Introduction Ty pography is the art and technique of arranging ty pe, ty pe design, and modifying ty pe gly phs. Ty pe gly phs are created and modif ied using a variety of illustration techniques. The arrangement of ty pe involves the selection of ty pefaces, point size, line length, leading ( linespacing), adjusting the spaces between groups of letters (tracking) and adjusting the space between pairs of letters (kerning).
Simply put ty pography is the art of print. Ever yday we are
constantly surrounded by it. Ty pography includes greeting cards, books, posters, menus and just about anything you can imagine. Ty pography subtly combines communicative and artistic elements to create a print both pleasing and readable. Making sure that the ty pe has been chosen to convey the intended ef fect of the print can be a challenge for ty pographers. This is a collection of various fonts used in dif ferent designs. In this book is shows 8 dif ferent categories that ty pe can be classif ied into. Each categor y includes f ive dif ferent samples to show the variations of that individual categor y.
[2] Type
Anatomy of Type
Type [3]
Blackletter Blackletter is the earliest printed type, and is base on hand-copied texts. It is traditionally associated with medieval German and English (Old English), but has recently seen more use. Blackletter was revived as a ‘pure German’ form in Nazi Germany, and is extensively used by (particularly) Latino gangs as implying officialness or deep seriousness. Blackletter dates from around 1450.
RTWhaeg o Goudy Text MT
• Dramatic difference between thick and thin strokes. • Diagonal, thin serifs on lower case letters.
[4] Type
• The type is easy to read. • Nice interest. • The name is unique. • Stoke is giving a form to the text helps with interest.
Bad • Black letter is all too common. • Kerning between ‘E’ and ‘S’ in “Times” is tight. • Tracking is tight.
Newspaper name
Blackletter
Good
Type [5]
Blackletter [6] Type
Good • Alot of newspapers use blackletter for their name so this font works well for a newspaper. • Tracking is even. • Easy to read against the background.
Bad • ‘Z’ and ‘e are too close. • Combine the two t’s. • The last e in Gazette should be closer. • Very common for a newspaper, no originality. • Not very appealing to madern audience.
Newspaper name
Blackletter
Good • Nice contrast between typefaces. • The Sans with red is balanced with the complex black letter. • The ears have a nice touch and keep eye into the word hour. • Easy to read.
Bad • The placement of ‘The’ should be moved over to the left a little. • Words are a little too tight in kerning between words. • Red and black is common.
Newspaper name
Type [7]
Blackletter [8] Type
Good • Has great interest in the shade giving form to the font. • Nice tracking in the words and the letters. • Very interesting and keeps readability. • The type is very ornate but keeps readability.
Bad • Common for black letter for newspaper. • Tracking might be able to be tighter.
Newspaper name
• Type is easy to read. • Very clean. • The name is kind of long.
Bad • Blackletter is too common for newspaper. • The ‘T’ in Times is a little ornate hard to read
Newspaper name
Blackletter
Good
Type [9]
Oldstyle Oldstyle has uppercase letterforms based on Roman inscriptions, and lowercase based on Italian humanist book copying. It is typified by a gradual thick-to-thin stroke, gracefully bracketed serifs, and slanted stress, as indicted by the red line through the uppercase ‘O’, and as measured through the thinnest parts of a letterform. It remains one of the most readable classes for text, due to the moderate stroke variations and good distinction between letterforms. Oldstyle dates from around 1475.
RT Whaeg o Garamond
• • • •
[10] Type
Diagonal stress. Moderate thick/thin transition in the strokes. Serifs on lowercase letters are slanted. Small x-height.
Old Style Serif Transitional Serif Modern Serif Slab Serif Sans Serif Glyphic Script Decorative Good
• The type is easy to read. • The color complimenting the background. • The direction the horse is facing helps leads eyes into the letters. • Has nice visual interest.
Bad
• The type has too much spacing. • The kerning is uneven. • The ‘i’ and ‘l’ in daily the serifs can be touching. • The space between the word ‘The’ and ‘Daily’ needs to be greater.
