Presentation 1 asgardia
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The document provides an overview of font terminology and categories, guidelines for pairing fonts effectively for print and web, and tips for using formatting techniques like headings, columns, and spacing to improve readability. It discusses font styles like serif, sans serif, script, decorative, slab serif, and modern and recommends fonts for different uses. Advanced typography techniques involving OpenType features and punctuation are also covered.
Presentation 1 asgardia
- 1. Type what you don't know can hurt you Alix Fraser
- 2. Let's get defining A font is a complete set of characters in a particular size and style of type A font family (also called a typeface) contains a series of fonts A glyph is an individual character of a font A serif is a flourish (little "feet") at the tip of glyphs Can you name any font families?
- 3. Type sets the tone Badly chosen font and typesetting can leave you with little or no audience Well-styled type impacts readability, legibility, visual hierarchy, and tone Properly paired fonts are harmonius, not discordant
- 4. Categorize The shape of a font's glyph's determines its category Some basic and common font categories are:
- 5. Old Style and Transitional Classic and traditional serif fonts • Old style serifs start thick and taper to thin • They contain thick stem strokes and thin hairline strokes • A diagonal line can intersect the thinnest part of most O-shaped old style glyphs • Transitional fonts evolved from old style and share many of the same characteristics • Both font categories are best for print body copy • Both font categories can get lost on television and computer screens if they aren't big and bold
- 6. Sans Serif Contemporary fonts • Sans serif fonts have no serifs • Variations include Grotesque (uniform thickness), Humanist (variations in thickness), Geometric (geometric shapes) • Sans serif fonts are best used in print for headlines and brief amounts of side text • Sans serif fonts are the best choice for readability on television and computer screens
- 7. Script Formal and old-fashioned fonts •Script fonts tend toward formality •Glyphs tend to be connected on the downstroke •Due to their low legibility, script fonts are best limited to small amounts in print and onscreen •Script fonts can add decorative flair when individual characters are used
- 8. Decorative Novelty fonts •Decorative fonts vary widely depending on design needs •Decorative fonts should be limited to headlines, decorative details, ornaments, or very small amounts of type •Some decorative fonts are more legible than others, but they are all bad choices for reading copy
- 9. Slab Serif Uniformly thick sans serif fonts •A slab serif font looks like a hybrid between old and style and sans serif fonts •Slab serif fonts were made for bold retail displays •A slab serif font is good for print headlines, but not for body copy
- 10. Modern Contemporary serif fonts •Modern fonts have very thin serifs •They differ from old style by putting their stress vertically •Modern fonts are best in print for headlines, decorative details, and ornaments •The thin serifs make modern fonts bad choices for reading copy or television and computer screens
- 11. Choose one of the following and tweet what kinds of fonts you would use for the titles, body paragraphs, and ornamental flourishes: 1. An online wedding invitation for a young couple having a classic wedding 2. A local print magazine for indie music fans 3. A flyer for print and email advertising discounts on furniture for seniors
- 12. Choose, use, and don’t abuse Do not go wild with your font choices.
- 13. Pair carefully Make sure you avoid using too many competing font styles Pick one font for your body copy that is appropriate for the medium (old style for print, sans serif for onscreen) Body fonts are best selected from a larger typeface The best way to keep your body copy harmonious is to pick fonts from the same family (Garamond regular, italic, and bold)
- 14. Keep on pairing carefully Pick a second font for contrasting headlines If you’ve used an old style font for your body, you can use a font from almost any category for a harmonious pair You can pick a font from the same font family for your body, but you want to make sure you have clear visual contrast with the headline Sans serif fonts are neutral and pair well with other fonts
- 15. Out of tune fonts Don’t pair decorative fonts together Don’t pair script fonts together Don’t pair modern or slab serif fonts with old style fonts if you want contrast Don’t choose fonts with a lot of fine detail for onscreen projects Don’t ever, under any circumstance, in any context, use comic sans Tweet if you know why comic sans is a bad choice!
