Typography is a vital part of design. It is effective in creating mood, increasing readership and using space. While it is important, it 's almost like the director of a film: if it is great, you hardly think about it, but if it stinks it can wreck doom a project to mediocrity, or worse yet, poor readership.
Here are some basic tips on typography.
1. Use single spacing after a period.
A double space was necessary back in the day of the typewriter when typewriters had monospaced typefaces. It 's not necessary now because most fonts are proportionally spaced.
2. Hang punctuation.
When punctuation (particularly quotation marks and dashes) is aligned slightly outside the left margin, it is known by the term because appears to be "hanging" …show more content…
It is easiest to read. Almost all books, newspapers and magazines use serif type faces. Some websites use sans-serif fonts for body copy, however in print, most graphic designers agree that serif fonts are optimal.
7. Watch for rivers, especially when using justified text.
Rivers are discernible patterns of white that appear in body copy. They are disturbing to the eye and can make the reader uncomfortable. A trick to test for rivers is to turn the printed piece upside down so that the mind will not recognize words. The eye will be more likely to recognize the rivers of white space.
8. Widows and orphans are sad in life, and typography.
A widow is the ending line of a paragraph at the beginning of the following page or column. An orphan occurs when the opening line of a paragraph appears by itself at the bottom of a page or a column. It can also refer to a single word that appears by itself at the end of a paragraph.
9. Stick to two typefaces (3 max).
'Nuff said.
10. Never stretch or squash fonts; always resize uniformly.
Sometimes giving the designer carte blanche when it comes to text manipulation is a bad thing. It drives experienced designers nuts when they see the attributes of a font changed without regard to
Here are some basic tips on typography.
1. Use single spacing after a period.
A double space was necessary back in the day of the typewriter when typewriters had monospaced typefaces. It 's not necessary now because most fonts are proportionally spaced.
2. Hang punctuation.
When punctuation (particularly quotation marks and dashes) is aligned slightly outside the left margin, it is known by the term because appears to be "hanging" …show more content…
It is easiest to read. Almost all books, newspapers and magazines use serif type faces. Some websites use sans-serif fonts for body copy, however in print, most graphic designers agree that serif fonts are optimal.
7. Watch for rivers, especially when using justified text.
Rivers are discernible patterns of white that appear in body copy. They are disturbing to the eye and can make the reader uncomfortable. A trick to test for rivers is to turn the printed piece upside down so that the mind will not recognize words. The eye will be more likely to recognize the rivers of white space.
8. Widows and orphans are sad in life, and typography.
A widow is the ending line of a paragraph at the beginning of the following page or column. An orphan occurs when the opening line of a paragraph appears by itself at the bottom of a page or a column. It can also refer to a single word that appears by itself at the end of a paragraph.
9. Stick to two typefaces (3 max).
'Nuff said.
10. Never stretch or squash fonts; always resize uniformly.
Sometimes giving the designer carte blanche when it comes to text manipulation is a bad thing. It drives experienced designers nuts when they see the attributes of a font changed without regard to