The Basics of Typography- Project 2 by Nikky Sims

The Basics of

Typography

book for all levels of designers

Characters Special

A special character is a character that is not an alphabetic or numeric character. Punctuation marks and other symbols are examples of special characters. Unlike alphanumeric characters, special characters may have multiple uses.

Characters Special

Use copyright, register, and trademark marks properly

The copyright, register, and trademark characters need to be reduced to work with body text. At times, depending on the typeface, you may need to reduce the mark between 50% and 70%. The goal is to match the x-height. The copy¬right mark should be approximately 70% of the surrounding text. Unlike the ™ symbol, the

© should NOT be superscripted and should remain on the baseline. ™ is usually superscripted for the chosen font. ™ and ® are normally set higher than other marks. If you choose to superscript ®, reduce it to about 60%.

Ellipsis Character

Use the ellipsis character and NOT three periods. You can access the ellipsis by typing Option/ Alt + : (colon). Allow a small amount of space before and after. However, if it is not crowding the text, leave no space at all.

Accent Marks

Remember, to set an accent mark over a letter, press the Option key and the letter, then press the letter you want under it. Or you can go up to Type Glyphs to find the correct accent.

( ´ )

Option / Alt + e résumé ( ` )

Option / Alt + ` papa ( ¨ )

Option / Alt + u über ( ˜ )

Option / Alt + n niño

( fi )

Option/ Alt + Shift + 5 ligature of f and i ( fl ) Option/ Alt + Shift + 6 ligature of f and l ( © ) Option/ Alt + g copyright ( ™ ) Option/ Alt + 2 trademark

( – )

Option/ Alt + Hyphen en dash ( — ) Option/ Alt + Shift + Hyphen em dash ( … ) Option/ Alt + ; ellipsis ( • ) Option/ Alt + 8 bullet

( ® )

Option/ Alt + r registered ( ° )

Option/ Alt + Shift + 8 degree symbol (e.g., 102°F) (¢) Option/Alt+$ cent symbol ( € ) Option/ Alt + Shift + 2 Euro symbol

( “ )

Option / Alt + [ opening double quote ( ” ) Option / Alt + Shift + [ closing double quote ( ‘ ) Option/ Alt + ] opening single quote ( ’ ) Option/ Alt + Shift + ] closing single quote; apostrophe

(⁄)

Option/ Alt + Shift + 1 (one)

fraction bar ( ¡ )

Option/ Alt - 1 (one) upside down exclamation mark ( ¿ ) Option/ Alt + Shift + ? upside down interrogation mark ( £ ) Option/ Alt + 3 Pound ( Ç ) Option/ Alt + Shift + c cedilla

Rules

Check Sheet

Never have one line in a paragraph in the column or following.

02 Never combine two serif fonts on one page.

Rarely combine two sans serif fonts on one page.

04 Rarely combine more than three typefaces on one page.

05 Use the special characters whenever necessary, including super- and subscript.

06 Spend the time to create nice fraction or chose a font that has fractions.

07 If a correctly spelled word needs an accent mark, use it.

08 Use only one space between sentences.

09 Use real quotation marks.

10 Use real apostrophes.

11 Make sure the apostrophes are where they belong.

12 Hang the punctuation off the aligned edge.

13 Use en or em dashes, use consistently.

14 Kern all headlines where necessary.

15 Never use the spacebar to align text, always set tabs and use the tab key.

16 Leave no widows or orphans.

17 Avoid more than 3 hyphenations in a row.

18 Avoid too many hyphenations in any paragraph.

19 Avoid hyphenating or line brakes of names and proper nouns.

20 Leave a least 2 characters on the line and 3 following.

21 Avoid beginning consecutive lines with the same word.

22 Avoid ending consecutive lines with the same word.

23 Avoid ending lines with the words: the, of, at, a, by...

24 Never hyphenate a word in a headline and avoid hyphenation in a callout.

25 Never justify the text on a short line.

26 Keep the word spacing consistent.

27 Tighten up the leading in lines with all caps or with few ascenders and descenders.

28 Use a one-em first-line indent on all indented paragraphs.

29 Adjust the spacing between paragraphs.

30 Either indent the first line of paragraphs or add extra space between them – not both.

31 Use a decimal or right-aligned tab for the numbers in numbered paragraphs.

Typography Rules

Type Crimes, typographic sins, things you should never do with type are committed every day. How important is typographic correctness and how unforgivable are the crimes? Typographers have compiled a number of type crimes that have been labeled as “unforgivable.”

