Google definition: composition of text by means of arranging physical types or the digital equivalents.
The Line - Reading Process
As you read, your eyes spring jerkily along the lines. These movements are known as saccades, and they alternate with fixed periods lasting 0.2-0.4 seconds.
X3 elements of typography
1. The letter - Design of the individual characters/glyphs and anatomy.
2. The word - how these glyphs fit together.
3. The line - combination & arrangement of words in a body or sequence.
History of typesetting:
'Typography is not an art form, or an exact science, but a craft'
Hierarchy
Type size, weight, colour and treatment can all add emphasis to any element that requires prominence.
Alignment
Left aligned - ragged edge
Justified text -
Centred & right aligned
Rag refers to the irregular or uneven vertical margin of a block of type, often on the right edge. The convention of a rag is to go 'in, out, in, out etc.'
Paragraphs
Indented - The first line of the next paragraph is indented, starts further along the line.
Full line breaks - a whole line is left between the paragraphs
Letter spacing:
Leading
The distance between the baselines of successive lines of type. The term originates from hand typesetting, in which strips of lead were used to increase vertical distance between lines.
Text with bad leading can appear cramped with ascenders and descenders almost touching. The leading needs to be a bit higher than the pt size of the type.
Tracking
Refers to the amount of space between a group of letters to affect density in a line or block of copy. Readability decreases when negative tracking is applied.
Kerning & pairs
Kerning is the process of adjusting the spacing between individual characters/letterforms in a proportional font, to achieve a visually pleasing re-suit.
Hidden characters
These invisible characters such as returns, spaces, tabs, etc, only appear when you have 'show hidden characters' turned on. They indicate the structure of your body of text and show how the type is set. this can be useful for finding double spaces and unintentional line breaks.
Line length
Efficient reading depends on a comfortable line length. This is between 40 and 75 characters, or 7-12 words.
Widows & Orphans
Words that are left separated from a complete block of text. They can look awkward and should be avoided wherever possible. Tracking and line spacings are used to remove widows and orphans.
Dashes & spaces
em dash (shift + alt + -): can take the place of commas to add an additional thought, breaking away from the sentence.
en dash (alt + -): connects things that are related to each other by a distance, as in the May-September issue of a magazine.
Hyphen(-): connects two things that are intimately related, usually words that function together as a single concept or work together as a joint modifier.
To hyphenate or not to hyphenate?
In justified text, hyphenation is mandatory.
In the left-aligned text, hyphenation evens the irregular right edge of the text, called the rag.
As the line length gets shorter, hyphenation becomes essential.
Grids Raster Systeme: Josef Müller-Brockmann
Grids are considered by some to be the most important part of design and typography.
Rivers
Rivers are the gaps in typesetting which appear to run through a paragraph of text, due to a coincidental alignment of spaces. The rivers are most noticeable with wide inter-word spaces caused by full-text justification or monospaced fonts.
Baseline grid
A technique used in modernist typesetting. It aligns all your text to a vertical grid where the bottom of each letter positioned onto the grid, just like writing on lined paper.
Study task:
- Read and analyse the text (Great Expectations)
- Generate quick ideas, thinking about how the text could be presented
- Typeset and lay out the text to communicate a particular idea or concept
- Produce a range of outcomes that effect the way we read the text in a variety of ways
- set some parameter
- work within these parameters? or challenge their conventions?
- not about typeface choice, but the use & arrangement of type itself
- test, play, experiment
EXAMPLES:
Page 1: Great Expectations
A typographic experiment designed to explore the relationship between graphic design, typography and the reading of a page. The book collates the responses of 70 international graphic designers when posed with the same brief. The text was chosen because it directly references lettering as Pip searches for clues about his family from the letterforms inscribed on their tombstone.
- reveals the power of typography
- how typography influences how we interpret a text
- idiosyncratic approach
Blast Magazine
Experimental Jetset - Modernism
Experimental Jetset is a small, independent, Amsterdam-based graphic design studio, founded in 1997 by (and still consisting of) Marieke Stolk, Erwin Brinkers and Danny van den Dungen. Focusing on printed matter and site-specific installations, and describing their methodology as “turning language into objects”, Experimental Jetset have worked on projects for a wide variety of institutes.
- Only use Helvetica
- A lot of grid reference
David Carson - Grunge
- Rebellion against Modernism and Swiss design
The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy
- Odd and interesting interventions of type
- Follows the rules, but plays with them
Forward Always
- Uses the type in an interesting way
- Makes you read the poem in a different way
- Typesetting can communicate the content in many ways
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