Newspaper name
Type [11]
Old Style Serif Transitional Serif Modern Serif Slab Serif Sans Serif Glyphic Script Decorative Good
• Very clean and professional look. • Looks classical to go with the information. • All caps and small caps makes it very striking. • Underline helps balance design. • Italic bottom-line helps with balance. • White emphasizes text.
Bad
• The italic could be closer in tracking.
[12] Type
Poster for National Gallery of Art, Smithsonian
Old Style Serif Transitional Serif Modern Serif Slab Serif Sans Serif Glyphic Script Decorative Good
• The contrast between the background and the color of type is easy on the eyes. • The lines from the top help keep type in center. • Kerning seems to be even throughout.
Bad
• The leading is inconsistent. • The all caps is a little weird to me. • Font changes too much, needs more unity.
Advertisement for Money Mailer
Type [13]
Old Style Serif Transitional Serif Modern Serif Slab Serif Sans Serif Glyphic Script Decorative Good
• Variations of color to show hierarchy.. • Caps and small caps helps hierarchy. • The use of flush right text is different and also helps hierarchy.
Bad
• They use two serif typefaces.
[14] Type
Armand’s pizza menu
Old Style Serif Transitional Serif Modern Serif Slab Serif Sans Serif Glyphic Script Decorative Good
• The use a fill text for the bones. • They use color to show emphasis in the bone. • The text being wrapped into a bone keeps the theme of the design.
Page from magazine
Type [15]
Transitional As the name implies, transitional bridges the gap between oldstyle and modern. Largely due to technological advances in casting type and printing, transitional embodies greater thick-to-thin strokes, and smaller brackets on serifs. Stress moves to be more vertical. Dates around 1750.
RT Whaeg o Bulmer MT
• • • •
[16] Type
More ref ined serifs. Open loop. Medium contrast between strokes. Medium x-height.
Old Style Serif Transitional Serif Modern Serif Slab Serif Sans Serif Glyphic Script Decorative
Good
• The text is spaced neatly. • The leading is appropriate. • All caps makes the questions seem bolder. • Pleasing color. • The kerning is even throughout.
Bad
• Needs lowercase to give variety.
Page from Nylon, Magazine
Type [17]
Old Style Serif Transitional Serif Modern Serif Slab Serif Sans Serif Glyphic Script Decorative Good
• Very elegant. • The address brings a lot of attention to its stroke. • The contrast of size is eye catching. • Good for fast reading. • The gold color helps bring out from reflections and glass. • The alignment splitting the street name is interesting. • The all caps also makes easy to read.
[18] Type
Address, Smithsonian
Old Style Serif Transitional Serif Modern Serif Slab Serif Sans Serif Glyphic Script Decorative
Good
• The type is sturdy looking in its hard edges perfect for a structure. • All caps are easy to read. • The thin stokes give elegant look. • Easy to read. • Black is a good choice of fill to keep readability. • Spacing is even and no letters are touching which helps readability.
Statue information, Smithsonian
Type [19]
Old Style Serif Transitional Serif Modern Serif Slab Serif Sans Serif Glyphic Script Decorative Good
• The type is bold. • Stands out against colored background. • All caps makes importance, gives attention.
Bad
• The kerning is off. • The ‘S’ and ‘T’ seem to be closer than other kerning. • ‘We’ are standing out but the end of the word ‘MUST’ is getting lost.
[20] Type
Inside page of newspaper
Old Style Serif Transitional Serif Modern Serif Slab Serif Sans Serif Glyphic Script Decorative
Good-
• Very clean. • Has good kerning • The space between words is normal. • Black is a general color for text. • The J carries a lot of interest in the descender. • Tight tracking.
Inside of Jackson Pollock book
Type [21]
Modern Furthering the trends started with transitional, modern pushes to extreme thick-to-thin strokes, and unbracketed (square) serifs. Many modern typefaces lose readability if set too tight, or at too small a size, particularly with strong vertical stress. Dates from 1775.
RT Whaeg o Bodoni
• • • • •
[22] Type
Overlapping Vs. Major contrast between strokes. Serifs reduced to line lines. Stress is vertical. Medium x-height.