Typography

Insert only a single space after all punctuation

Inserting two spaces after a period was common when using a typewriter. Monospace typefaces were designed to occupy the same amount of space no matter the width of the character. Therefore, two spaces were needed to identify the end of

a sentence and the beginning of another sentence. With the introduction of the Mac and digital type, characters are designed proportionately, which allows for the correct practice of using one space after all punctuation.

Use proper ‘em’ dashes, ‘en’ dashes, and hyphens

An em is a unit of measure equal to the point size that you are using. An em dash is a type of punctuation used to offset clauses in a sentence or to indicate an abrupt change in thought. An en dash is equal to half the length of an em dash. En dashes are used to denote duration (time.)

Use proper quote and apostrophe marks

Use true quotation marks and apostrophes instead of using inch marks and feet marks. Place all punctuations inside the quotation marks.

Use True Small Caps

When setting text that contains acronyms, select a typeface with small caps as a family. Selecting small caps from the style menus is a poor choice because the compute reduces the overall size of the type by

80%. This changes the stroke weight and the feel of the font. Expert sets in the Adobe Type Library have small caps options.

Add letter spacing to capitalized text and small caps

Letterspacing is the amount of space between characters in a word. Some software programs caller letterspacing tracking. Use positive number values (to about 2 or 3) to open up letterspacing to capitalized text and small caps, except when periods are used between characters.

Use old style figures when appropriate

Old style figures, also known as non-lining figures do not line up on the baseline as regular or lining numerals do. They can be found in various fonts. If the body text has a significant amount of numbers,

research a font family where they are included. If non-lining numerals are not available, use a slightly smaller point size for the lining numbers. Think of lining numbers as upper-case numbers and non-lining numbers as lower case numbers.

Use caps properly

With options given to you by almost any type family (bold, point size, etc) you will seldom need to use all caps to draw attention to your text. Not all typefaces are legible when set in all caps; esp. true for script and decorative typefaces. Short headlines may be the once exception to this rule.

Altering fonts

Don’t alter the original typeface by stretching or condensing the letters improp¬erly. Certain type families provide you with a lot of flexibility.

Increase line spacing to improve readability in body text

L setting headlines, solid leading (leading = point size, 12/12) or negative leading (leading =< point size, 12/10) may be appropriate.

ine spacing (aka leading) refers to the space between lines of text. It is important for readability and appearance. As a rule of thumb, allow leading that is 120% of the point size. For sans serif, you may need 130% or more. When

Body copy size

Body text is set anywhere from 9-12 points. When you print text, it is usually larger than what it looked like on the screen. So, print out your text before final¬izing your layout. Type studies will help you determine the proper size before you proceed with your layout.

Legibility of fonts

Sans serif typefaces work well for headlines and to set text that is aligned to vertical/horizontal lines. Certain sans serif typefaces which are not very geo¬metrical work well for body copy (i.e. Frutiger, Meta, Scala Sans, etc.)

Decrease line length and increase margins

L punctuation, and spaces.) For multiple columns, a measure between 40 and 50 characters is ideal.

ine length is a measure of text on one line. Any measure between 45 and 75 characters is comfortable for single column widths. The ideal measure for body text length is 66 characters (counting both letters,

Widow Orphans Rivers

Widow Orphans

Never leave widows and orphans bereft on the page. Avoid both of these situations. If you have editing privileges, rewrite the copy, or at least add or delete a word or two. Sometimes you can remove spacing from the letters, words, or lines, depending on which program you’re working in. Sometimes widening a margin just a hair will do it. Widows and orphans on a page are wrong.

Widow Orphan Rivers

When a paragraph ends and leaves fewer than seven characters (not words, characters) on the last line, that line is called a widow. Worse than leaving one word at the end of a line is leaving part of a word, the other part being paraphrased on the line above.

When the last line of a paragraph, be it ever so long, won’t fit at the bottom of a column and must end itself at the top of the next column, that is an orphan.

ALWAYS correct this.

n typography, rivers, are visually unattractive gaps appearing to run down a paragraph of text. They can occur with any spacing, though they are most

I noticeable with wide word spaces caused by either full text justification or mono-spaced fonts.

