1450 Blackletter: Earliest type of printing type, based upon
hand-copying styles that were used for books in Northern Europe.
1475 Oldstyle: Based on the lowercase forms used by Italian
humanist scholars for book copying, uppercase letterforms found inscribed
on Roman ruins.
1500 Italic: Condensed and close-set, allowing more words per page.
1550 Script: Attempt to replicate engraved calligraphic forms, not
entirely appropriate in lengthy text settings.
1750 Transitional: A refinement of oldstyle forms, thick to thin
relationships were exaggerated, and brackets were lightened.
1775 Modern: Represents a further rationalisation of oldstyle
letterforms, serifs were unbracketed, and contrast between thick and thin
strokes extreme.
1825 Square Serif / Slab Serif: Heavily bracketed serif, with
little variation between thick and thin strokes.
1900 Sans Serif: Eliminated serifs.
1990 Serif / Sans Serif: Enlarges the notion of a family of
typefaces to include both serif and sans serif alphabets.
Lecture 02
-Typography: Text
Kerning & Letterspacing
Kerning: Automatic adjustment of space between letters.
Letterspacing: To add space between the letters.
Tracking: Addition and removal of space in a word or sentence.
Figure 2.1 Kerning & Letterspacing
Formatting Text
Flush left: The format closely mirrors the asymmetrical
experience of handwriting, flush left has a ragged right, it is
important to always make the ragging on the right smooth. Generally,
the most natural way of formatting.
Centered: This format imposes symmetry upon the text, assigning
equal value and weight to both ends of any line. Center text is
sometimes difficult to read because the starting point is irregular.
Figure 2.2 Centered
Flush right: The format places emphasis on the end of a line as
opposed to its start, the ragging on the left needs to be smoother.
Justified: forces the words to take on a symmetrical form. It
causes "rivers" of white space to appear across the text as it reduces
the distance between words and characters. This problem has to be
adjusted by paying attention to line breaks and hyphenations.
Figure 2.4 Justified
Different typefaces have different gray values, and different typefaces
suit different messages. It's important to choose a suitable typeface to
match the message at hand, understand how different typefaces feel as
text, consider their different gray value and textures.
Fig 2.5 Anatomy of a typeface
Figure 2.6 Typefaces with different gray value
Leading and Line Length
Type size: Text type should be large enough to be read easily at
arms length.
Leading: Text that is set too tightly encourages vertical eye
movement, reader can easily lose track of what they're reading. Text
that is too loose creates striped patterns that distract the reader.
Line Length: Shorter line require less leading and longer lines
more. It's good to keep line length between 55-65 characters.
Type Specimen Book
A type specimen book shows example of typefaces in various different
sizes and provide an accurate reference for type, type size, type
leading, type line length etc.
Figure 2.7 Sample type specimen sheet
Lecture 03
Indicating Paragraphs
Pilcrow : A holdover from medieval manuscripts seldom use today.
Figure 3.1 Early Pilcrow Formatting
Line space: Between the paragraphs. If the line space is 12pt,
then the paragraph space is 12pt. This ensures cross-alignment across
columns of text.
Standard indentation: Indent is the same size of the line spacing
or the same as the point size of the text.
Figure 3.3 Standard indentation
Extended paragraphs: create unusually wide columns of
text. Despite these problems, there can be strong compositional or
functional reasons for choosing it.
Figure 3.4 Extended paragraphs
Widows and Orphans
A widow is a short line of the type left alone at the end of a column of
text. It can be avoided by creating a force line break before or
adjusting the tracking of the line before to let the last word in the
second last line moves down to the last line.
Widow: Short line of type left alone at the end of a column of
text.
Orphan: Short line of type left alone at the start of a new
column.
Figure 3.5 Widow and orphan
Highlighting Text
Quotation marks, like bullets, can create a clear indent, breaking the
left reading axis. Compare the indented quote at the top with the
extended quote at the bottom.A prime is not a quote. The prime is an
abbreviation for inches and feet. Due to the limited number of keys on a
typewriter, they were substituted. They were later known as ‘dumb
quotes’.
Figure 3.6 Quotation marks
Figure 3.7 Prime and quote
Headline within Text
A head indicates a clear break between the topics within a
section.
Figure 3.8 A Heads
The B head here is subordinate to A heads. B heads indicate a new
supporting argument or example for the topic at hand. As such they
should not interrupt the text as strongly as A heads do. Here the B
heads are shown in small caps, italic, bold serif, and bold san serif.
Figure 3.9 B Heads
C heads highlight specific facets of material within B head text. They
don't interrupt the flow of reading. C heads in this configuration
are followed by at least an em space for visual separation.
Figure 3.10 C Heads
Cross Alignment
Cross aligning headlines and captions with text type reinforces the
architectural sense of the page—the structure—while articulating the
complimentary vertical rhythms. In some cases, cross-align can be
maintained by doubling the leading space of the text type to be used as
the leading of the headline type. The example shows one line of headline
type cross-aligns with two lines of text type.