Transitional Serif Modern Serif Slab Serif Sans Serif Glyphic Script Decorative
Good
• Has a rugged look to the serifs • Simple design. • The thick and thin gives a timeless look. • Black makes easy reading. • The ascenders point to the manufacture • The design is excellent.
Marlboro logo
Type [23]
Transitional Serif Modern Serif Slab Serif Sans Serif Glyphic Script Decorative Good
• The font is unique. • Has a nice contrast between the two lines. • Good size and placement of month. • The color choice is nice for subject. • The serifs touching help interest.
[24] Type
Cooking Light magazine, Logo
Transitional Serif Modern Serif Slab Serif Sans Serif Glyphic Script Decorative
Good
• Even kerning. • The all caps creates emphasis. • Black is easy to read. • Has become icon. • Has a bold striking look to it.
Time magazine logo
Type [25]
Transitional Serif Modern Serif Slab Serif Sans Serif Glyphic Script Decorative Good
• Very interesting design. • Good use of color to lead eye. • The open tracking makes very soft design. • Second line is unified nicely. • Very classy, appealing to younger age group. • Nice color harmony. • White text contrasting dark text gives great interest.
Bad
• The tracking maybe a little too open.
[26] Type
West Village apartments logo
Transitional Seri Modern Serif Slab Serif Sans Serif Glyphic Script Decorative
Good
• The type is at a nice set width. • Nice contrast between thick and thin. • Spaced nicely. • Readable. • Interesting typeface. • Color compliments background. • Spaces are tight.
Bad
• Tighter kerning and tracking.
Newspaper name
Type [27]
Slab Serif Slab or square serif was developed for heavy type in advertising. Also known as Egyptian (it appeared during the Egyptology craze in Europe), slab serif generally has little variation in stroke weight: it’s generally uniformly heavy. Also with slab serif, letterforms are becoming more geometric, and less calligraphic. Dates from 1825.
RT Whaeg o Memphis
• • • •
[28] Type
Floppy ear. Ref ined slab serifs with heavy brackets. Little contrast between strokes. Large x-height
Modern Serif Slab Serif Sans Serif Glyphic Script Decorative
Good
• Yellow color choice against both background colors. • The square serif compliments the modular design. • Contrast between fill colors. • Eye is lead down the page.
Bad
• Kerning might be a little too much. • Leading might be too much as well.
Page from GD USA, Magazine
Type [29]
Modern Serif Slab Serif Sans Serif Glyphic Script Decorative Good
• Easy to read which is important for street signs. • Size difference creates hierarchy • The slab gives interest to the design. • All caps make the design seem important as if someone is yelling.
[30] Type
Sign for parking
Modern Serif Slab Serif Sans Serif Glyphic Script Decorative
Good
• Easy to read and has even spacing. • All caps make it easy to read. • Black fill helps contrast from background.
Bad
• Maybe tracking could be tighter.
Sign for display case, Newseum
Type [31]
Modern Serif Slab Serif Sans Serif Glyphic Script Decorative Good
• Good hierarchy. • Nice contrast of background and type. • Kerning is used well. • Nice contrast between slab and sans. • Easy to read for a display sign. • Nice three column grid. • Paragraph spacing is nice. • Generous gutters.
[32] Type
Information at Newseum
Modern Serif Slab Serif Sans Serif Glyphic Script Decorative
Good
• Red color and all caps creates hierarchy. • Easy to read font. • The design is well done.
Bad
• The leading is a little too much. • Rivers are formed. • All caps for subhead is making it stand out too much.
Page from Nylon, Magazine
Type [33]
Sans Serif Although appearing earlier, sans serif gained much popularity in the twentieth century, mainly as a move towards an international aesthetic in typography. San serif can be strictly geometric, as in Futura, or more humanist, as with Gill Sans. More recently, sans serifs with a variation in stroke weight are becoming more common (Optima, Myriad). Dates from 1900 in common use.
RT Whaeg o Helvetica
• • • • •
[34] Type
No serifs. Wide set-width. No stress. Evenness in the strokes. Large x-height.