Hyphens/ Dashes

Hyphens/

Everyone knows what a hyphen is - that tiny dash that belongs in some words, like mother-in-law, or in phone numbers. It’s also used to break a word at the end of a line, of course. You might have been taught to use or given text that uses a double-hyphen -- to indicate a dash. This is a typewriter convention be cause typewriters because typewriters didn’t have the real dash used in professional typesetting. On a Mac, no one needs to use the double hyphen – we have a professional em dash, the long one, such as you see in this sentence. We also have an en dash.

Dashes 05

A hyphen is one third of the em rule and is used to link words.

It serves as a compound modifier where two words become one, such as x-height. A hyphen is also used to break works as syllables.

En dash –

To type an en dash, – Option/Alt Hyphen hold down the Option/Alt key, then tap the hyphen key.

An en dash is half of the em rule (the width of a capital N) and is used between words that indicate a duration, such as time, month, or years. Use it where you might otherwise use the word

“to”. In a page layout app, then en dash can be used with a thin space on either side of it. You can kern it so it’s not a full space.

Em dash —

To type an em dash — , Shift Option/Alt Hyphen Hold the Shift and Option/Alt keys down, then tap the hyphen key.

The em is twice as long as the en dash-it’s about the size of a capital letter M in whatever size and typeface you’re using at the moment. This dash is often used in place of a colon or parentheses, or it might indicate an abrupt

change in thought, or it’s used in a spot where a period is too strong, and a comma is too weak. It is also used for attributions of text.

Hyphen -

When

An em is a unit of measure equal to the point size that you are using.

An em dash is a type of punctuation used to offset clauses in a sentence or to indicate an abrupt change in thought.

An en dash is equal to half the length of an em dash.

En dashes are used to denote duration (time).

Our equivalent on the typewriter was the double hyphen, but now we have a real em dash.

Using two hyphens 9or works, one) where there should be an em dash your look very unprofessional

– December

– 6 years of age

using an en – space is used on either side. October

6:30 – 8:45 A.M. 4

Hyphenation

Ideal column width

For single-column pages, 4.25 inches is ideal.

For two-column width, columns can be as narrow as 2 inches.

Hyphenation feature can improve word spacing.

Justification of text

Justification can be appropriate in certain places.

However, it can create certain problems such as rivers and word spacing.

Adjusting size of margins, decreasing body copy size, turning on auto hyphenation and manually hyphenating the text are all examples of possible solutions.

Choose the alignment that fits

Make sure the alignment chosen for all areas of text are legible and consistent with the design and guidelines.

Left-aligned text is easier to read and set. Justi¬fied text is harder to set w/o inevitable word spacing problems.

Right-aligned and centered are generally not used for body copy.

Rules of hyphenation

Don’t rely on the software to judge where hyphens should be placed. At the end of lines, leave at least two characters behind and take at least three forward.

For example, “ele-gantly” is acceptable, but “elegant-ly” is not because it takes too little of the word to the next line.

Avoid leaving the stub end of a hyphenated word or any word shorter than four letters as the last line of a paragraph.

Avoid more than 3 consecutive hyphenated lines.

Avoid hyphenating or breaking proper names and titles. Creating a non-breaking space before and after the name will ensure that the name will not break.

Avoid beginning three consecutive lines with the same word

Since software programs deal with line breaks automatically based upon several variables, it is possible to have paragraphs with consecutive lines beginning with the same word.

Simply adjust the text to avoid/fix the problem.

Always spell check

Once you are finished with your design, spell check the text using both of the following:

a. Use spell=check option that comes with the software you are using for the project.

b. Print the document and read it.

The monitor and design of the document will make text look perfect when it may not be. Even if text is given to you by a client, check it.

Never ever assume that it is correct.

Kern Your Words

Avoid widows and orphans

Widows are either single words alone on a line or single sentences alone on a new page.

Orphans are single lines of copy alone at the end of a page.

Kerning in headlines Indents

Adjust the space between two particular letters to allow for more consistent negative space.

In continuous text, mark all paragraphs after the first with an indent of at least one “em” (3 spaces).

Do NOT use three spaces but rather use the tabs or indents option in your software.

