string in a coupld of layers of bees wax to make the string more resistant. After that you thread it through a needle a bind the edge. After that you tie the ends of the sting in a knot, and poke the knot through the hole so it is hidden.
PERFECT BINDING Perfect binding is very different to Japanese, as it envolves gluing the edges together, and also over time the glue becomes corrosive so the binding disitergrates. However, it looks good aesthetically. Here are some images from the workshop:
THE TYPOGRAPHERS GLOSSARY A as in Ascender accents See Diacritics. alternates Different shapes (or glyphs) for the same character in a typeface, for example small caps, swash characters, contextual alternates, case-sensitive forms, etc. When alternates are built-in as OpenType features, certain (older) operating systems and applications will not be able to access them. Aperture The aperture is the partially enclosed, somewhat rounded negative space in some characters such as ‘C’, ‘S’, the lower part of ‘e’, or the upper part of a double-storey ‘a’. B as in Baseline balt (baltic) (appended to a font or volume name) Language support; includes all necessary accents and characters for Estonian, Latvian, and Lithuanian (also included in CE – for Mac only). The supported languages may vary a little depending on the foundry. baseline The imaginary line upon which the letters in a font appear to rest. body Originally the physical block on which each character sat, in digital type it is the imaginary area that encompasses each character in a font. The height of the body equals the point size; its width is related to the width of the character. bowl The curved part of the character that encloses the circular or curved parts (counter) of some letters such as ‘d’, ‘b’, ‘o’, ‘g’, ‘D’, and ‘B’ is the bowl. bracket The bracket is a curved or wedge-like connection between the stem and serif of some fonts. Not all serifs are bracketed serifs. C as in Cap height cap height The height from the baseline to the top of the uppercase letters (not including diacritics). case-sensitive The position of a number of punctuation marks like hyphens, brackets, slashes etc. is centred on the x-height of the lowercase letters. Fonts with case-sensitive punctuation also have slightly raised alternates of these characters that are centred on the cap height (the height of the uppercase). When case-sensitive forms are built-in as OpenType features, certain (older) operating systems and applications will not be able to access them.
central european (ce) (appended to a font or volume name) Language support; includes all necessary accents and characters for Albanian, Croatian, Czech, Estonian, Finnish, Hungarian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Polish, Romanian, Slovak, Slovenian, and Sorbian (lower and upper). Character Any letter, numeral, punctuation mark, and other sign included in a characters can be represented by more than one glyph. com Linotype’s “Communication” (or Com) fonts have been optimised for international communication and for use with Microsoft Office applications. They are TrueType-flavored OpenType fonts and are compatible with Mac and Windows operating systems. contextual Feature-rich OpenType fonts with contextual alternates can detect certain characters or character combinations before and/or after specific characters and substitute them with alternate glyphs or ligatures according to the context. counter The enclosed or partially enclosed circular or curved negative space (white space) of some letters such as d, o, and s is the counter. crossbar The (usually) horizontal stroke across the middle of uppercase ‘A’ and ‘H’. cyrillic (cyr) (appended to a font or volume name) Language support; includes the Cyrillic alphabet and all necessary accents for the Cyrillic languages. The supported languages may vary a little depending on the foundry. D as in Diacritics descender Any part in a lowercase letter that extends below the baseline, found for example in g, j, p, q, y, etc. Some types of descenders have specific names. diacritics A diacritic is a ancilliary mark or sign added to a letter. In the Latin alphabet their function is to change the sound value of the letters to which they are added; in other alphabetical systems like Arabic or Hebrew they may indicate sounds (vowels and tones) which are not conveyed by the basic alphabet. display A category of typefaces designed for decorative or headline use. As opposed to text typefaces, display typefaces are usually meant for larger settings. E as in Ear ear Typically found on the lower case ‘g’, an ear is a decorative flourish usually on the upper right side of the bowl. embedding Including font information in a digital document, to ensure that the text is rendered with the font specified by the author. Some EULAs restrict embedding. eot (embeddable opentype)
File format developed by Microsoft to enable TrueType and OpenType fonts to be linked to web pages for download, to ensure that the text is rendered with the font specified by the author. Some EULAs restrict using EOT files. eula (end user license agreement) As with most software, fonts are licensed to individuals and organisations. The EULA defines the terms and provisions for use of the font software. The EULA also indicates the number of CPUs or concurrent Users the fonts may be installed on. The number of CPUs/Users for which a font is initially licensed can vary depending on the manufacturer/foundry. expert set A font that contains special characters, such as small caps, fractions, ligatures, extra accents, and alternate glyphs. Because TrueType and PostScript only support a limited number of glyphs, some characters that are not used as frequently come in an expert font. OpenType fonts on the other hand, have the capacity for thousands of glyphs, so one font can include all these extras plus other alphabets etc. eye Much like a counter, the eye refers specifically to the enclosed space in a lowercase ‘e’. F as in Font family A collection of related typefaces which share common design traits and a common name. A type style means any given variant of this coordinated design and is the equivalent of a font or typeface. Super families are very extensive with a very large number of weights and widths. Type systems are collections of related type families that cross type classifications. font A collection of letters, numbers, punctuation, and other symbols used to set text (or related) matter. Although font and typeface are often used interchangeably, font refers to the physical embodiment (whether it’s a case of metal pieces or a computer file) while typeface refers to the design (the way it looks). A font is what you use, and a typeface is what you see. foundry A company that designs and/or distributes typefaces; a type manufacturer. FontShop.com carries fonts from over 80 foundries. G as in Glyph glyph Every character in a typeface, (e.g: G, $, ?, and 7), is represented by a glyph. One single type design may contain more than one glyph for each character. These are usually referred to as alternates. greek (appended to a font or volume name) Language support; includes the Greek alphabet and all necessary accents for Greek. hanging figures See Oldstyle figures hybrid figures An intermediary style between oldstyle figures and lining figures, hybrid figures are somewhat smaller than the capital letters and have a consistent body size, yet some parts extend slightly upwards and downwards. When the different figure sets are built-in as OpenType features, certain (older) operating systems and applications will only be able to access the default figures.