Slab Serif Sans Serif Glyphic Script Decorative
Good
• Easy to read. • The design is very open. • Unique type for words. • Numbers are easy to read quickly. • Blue on white background is easy to read. • Having company name large brings eye there first.
Bad
• May be three different typefaces, one could be used to help unify the design.
Sign for G-W Management
Type [35]
Slab Serif Sans Serif Glyphic Script Decorative Good
• Very bold clean lines. • The blue line helps keep focus on the name of the newspaper. • Good tracking. • Capital letters give interest. • The kerning for the ‘J’ to go under the ‘S’ is interesting • The descenders and leg help keep web site unified.
Bad
• Black is easy to read on newsprint could be changed to give interest.
[36] Type
Sunday New Journal
Slab Serif Sans Serif Glyphic Script Decorative
Good
• Very interesting design. • The refinement of terminals makes very unique. • Very high class design, good for its application. • Ascenders alignment is nice and even. • Lowercase is a nice way to present the letters.
Bad
• Contrast between strokes is making a little illegibile. • The dot on the I not being there makes it hard to understand.
Midtown Apartments logo
Type [37]
Slab Serif Sans Serif Glyphic Script Decorative Good
• The white text pops from background. • All caps makes for bold statement. • Nice and tight design. • Tracking and kerning is well done. • Hierarchy is established with size. • Very interesting design. • Good placement of type on layout.
[38] Type
Job Fair advertisement, AIW
Slab Serif Sans Serif Glyphic Script Decorative
Good
• Bold white text grabs attention. • Diagonal text makes interesting design. • Hierarchy is well established. • The leading is at a good point. • All caps header really grabs attention. • The diagonal also gives a sense of movement. • Flush right for small paragraph helps with balance. • Shadow around text helps keep white from being overwhelmed. • Repetition with hand drawn image is interesting.
Rapid Vizualization, Book
Type [39]
Glyphic Unlike letterforms created with pen or brush, glyphic designs are based on letters carved or chiselled in stone. Since most inscribed letters are capitals, glyphic typefaces also tend to have only capitals. Some of these can be used effectively for text, but most are better suited to display applications such as posters, packaging and book titles.
RT Whaeg O Copperplate
• Designed to look ‘chiseled’. • Blunt ‘elephant foot’ serifs.
[40] Type
Sans Serif Glyphic Script Decorative
Good
• Very clean • Shadow helps to contrast against background. • Chiseled, hard edges contrast with the oval. • Dot of the ‘i’ replaced foreshadows what the movie is about. • The type color and the background color create harmony. • Gold trim contains the viewers eye into the type.
Ratatouille movie logo
Type [41]
Sans Serif Glyphic Script Decorative Good
• Smooth and hard edges combined with the colors give it a high energy. • White letters at the bottom keep balance against the more complex type above. • The sans serif type in the middle is largest and italic but, the bottom type has a high contrast against the background creating more emphasis. • Type on the top has a gradient that works well for that intended steel look.
[42] Type
Steel Panther, Feel the Steel album cover
Sans Serif Glyphic Script Decorative
Good-
• The type has been changed to be a unique style. • Barb is changed a lot fatter to match the stroke on the type. • Serifs are also refined to be fatter in weight. • In the layout the use a contrast of serif and sans serif. • Even on the tin, contrast is shown. • Stroke is used around text.
Camel Product, found on the street
Type [43]
Sans Serif Glyphic Script Decorative Good
• The type is clean. • The ‘NIU’ color grabs alot of attention and contrast against the rest of the logo that is in grayscale. • ‘HUSKIES’ on the bottom supports the large ‘NIU’ above by its contrast from the background.
Bad
• The gray stroke around the entire logo isn’t needed. • Switch the color of ‘NIU’ with white and have ‘HUSKIES’ be in color.
[44] Type
Northern Illinois University
Sans Serif Glyphic Script Decorative
Good
• The type is interesting combined with the numbers placed in between the spaces. • The color of the type compliments the background and other text.
Bad
• The design is to read and keep focused on. • More of an organization in the design.
