Headings and TextWhat makes headings stand out?

Headings & Text• If you want to apply skills in Photoshop and Illustrator, the

software most professionals use in creative IT, you need to be aware of the techniques and terminologies of graphic design

Fonts or typeface• unit of measure is the point (or pt)• 72 point correspond to approximately 1 inch in height of the

lettering• A pica is 12 pt. 6 picas is equivalent to 72pt

• Word document: 10 - 12pt• Email: 10 - 12pt• Web page 12 - 12pt• Business card 6 - 8pt• Easy reading 12 - 18pt

Common type sizes

Convert between units of measurement

Point size Picas Inches mm72 1 25.436 12.71812 1 1/6 4.26 0.5

Convert between units of measurement

Point size Picas Inches mm72 6 1 25.436 3 1/2 12.718 2 1/4 6.412 1 1/6 4.26 0.5 1/12 2.1

Serif or Sans Serif

•

Serif: G

•

Sans serif: Ge.g. Georgia, Times New Roman, Garamond

e.g. Arial, Verdana, Tahoma, Helvetica, Comic Sans

Fonts and typeface are …TypefaceThe typeface is the name or design of a font, e.g. •Times New Roman

•Arial•Comic Sans

FontThe font is a combination of typeface and style, e.g. colour, italic, weight (bold or light), and size, e.g.

•Times New Roman•ARIAL

•Comic Sans

Fonts and typeface are …

However, most people refer to type and font as

the same thing!

Use of font style

Compare using Arial with bold formatting (a font):

Helloand Arial Black (a typeface):

HelloArial Black is a bold typeface but isn’t the same as using Arial then applying bold formatting

Use 2 typefaces for contrast• Do not combine 2 serifs or 2 sans serifs (clash)

Use 2 typefaces for contrast• Often designers combine a serif and a sans serif to contrast

visually• Classically, use sans serif for the heading and serif for the

body text, or the other way around

Don’t use more than 2 fonts• When you use 3 or more typefaces you loose consitency• Think of a “ransom” note:

KEEp th e

c oa hc

Proportional and Non-proportional Type

Letter variation• Circular characters tend to look slightly shorter - font

designers make them bigger:

Z O O

Kerning or Tracking• Kerning is the gap between 2 letters• Tracking is kerning applied to all letters uniformly

Kerning• Kerning is also used to correct the gap between some letter

pairings, e.g. W and A or V and A

White Space• White space is extra space around words which add emphasis

Leading or line-spacing• An example of reduced leading• Also an example of heading and

strapline

Alignment

Left•confident•logical

Right•modern•different

Centre•traditional•formal

The “Golden Rule of alignment”:Stick to one alignment. Do not use more than one alignment on the same page

Contrasts

Size, colour, case, typeface:

a z and two noughtsZOO

Contrasts

Kerning, direction, case

OO

A Z

AN

D T

WO

NO

UG

HTS

Z

Reverse Text

Adding contrast:

ZO

OA

Z A

ND

TW

O N

OU

GH

TS

Vertical text

Normally vertical text is titled not stacked:

ZOOA

Z A

ND

TW

O N

OU

GH

TS

ZO

O

Afterthought

“Know the rules so you can break them”

Fashions change with time