I as in Italics italic A (mostly) slanted type style which takes its basic shapes from a stylised form of handwriting, and is usually narrower than its roman counterpart. Italics are commonly used for emphasis in text. They are primarily found in serif designs, while obliques originally were associated with sans serifs. leading The vertical space between lines of text (baseline to baseline). Also known as linespacing. ligatures Special characters that are actually two letters or more combined into one. In cases where two adjacent characters would normally bump into each other, a ligature allows the letters to flow together more gracefully. This usually makes word shapes more aesthetically pleasing. lining figures (LF) Numbers that rest on the baseline, and are usually the same height as capital letters. Lining figures may be tabular or proportional. loop/lobe In a double-storey ‘g’, the loop is the enclosed or partially enclosed counter below the baseline that is connected to the bowl by a link. The enclosed or partially enclosed extenders on cursive ‘p’, ‘b’, ‘l’, and similar letters are also called loops. lowercase The small letters in a typeface. The name refers to the days of metal type, as the small letters were kept in the lower part of the type case. M as in Monospaced monospaced A font in which every character has the same width, and no kerning pairs. This allows for neatly setting columns of text and tables, for example in programming code, accounting, etc. O as in Oldstyle Figures oblique A font that is slanted. Oblique fonts are different from italic fonts, in that they are mechanically sheared, then slightly adjusted. Italic fonts, on the other hand, are designed differently from upright or roman versions. They are usually narrower than their roman counterparts, and reflect more of a calligraphic sensibility than lowercase oblique fonts. oldstyle figures (osf) Numbers that have different heights, some aligning to the baseline, some below. Oldstyle figures harmonize well with lowercase letters. Using oldstyle figures helps keep the numbers from standing out too much and disturbing the overall flow of the typography on the page. opentype The most recent font format emerged at the beginning of the new millennium. OpenType was initially developed by Microsoft. In a few years time it has become the new standard format for digital fonts. The biggest advantages shared by all OpenType fonts are their single file structure, cross-platform compatibility, and advanced typographic functionality. This means any single OpenType font file will work on both Mac and Windows systems, and some OpenType fonts include expanded character sets and special features like automatic ligatures and alternate glyphs. OpenType is the best format for most purposes. optical size
Some type designs come in different versions optimized for use in specific point sizes. Subtle variations in weight, contrast, and proportion make them as legible in small text as they are beautiful in big headlines. P as in Pica petite caps Slightly smaller than small caps, petite caps are capital letters that are exactly as high as the x-height of the lowercase letters. pica A typographic unit of measure corresponding to 1⁄72nd of its respective foot, and therefore to 1⁄6th of an inch. The pica contains 12 points. The standard in contemporary printing (home computers and printers) is the computer pica (1⁄72nd of the Anglo-Saxon compromise foot of 1959, i.e. 4.233 mm or 0.166 in). At 100% zoom one computer pica corresponds to 12 image pixels on a computer monitor display, thus one computer point corresponds with one image pixel. pixel Pixel fonts are modular type designs that take advantage of the pixel grid to render often very small type on screen. They are very popular in web design, but also became an aesthetic on their own. point Type sizes are generally expressed in points. The point is a typographic unit of measure corresponding to 1⁄12th of a pica. At 100% zoom one computer point corresponds with one image pixel on a computer monitor display. point size The point size of a typeface refers to the size of the body, the imaginary area that encompasses each character in a font. This is why a typeface with a large x-height appears bigger than a typeface with a small x-height at the same point size. postscript A technology developed and trademarked by Adobe Systems, Inc. On older systems, PostScript fonts require Adobe Type Manager. On the Mac, PostScript fonts consist of a printer font and a bitmap suitcase, which should always be kept together. PostScript fonts are generally more difficult to maintain, and PostScript fonts can have compatibility issues with some operating systems like Vista. pro OpenType Pro fonts share the same technical specifications as OpenType Standard (Std, or simply OT) fonts, but support a broader range of languages. Standard OT fonts contain support for Western languages, while Pro fonts include Central European and often Latin Extended, and often Greek and/or Cyrillic and Extended Cyrillic. proportional figures Proportional figures are different from Tabular figures in their total character width. They are spaced to fit together more like letters. For instance, the figure 1 is very narrow like the letter l and takes up less width than the number 6. Because their spacing appears more even, these figures are best in texts and headings where columnar alignment is not necessary. There are Proportional Lining Figures and Proportional Oldstyle Figures. R as in Roman roman The (standard) upright type style. The term Roman is also sometimes used to denote the Regular weight. small caps
