Design: Typography

Ahxyo

Ascender

Descender

x-height

Serif

Bowl

Tail

Baseline

AhxyAvant Garde

AhxyGalliard

AhxyBrittanic

Letter breaks and spacing

Dangerous ChildMolester Caught

DangerousChild Molester Caught

V A it m

VA itm

General rule: 40 to 70 characters per line, 9-10 words.

Use of Capital Letters

RINGAROUNDTHEROSY

RingAroundTheRosy

Whose Tools, Which Era?

Whose tools, which era?

Interline Spacing (Leading)

Space between the baseline of one line to the baseline of the next.

General rule: font size is 80%, or 4/5, of interline spacing

If one line of text is spaced reasonably far apart from the next, you have room to read and make the jump to the next line withno trouble.TNR, normal ratio

If one line of text is very close to the next line, you can’t read iteasily, and you experience claustrophobia!TNR, ratio too close

A lot of leading can lead to a slow-paced, serene

effect, but too much can leave you feeling

downright lost.TNR, ratio too large.

If one line of text is spaced reasonably far apart from the next, you have room to read and make the jump to the next line withno trouble.AG, normal ratio

If one line of text is very close to the next line, you can’t read iteasily, and you experience claustrophobia!AG, ratio too close

A lot of leading can lead to a slow-paced, serene

effect, but too much can leave you feeling

downright lost.AG, ratio too large.

Alignment

Type that is set in flush left, ragged right, often has more even spacing throughout. Readers can easily locate the next line because the space relationships between one line and the next provide “landmarks.”

Type that is justified doesn’t give those “landmark” clues. It also might cause a “river of white space” running through the paragraph. This can be disruptive to comfortable reading, but it is difficult to avoid when the column width is narrow.

flush left or left-justified

justified or full justification