- 16. A tangled web When picking fonts for reading onscreen, you need to keep in mind the basics of harmonious font pairings and the limitations of web fonts There is a much smaller pool of fonts to choose from with web design, because if a designer not using CSS uses a specialized font your computer doesn’t have, you’ll see only a boring default font Cascading Style Sheets is a language for web styling that is helping expand the fonts available for online use, but not all fonts translate well from print to screen Choose your web fonts carefully, and keep in mind trying to find the best design for web design may take a lot of trial and error
- 17. Not all tens are made equally Points are how the size of a font is measured Not every font will be the same size at 10 points In print, 10 or 11 point old style fonts are a safe choice for reading copy Onscreen and for other font categories, you will have to use your best judgement This is 18 points This is 18 points This is 18 points This is 18 points
- 18. Extra style options Once you’ve chosen your fonts, you can vary them further using different font sizes for emphasis and context Remember your audience, because older readers might prefer larger fonts Use font sizes to further contrast your header and body copy fonts in a harmonious way Keep in mind that there are factors beyond your control that will impact some font sizes on the web and design accordingly To counteract any unwanted font size changes onscreen, use web fonts set in ems instead of points, as ems adjust the font by percentage
- 19. Even more extra options Bold and italic type can add variation without making your design too busy with too many font choices Keep reliance on these variations for contrast to short copy situations, as bold and italic fonts are not appropriate for entire pages or paragraphs Keep in mind that not all bolds are equal, and adjusting font size may have a better impact When designing professionally, avoid faux bold and italic by not using automatic bold and italic buttons (such as the ones in Word or PowerPoint) as these only distort your font Remember font families? If you need to bold your Garamond type, use Garamond bold instead of automatically bolding your Garamond regular
- 20. Caps are extra The practice of using all caps for emphasis is an old-school style All caps type is harder to read for extended periods of time Readers take all caps as shouting and this can distort your message You should reserve all caps for areas where it won’t change your purpose and meaning, and use it sparsely
- 21. Give yourself some space Line spacing is called leading (pronounced “ledding”) Although your computer does most of the work with leading, you may still need to adjust the spacing manually sometimes The adjusting of spacing between a string of characters is called tracking If you want to change the effect your font has, try adjusting the tracking The adjusting of the space between individual glyphs is called kerning Always make sure your font choice has good kerning, or awkward spaces between your letters can happen
- 22. More space isn’t always best Extra space between lines can drastically improve your legibility, but too much can make your type read disjointedly Fonts with inconsistent kerning will lower readability of your copy You can manipulate tracking to control how tight or lose your words are and if a word stays on one line, but going so overboard that the tracking is noticeable will confuse your audience Web applications of spacing can be hard, even with CSS, so use your best judgment
- 23. Put it on my tab You can use tabbing to keep your font aligned, organize columns, and group information Bullet points/dots help the eye jump the space of the tab Tabs assist flow Gather together thoughts Keep information sectioned off neatly Help readers understand order
- 24. Tweet three examples, print or web, where using tabs would help your message
- 25. Break it up Pages full of unformatted words will turn your audience away You can carve your content into smaller pieces using a few formatting tricks Paragraph indicators like tabs and extra lines break up text, but you should manually adjust these spaces Headings and subheaders provide contrast and can create a hierarchy of content using font size Display fonts for headlines move the eye through the page Bullet lists give readers eye entry points and easily digested chunks of information
- 26. Newspaper killed the internet star Headlines Well-styled headlines are eye catching “Read me!” signs Graduated headlines make a hierarchy of information A condensed font for headlines can give you more space for your message Columns Columns make it easier for the eye to track back and forth Two inches is a good column width, and in print, 10-12 inches max for length Justification Justification refers to forms of copy alignment Left justified (flush left with ragged right) is best for reading Poorly handled justification can lead to awkward gaps Full justification (right and left edges perfectly squared) is a bad idea for web design Newspapers have perfected effective formatting and can be great places to look for tips both for print and web
- 27. Creative communication Bold and italic fonts make interesting pull quotes, decks, cutlines, headlines, and other short blocks of type SMALL CAPS ARE ALL UPPERCASE LETTERS WITH A LARGER FIRST LETTER, AND CAN BE USED IN SHORT COPY SITUATIONS Reversed type is light type against a dark background, and is a common technique in headlines, sidebars, and other layout elements—but be careful, as thin serif fonts are not near as good as thick sans serif fonts for this Initial and caps create dynamic eye entry points for lead informationrop D
- 28. Advanced Punctuation 265 Most fonts have 265 characters, meaning there are a lot more extra punctuation than there are letters and numbers Within these characters there are punctuation marks specifically drawn and spaced to match the rest of the glyphs in the font ... are manually typed ellipses, and … are properly formatted ellipses Different punctuation marks have different uses Smart quotes are for “quotations”, but straight quotes are for notating inches and feet (5'3") Hyphens (-) make compound words, en dashes (–) punctuate things such as the “to” in “3–4 weeks”, and em dashes (—) replace commas, colons, and parentheses
- 29. Openyour mind OpenTypefonts havemore than thestandard 265characters Theyare functionalacross Macs and PCs and may haveup to 65000 characters, such as: Specially designed letter pairs called ligatures(æ) Decorative alternatives totraditional italic letterforms called swash alternatives (A ) Adjusted numerals toblend in with the rest ofthe font called old style figures (1234) Decorative ornaments called dingbats ()
- 30. Tweet one of the following: 1. If you’ve ever used any OpenType special characters, tell us which characters and why 2. If you’ve never used any OpenType special characters, tell us where you might need to use one
- 31. Resources used White Space Is Not Your Enemy by Rebecca Hagen and Kim Golombisky Verdana regular Verdana italic Verdana bold Garamond regular Garamond italic Garamond bold Century Gothic Brush Script STD CabinSketch Courier new Modum Comic sans MS Source sans pro Charlemagne STd Inglebyregular Wingdings 2