Small caps are capital letters that are approximately as high as the x-height of the lowercase letters. When properly designed small caps are absent in the selected font, many applications can create small caps by scaling down the capitals. However this makes these fake small caps too light and narrow, and they don’t harmonise properly with the lowercase. Originally small caps were only available for the roman text weight(s), but nowadays many type families also have them for the italics and the bolder weights. When small caps are built-in as OpenType features, certain (older) operating systems and applications will not be able to access them. spacing Spacing refers to the distribution of horizontal space on both sides of each character in a font to achieve a balanced and even texture. Spacing problems in difficult letter combinations (exceptions) are solved with kerning. Well-spaced fonts need comparatively less kerning pairs. std/ot (opentype standard) (appended to a font or volume name) OpenType Standard fonts support the basic range of languages. Some foundries use the abbreviation Std, while others simply use OT. In the latter case OT identifies both the font format and the language support. Some foundries do include Central European (CE) and Turkish in their OpenType Standard fonts. style Any given variant in a type family; the equivalent of a single font or typeface. style-linking Families of fonts that are grouped together under a single item in the font menu. To access other styles in a style-linked family, use the style buttons in the application that you are using. Some applications like for example the Adobe Creative Suite don’t support style-linking, yet still conveniently list the fonts by family. stylistic set In OpenType fonts with alternate glyph shapes for certain characters, different character sets can be grouped in stylistic sets. Instead of having to manually switch individual characters, the user can select the appropriate stylistic set which has all the desired alternates. Certain (older) operating systems and applications cannot access the stylistic sets, making only the default character set available. swash An elegant extension on a letter form, either a modification of an existing part or an added-on part. When swash characters are built-in as OpenType features, certain (older) operating systems and applications will not be able to access them. T as in Typography tabular figures (tf) Numbers that share identical character widths (that is, they are monospaced). Using tabular figures enables you to set columns of numbers, and have them neatly line up vertically. This is especially useful for tables, thus “tabular”. Tabular figures are often lining. When the different figure sets are built-in as OpenType features, certain (older) operating systems and applications will only be able to access the default figures. tail In typography, the descending, often decorative stroke on the letter ‘Q’ or the descending, often curved diagonal stroke on ‘K’ or ‘R’ is the tail. terminal
The end (straight or curved) of any stroke that doesn’t include a serif. truetype (tt/ttf) A font format developed by Apple Systems, Inc. and licensed to Microsoft Corp. TrueType fonts are natively supported by the Windows and Mac operating systems. On the Mac, both the printer and screen fonts are combined in a single TrueType font suitcase file. type system Also called super families, type systems are collections of coordinated type families that cross type classifications, and are designed to work together in perfect harmony. They can be sans and serif companions, text and display cuts, or any other combination. The different families in a type system or super family share common character architecture, proportions, x-height, weights, and pedigree, to name a few. typeface An artistic interpretation, or design, of a collection of alphanumeric symbols. A typeface may include letters, numerals, punctuation, various symbols, and more — often for multiple languages. A typeface is usually grouped together in a family containing individual fonts for italic, bold, and other variations of the primary design U as in Uppercase unicase Type design with upper- and lowercase letter forms that share the same height. uppercase The capitals in a typeface. The name refers to the days of metal type, as the capitals were kept in the upper part of the type case. V as in Volume volume Fonts can be purchased individually, but packages or volumes always offer the best value and performance. A font volume is a collection of fonts that are sold as a unit. This can either be a type family, part of a type family, or a collection of fonts that are stylistically or thematically related. weight A single style or iteration of a typeface. Sometimes, the term “weight” refers specifically to the heaviness of a typeface. However, it is often used as a general term for any style: Italic, Small Caps, Bold, Light Expert, etc. western Language support; includes all necessary accents and characters for Albanian, Breton, Catalan, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Icelandic, Irish, Italian, Norwegian (+ Bokmål & Nynorsk Norwegian), Portuguese, Rhaeto-Romance, Spanish, and Swedish. x-height The height of the lowercase letters, disregarding ascenders or descenders, typically exemplified by the letter x. The relationship of the x-height to the body defines the perceived type size. A typeface with a large x-height looks much bigger than a typeface with a small x-height at the same size.