Arts tour book
Type [45]
Script As mentioned above, oftentimes anything seemingly based on handwriting is lumped under script. To be more precise, script is a formal replication of calligraphy. Script may also be based on engraved forms. As type, script is unsuitable for text, but is widely
RT Whaeg o
used to lend a formal element to a layout. Dates from 1550.
Scriptina
• • •
[46] Type
The individual letters are designed to ‘touch’ in order to create a f lowing, cursive effect. Note script fonts don’t have to ‘touch’ to be considered script. Emulates handwriting.
Glyphic Script Decorative
Good
• A use of an Old Style Serif type to contrast the script gives interest. • The Crossing at the stem makes an interesting shape.
Bad
• The open space is very large and irregular. • Too much tracking in the word ‘POWERFUL’ which makes it hard to read it as a word and not as individual letters. • The leading being too open makes me look at the picture and not the type.
Advertisement for DC metro church
Type [47]
Glyphic Script Decorative Good
• Script font is very different interesting with the stroke around the text creates interest.
Bad
• The F is getting lost on the left side of the page. • When text is smaller the words get hard to read. • Good color harmony.
[48] Type
Advertisement for trip to Florida, Magazine
• Has a personal feel to the type. • Very calm and pleasing design. • Kerning and tracking are even. • Color has little contrast.
Bad
Glyphic Script Decorative
Good
• More interest to the arrangement on the pages.
Outside of greeting card
Type [49]
Glyphic Script Decorative Good
• The hierarchy is nice. • The capitals give great interest. • Leading is done well. • The A is on a separate baseline • Drop cap of the body text is nice. • Negative space is used very well. • Diagonal grid makes the design interesting.
[50] Type
Outside of birthday card
• The drop cap is very interesting falling behind the next line. • Very ornate capital ‘Y.’ • The contrast between the typefaces is interesting.
Bad• Leading could be tighter. • Centered type is very traditional.
Glyphic Script Decorative
Good
Inside of birthday card
Type [51]
Decorative Sometimes referred to as Novelty or Occasional, the decorative and Display classification includes typefaces of unusual and unique designs that do no fit into other classifications. The name of the type often ref lects the design of the typeface. While typefaces in this group incorporate elements from many different styles, they are most effective when used at large sizes for display purposes, such as headlines and titles.
Mojo • • •
[52] Type
Decorative or display type is purely or headlines and titles. Most don’t make for good readable type at a small point. They name of the typeface tends to ref lect the appearance of that typeface. They can range from being made of pictures, textured, dripping, ornate, bubbly and etc...
• Interesting design. • Counter of the letters are pulled and squashed to better fit the design and reach target audience. • The type pushed each other. • Even kerning. • Hierarchy is established. • A black backdrop counters to the shape of the design. • Changing caps and lowercase. • Large number balances the ornate ‘G’. • Very different design stands out.
[53] Type
Guitar Hero 3 Legends of Rock Video Game cover.
Script Decorative
Good
Type [53]
Script Decorative [54] Type
Good • Very interesting design. • Very artistic feel. • The tracking is tight and gives interest. • Bold against background. • Flush right design is different. • Capital “ART” helps balance against white.
Bad• The ‘A’ is getting lost • ‘I’ and ‘N’ are too close in kerning. • ‘H’ in “Whino” is lost.
Art Whino Logo, Information for event
• They use nice color and size to show hierarchy. • Three column grid with photos to create interest. • Good contrast of organic for sub head and head. • Dog treat on the left break the grid column which creates for a more inviting design.
Advertisement for dog treat, Magazine
Script Decorative
Good
Type [55]
Script Decorative [56] Type
Good • Various text styles are used, gives a lot of interest. • The color harmony is working really well. • Type is stylized and unique down to each letter. • Has a hierarchy. • The theme of the event matches the type.
AIGA invitation for event
• Very interesting design. • All caps are bold. • Very complex design. • The emphasized ‘B’ makes the person’s head. • Hierarchy has good balance.
Bad • Harmony is getting lost. • Too much type changing. • Body is hard to read.
Art show by Art Whino
Script Decorative
Good
Type [57]