Will cover:
- basic principals and essential rules
- theories in practice
- context of typesetting / designers
Saccades - eyes moving along the lines
Typography = 3 min aims:
the Word – how these glyphs fit together
the Letter – design of the individual character / glyphs and anatomy
the Line – combination & arrangements of words in a body or sequence
desktop publishing & digitalisation (vs. letterpress) -–InDesign main program for setting type
sourcing type - Adobe type:
- pt size
- metric or optical kerning
- leading
- tracking
- scale & skewing options
Hierarchy
- in ever communication, some messages are more important than others - type size, weight, colour and treatment can all add emphasis to elements that require prominence
Alignment
– left aligned / ragged edge - common as allows easy reading and typesetting
– justified text - clean and classic
– centred - difficult to read
– right aligned - 'rag; irregular or uneven
'rag' conventions are to go in out in out of a paragraph in slight length - could even rag down whole body of text
Paragraphs
consistent paragraph style will help cement the look and feel of your typography. type alignment and paragraph breaks both affect the overall look of your text.
Letter spacing
Leading:
refers to the distance between the baselines of successive liens of type - text set with bad leading appears cramps with ascenders and descenders almost touching
- leading / + leading / Automatic leading
Tracking:
amount of space between a group of letters to affect density in a line or block of copy - readability decreases when negative tracking is applied
-40 tracking / 0 tracking / +40 tracking
never go above or below this as a rule for Graphic Design
Kerning & Pairs
individual words not lines - distance between two letters and where you're putting them
Hidden Characters
show how the type is formed and indicates the structure of your type
e.g. returns, spaces tabs etc – only appear when you have 'shown hidden characters' turned on – helpful when finding double spaces and unintentional line breaks
Line length
rule of thumb 7–12 words long in a line or 40–75 characters = efficient reading depends on a comfortable line length
an overly short line causes a more extreme and ugly rad in a body of text - hyphen a lot of things - vs. overly long line decreases legibility
Widows & Orphans
are lines or words left hanging or separated from a complete block of text - left alone at the end
they can look awkward and should be avoided when possible - can use tracking to reduce space or increase to fit the awkward words
Dashes & Spaces
never use a hyphen in space of an en dash or an em dash
distance or time
air space
thin space
regular spcae
en dash space
em dash
Hyphen function as the formation of certain compound; used for end of lines to striking & for two words that appear as a whole concept (new meaning) 1 idea but multiple words
en dash - range distance or time; within this space (slightly longer than hyphen) to show range e.g. London – Glasgow or 20 – 30 students (alt&- on keyboard)
em dash take place of commas; longer than en dash / multi usable, when someone is cut off in a script / a pause when necessary 'The all-renewable energy sector is 30 years away – and land with always be there' (shift,alt&-)
Grids
Raster Systeme: Josef Mulle-Brockmann
considered by some the most important and yet most invisible part of design and typography
fundamental part of the classic Swiss style and modernist typography
The Raster Systeme presents a grip in 8-32 grid fields, which can be adaptable according to the design – type is often set to a grid to keep it organised – sticking to a grid can make your design and typesetting very consistent and clean
Rivers
gaps in typesetting - have to look as whole body of text - hard to spot - turn upside down - not looking at text but overall aesthetic - sometimes really obvious - use tracking / kerning / paragraphing - occur in justified type often - text with a rag has letter line
Baseline Grid
old school primary school textbook - everything has to fit on the grid regardless of size, ordered piece of typography, difficult to do over a large body of text, have to change line spacing / captions / titles - becomes tight as has to sit on the baseline grid
Study Task:
Experiment with typesetting using the opening page of Dickens 'Great Expectations'
Context reference: book 'Great Expectations - GraphicDesign&'
Shows how design can interpret and affect the way text is read and thus it's understanding.
Can type create imagery? Subconscious relations? How can the styles and characteristics of typesetting explored be used creatively in the production of this opening page.
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| In the layout of a daily mail article - adds a new context to the text |
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| Styles include; in the type and layout of a tombstone / columns / mathematical interpretations / barcode interpretations |
My own applications:
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| The first paragraph is in response to the length of the names, as if in the style of a poem to add emphasis and structure to the first person narrative. The second paragraph reflects the tombstone Pip talks and describes in depth. This visual literacy aids the gothic effect that the content presents. The final paragraph, which talks about rivers, reflects the typesetting characteristic of rivers. With the justified type setting, the text spreads out and the subsequent gaps that enable the 'river'. |
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| This typesetting is meant to reflect the 'freckles' described on his late mother. The subtlety in this characteristic to embody the entire typesetting allows the reader to focus in on the visual representations expressed. The names are in 3pt size larger font to oncemore accentuate the varying names and personal characteristics of the context behind the characters. The overly large tracking of +270 reflects the spread out, random collective nature of freckles. |
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| This typesetting is meant to take the first and last paragraphs to be read as a poem. The way the line is broken up changes the fluidity of how the text is read, placing dramatic stress of different parts of the sentences. |
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