Typography

1.       The ascender line is the imaginary line which determines the height of ascenders.

2.       The base line is the imaginary line on which all characters rest. Descenders hang below the base line.

3.       The ascender height is the x-height plus the height of the ascending stroke. It the distance between the base line and the ascender line.

4.       The cap height is the height of capital letters. It is the distance between the base line and the cap line.

5.       The descender is the stroke of a letter which dips below the base line, as in the letters g and j.

6.       The ascender is the stroke of a letter which rises above the mean line, as in the letters d, f and k.

7.       The x-height is the distance between the flat top and bottom of a lower case letter which as no ascender or descender, such as x. It is the distance between the base line and the mean line. The curved tops and bottoms of the p, o, and g extend beyond these lines so that they appear visually to fit the x-height.

8.       The cap line is the imaginary line which determines the height of capital letters.

9.       The mean line is the imaginary line which determines the height of lowercase letters. Ascenders rise above the mean line.

10.   The descender line is the imaginary line which defines the bottom reach of descenders.

Define Serif: The fine like that extends from the top and bottom of letters making them easier to read.

Define Sans-Serif: A typeface that is straight with no serifs or small extensions of letters.

When to use Antique Fonts: Used to evoke a period feel.

At most how many words should be Decorative Fonts at a time?: Rarely more than three words at a time should be in a decorative font.

What does script font resemble?: They resemble hand writing.

What element of design does script represent? It represents lines.

Why use symbol fonts? To complement a specific font.

Typography- the art and process of arranging type for a variety of media purposes and is made up of several parts.

Why do designers need a solid foundation in typography? Because everything about the words they are putting down and how they look has to correlate with what they are advertising, but they need a solid foundation to advertise on before they even think about little details.

Kerning: the space located between individual letters of a word.

Leading: the space between the lines of text.

Tracking: adjusting the spaces between groups of letters.

When do you use the following?

Center Alignment: used to draw attention and is used a majority of the time for headlines or titles.

Right Alignment: Used quite a bit for corporate business letters, return address labels, business cards etc.

Justified Alignment: Usually reserved for newspaper print and body text for textbooks, and is more difficult to work with.

Bad typography is remembered.

Legibility: the quality of being readable or distinguishable by the eye.

Smaller than 7pt is difficult to read and type.

Smaller than 3pt is utterly illegible.

Between 8pt and 14pt is legible.

Serif is used for long passages.

Upper and lower case.

Measure: the width of the text column.

It is annoying to read and generally looks bad.

Christmas tree: Decorative fonts.

T: Conventional (regular) fonts.

It sets the style and tone of a document. It defines the feeling of the page.

1.       Type should not overpower the text.

2.       Think about your reader and the feeling you want to convey, then choose a typeface that fits.

The typeface you use has to fit your criteria, and your intended audience has to be able to read it and be interested in it.

1.       Body text should be between 10 and 12 point.

2.       Use enough leading. Always add at least one or two points to the type sixe.

3.       Don’t make your lines too short or too long.

4.       Make paragraph beginnings clear. Use and indent or block style for paragraphs. Don’t use both.

5.       Use only one space after a period, not two.

6.       Don’t justify text unless you have to. If you justify text you must use hyphenation.

7.       Don’t underline anything, especially not headlines or subheads since lines separate them from the text with which they belong.

8.       Use italics instead of underlines

9.       Don’t set long blocks of text in italics, bold, or all caps because they are harder to read.

10.   Leave more space above headlines and subheads than below them, and avoid setting them in all caps. Use subheads liberally to help readers fine what they’re looking for.