Working with typeIS 403 – Fall 2013 13

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A4• Due Tuesday• http://userpages.umbc.edu/~skane/

classes/is403/a4.html

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Today• Bethany: summary on web type• Talking about type• Using type

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Understanding type• What we need to know:

– How to talk about type– How to choose typefaces (and pair them)– What not to wear choose

• Why it matters– Type communicates who we are

(professionalism, attitude, style)– Bad type can impair reading (it is said that you

only notice type when it is bad)

Typography on the streets!

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/bronxmillion_kuj8X4Z2VolVhXnCymfkvM

• New York updated their street signs.

What changed?Why?

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Why?PERRY Is this Charles street?

Perry street?Smith street?

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Why?PERRY

Perry

Is this Charles street? Perry street?Smith street?

How about this?

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Why?PERRY

Perry

Is this Charles street? Perry street?Smith street?

How about this?

Typography on the streets!

• “Studies have shown that it is harder to read all-caps signs, and those extra milliseconds spent staring away from the road have been shown to increase the likelihood of accidents, particularly among older drivers.”

• “new regulations also require a change in font from the standard highway typeface to Clearview, which was specially developed for this purpose. “

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/bronxmillion_kuj8X4Z2VolVhXnCymfkvM

New York is updating their street signs. Costing 27 Million Dollars!

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Talking about type

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What’s a typeface? What’s a font?

• Typeface: The distinctive, design of an alphabet (and accompanying numbers and punctuation). All point sizes of that typeface.

• Font: All the letters, numbers and punctuation of a single size of a single typeface (27-point Helvetica)– 1 Inch = 72 points = 6 picas (1 pica=12 points)

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Font-Type Definitions

http://www.wiu.edu/art/courses/handouts/type.htm

Basic Type Anatomy

http://www.wiu.edu/art/courses/handouts/type.htm

http://jpedroribeiro.com/2009/10/know-your-type-part-1-anatomy/

What is a Serif?

Serif

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Two broad categories of fonts• Serif• Sans-serif

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Further type categories

http://www.wiu.edu/art/courses/handouts/type.htm

Williams has several good chapters on this

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Display typefaces

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Designed for print or screen?• Traditionally, on screen resolution was

much lower than print resolution

• Some fonts designed specifically for on-screen readability– Georgia– Verdana– Tahoma

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Variations within a type family• Helvetica• Helvetica Bold• Helvetica Bold Oblique• Helvetica Light• Helvetica Light Oblique

• Helvetica Neue

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Other attributes of type• Weight (heavy, light)• X-height• Ascender/descender height

Letterspacing

http://www.wiu.edu/art/courses/handouts/type.htm

http://hartfordprints.blogspot.com/2012/11/112712-language-of-typography.html

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Putting type on the page

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Things to consider?• Combining typefaces• Testing type• Readability

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Combining typefaces• Williams: 3 relationships between

typefaces

• Concordant• Conflicting• Contrasting

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Concordant

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Conflicting

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Contrasting

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Combining typefaces• http://www.smashingmagazine.com/

2010/11/04/best-practices-of- combining-typefaces/

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Combine a Sans Serif with a SerifBy far the most popular principle for creating typeface combinations is to pair a sans serif header typeface with a serif body typeface. This is a classic combination, and it’s almost impossible to get wrong.

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Avoid Similar ClassificationsTypefaces of the same classification, but from different typeface families, can easily create discord when combined. Their distinct personalities don’t play well off of each other and create a kind of typographic mud if careful attention is not paid.

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Assign Distinct RolesOne very easy way to combine multiple fonts from several typefaces is to design a role-based scheme for each font or typeface, and stick to it.

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Contrast font weights / sizesA sure-fire way to muddy your typographic hierarchy is to fail to distinguish elements in the hierarchy from one another. In addition to variations in size, make sure you are creating clear differences in font weights to help guide the reader’s eye around your design.

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Keep it simple–2 typefacesIn all the effort to sort through large typeface libraries looking for “just the right combination”, it’s often easy to overlook the sometimes obvious and much easier choice: stick to two typefaces using a classic sans serif and serif combination.

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Testing type• Easy to do with CSS• A/B testing• Generate dummy text

– Lorem ipsum

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Lorem ipsum?test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test

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Lorem ipsum (http://lipsum.com)

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Maecenas nec libero sapien. Proin ac arcu porttitor, tempor justo non, eleifend dui. Etiam consectetur ligula quis sapien lobortis, non accumsan nisi aliquam. Vivamus sed leo pellentesque, tempor metus et, facilisis risus. Curabitur egestas imperdiet orci, in consectetur nisi tincidunt ac. Integer iaculis magna eget mauris pharetra scelerisque. Nunc fringilla vitae nisl a ullamcorper. Phasellus at ultricies mi.

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Readability• What makes a font easy to read?

– Specific color combinations– Specific fonts– Spacing (line spacing, whitespace)– Chunking into paragraphs

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Readability matters• Font weight• Font size

• Contrast with background• Serif vs. sans-serif – the jury is still out• Fonts designed for screen or page• Other attributes

– Tracking, leading, whitespace

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ReadabilityFollow the pros

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Typography tools– WhatFont for Chrome

• https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/whatfont/jabopobgcpjmedljpbcaablpmlmfcogm

– What the Font• http://www.myfonts.com/WhatTheFont/

Fonts as a business• Fonts are creative, intellectual property.• You do not own a font. You license it for

limited uses.• You cannot share a font with someone

who does not have his or her own license to use it.

• You can embed a font in a file to have it viewed or printed by others.

http://chapters.aiga.org/resources/content/3/5/9/6/documents/aiga_2fonts_07.pdf

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Type activity• What does your font say about you?• Let’s look at some web sites for shoes