Figure 3.11&12 Cross alignment
Lecture 04
-Describing letterforms
Baseline:The imaginary line the visual base of the letterforms.
Median:The imaginary line defining the x-height of letterforms.
X-height:The height in any typeface of the lowercase.
Stroke:Any line that defines the basic letterform.
Apex / Vertex: the point created by joining two diagonal stems
Arm: short strokes off the stem of the letterform (horizontal: E,
F, L; inclined upward: K, Y)
Ascender: the portion of the stem of a lowercase letterform that
projects above the median
Barb: the half-serif finish on some curved stroke
Beak: the half-serif finish on the same horizontal arms
Bowl: the rounded form that describes a counter
Bracket: the transition between the serif and the stem
Cross Bar: the horizontal stroke in a letterform that joins two
stems together
Cross Stroke: the horizontal stroke in a letterform that joins
two stems together
Crotch: the interior space where two strokes meet
Descender: the portion of the stem of a lowercase letterform that
projects below the baseline
Ear: the store extending out from the main stem or body of the
letterform
Em/en: originally referring to the width of an uppercase M, and
em is now the distance equal to the size of the typeface; an en is half
the size of an em
Finial: the rounded non-serif terminal to a stroke
Leg: short stroke off the stem of the letterform (at the bottom:
L; inclined downward: K, R)
Ligature: the character formed by the combination of two or more
letterforms
Link: the stroke that connects the bowl and the loop of a
lowercase G
Loop: the bowl created in the descender of the lowercase G (in
some typefaces)
Serif: the right-angled or oblique foot at the end of the stroke
Shoulder: the curved stroke that is not part of a bowl
Spine: the curved stem of the S
Spur: the extension that articulated the junction of the curved
and rectilinear stroke
Stem: the significant vertical or oblique stroke
Stress: the orientation of the letterform, indicated by the thin
stroke in round forms
Swash: the flourish that extends the stroke of the le
-Font
The full font of a typeface contains much more than 26 letters, to
numerals, and a few punctuation marks.
Uppercase & Lowercase
Small Capitals
Figure 4.1 Small capitals
Uppercase & Lowercase Numerals
Figure 4.2 Uppercase numerals / lining figures
Figure 4.3 Lowercase numerals / old style figures / text figures
Italic&Roman
Figure 4.4 Italic
Punctuation & Miscellaneous Characters
Figure 4.5 Punctuation, miscellaneous
Ornaments
Figure 4.6 Ornaments
-Describing Typefaces
Roman: Letterform is so called as the uppercase forms are
derived from inscriptions of Roman monuments. Slightly lighter stroke
in roman is known as 'Book'.
Italic: Named for 15th century
Italian handwriting on which the forms are based. Oblique conversely
are based on Roman form of typeface.
Boldface: Characterized by a
thicker stroke than a roman form. Depending the relative stroke widths
within the typeface, it can also be called 'semibold', 'medium',
'black', 'extra bold', or super.
Light: Lighter stroke than the
roman form, even lighter stroke are called 'thin'.
Condensed: A version of the
roman form, extremely condensed are called 'compressed'.
Extended: Extended version of
a roman font.
Figure 4.7 Describing Typefaces
-Comparing typefaces
Differences in x-height, line weight, forms, stroke widths and in
feeling. Feelings connote specific use and expression. Examining
typefaces allows us to know how we feel about certain types, and also
see the appropriateness in type choices.
Figure 4.8 Comparing Typefaces
10 most essential typefaces that represent 500 years of type design
Figure 4.9 10 most essential typefaces
Lecture 05
Understanding letterforms
The uppercase letterforms below suggest symmetry, but in fact, it is not
symmetrical.(more noteworthy is the fact that each bracket connecting
the serif to the stem has a unique arc).
Figure 5.1 Baskerville 'A'
The uppercase letterforms may appear symmetrical, but a close
examination shows that the width of the left slope is thinner than the
right stroke. Both Baskerville (previous) and Univers (Fig. 4.2)
demonstrate the meticulous care a type designer takes to create
letterforms that are both internally harmonious and individually
expressive.
Figure 5.2 Univers 'A'
The intricacies of each individual letter form are neatly demonstrated
by examining two seemingly lowercase "a" similar sans-serif fonts –
Helvetica and Univers.
Figure 5.3 Helvetica 'a'(left); Univers 'a'(right)
Maintaining x-height
Letterforms that have a curved stroke have to rise above the median or
sink below the baseline in order to appear the same size as the vertical
and horizontal strokes stuck to it.
Figure 5.4 Maintaining x-height
Letters/Form/Counter
Counterform (or counter)—the space describes, and often contained, by
the strokes of the form.How well you handle the counters when you set
type determines how easily we can read what's been set.
Figure 5.5 Form and Counter
Letters/Contrast
Contrast is required to diffrentiate information in text.
Figure 5.6 Contrast
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