Items in a series

Items in a series do not use a comma before the word “and.” (i.e., ‘peaches, apples and oranges.’)

Quotations/ Apostrophes

Quotations/ Apostrophes 06

What Are They?

Use true quotation marks and apostrophes instead of using inch marks and feet marks.

Place all punctuation inside the quotation marks.

Use real quotation marks – never those grotesque generic marks (“) that actually symbolize ditto/inch “ or footmarks ‘.

Most software applications will convert the typewriter quotes to the real quotes for you automatically as you type.

Check the preferences for your application – you’ll find a check box to tell your application to automatically set something like “typographer’s quotes,” “smart quotes,” or “curly quotes”.

It is necessary to know how to set smart quotes/real quotes yourself because sometimes the software doesn’t do it or does it wrong.

Smart quotes are the quotation marks used in good typography.

There are four smart quote characters: the opening single quote (‘), the closing single quote (‘), the opening double quote (“), and the closing double quote (”).

Straight quotes are the two generic vertical quotation marks located near the return key: the straight quote (‘) and the straight double quote (“).

Straight quotes come to us from the typewriter.

“That’s a 'magic'

Quotes

Opening double quote: “ Type: Option/alt + [

Closing double quote: ” Type: Option/alt + Shift + [

Opening single quote: ‘ Type: Option/alt +]

Closing single quote: ’ Type: Option/alt + Shift + ]

For possessives:

Turn the phrase around. The apostrophe will be placed after whatever word you end up with.

For example, in the phrase in the phrase the boys’ camp, to know where to place the apostrophe say to yourself,

“The camp belongs to the boys.”

The phrase the boy’s camp says

“The camp belongs to the boy.”

“The big exception to this is “its.” “Its” used as a possessive never has an apostrophe!

The word it only has an apostrophe as a contraction — “it’s” always means “it is” or “it has.” Always.

It may be easier to remember if you recall that yours, hers, and his don’t use apostrophes — and neither should its.

'magic' sock.”

For contractions:

The apostrophe replaces the missing letter.

For example: you’re always means you are; the apostrophe is replacing the a from are.

That’s an easy way to distinguish it from your as in your house and to make sure you don’t say:

Your going to the store.

As previously noted, it’s means “it is”; the apostrophe is indicating where the i is left out.

For omission of letters:

In a phrase such as Rock ‘n’ Roll, there should be an apostrophe before and after the n, because the a and the d are both left out.

And don’t turn the first apostrophe around — just because it appears in front of the letter does not mean you need to use the opposite single quote.

An apostrophe is still the appropriate mark (not ‘n’).

In a date when part of the year is left out, an apostrophe needs to indicate the missing year.

In the 80s would mean the temperature; In the ’80s would mean the decade.

(Notice there is no apostrophe before the s! Why would there be? It is not possessive, nor is it a contraction — it is simply plural.

Rock ’n’ Roll

Gone Fishin’

House o’ Fashion

Bridge Clearance: 16'7"

The young man stood 6'2"

The length of the wall is 153'9"

Small Capitals

Small caps are uppercase letterforms that are shorter in height than capitals letters. They are designed to blend with lowercase text. When designed as part of a typeface, they are most often the height of the lowercase x (or very slightly taller).

Capitals 07

Small Caps

Small caps are uppercase (capital) letters that are about the size of normal lowercase letters in any given typeface.

Small caps are less intrusive when all uppercase appears within normal text or can be used for special emphasis.

Computer programs can generate small caps for any typeface, but those are not the same as true small caps.

True small caps have line weights that are pro¬portionally correct for the typeface, which me and that they can be used within a body of copy without looking noticeably wrong.

When setting text that contains acronyms, select a typeface with small caps as a family.

Selecting small caps from the style menus is a poor choice because the compute reduces the overall size of the type by 80%.

Use small caps for acronyms.

Set acronyms such as NASA or NASDAQ in small caps when they appear in body text or headlines.

Use small caps for common abbreviations.

Set common abbreviations such as AM or PM in small caps, so they don’t overpower the accompanying text.

Use small caps for A.M. and P.M.; space once after the number and use periods. (If the font does not have small caps reduce the font size slightly)

Use true small caps fonts.

Avoid simply resizing capital letters or using the small caps feature in some programs.

Instead, use typefaces that have been specifically created as small caps.