Spacing

Spacing type is very important as it has an impact on reading efficiency. Small text on screen and print needs a bit more space to give way for legibility. Bigger type can be tracked or spaced tightly. I wouldn’t go "deep-diving" on this topic as experiencing the effects is more important.

Let us check the image above to get a simple idea of how spacing may affect the composition. (1) shows small type with normal spacing while (2) seems easier to read. Check out (3) headline. Looks like its everywhere? Too loose? But hey, that is normal spacing there. How about the body text (4)? too close? Now take a look at (5) and (6). Hmmm.

Hey, this is a simple article but it could be useful to you and your composition.

Hope you can take this simple tip and apply it to your projects.

Next Sunday, type in columns—designing fonts that looks good when composed in columns. Hey—Happy Typography!

Typeface Anatomy

It is important to have an understanding of how type looks like and where it got its form. There are lots of font classification nowadays like: handwritten, chalk, crayon, geometric, script, and other wacky looking ones. We are not going to include those in this post as I am only going to discuss Serifs and Sans Serifs.

Today's topic is basic Typeface Anatomy.

There are basically two kinds of type: Serif and Sans Serif. Serifs are the small lines that are attached to the end of a stroke in a letter, a numeral or a symbol. These may be tapered strokes or thick strokes (which normally called "slab serifs"). Now since this is just a basic intro, I will leave the research of the serif classifications to you.

Serifs are interesting because, I think, they have this elegance in them with the contrast in the lines and the serifs that make them easier to read (ahem! controversial!). That is just my opinion :) The contrast in the lines are evidently from the tilting of the nib of a calligrapher where a stroke's curve creates the contrast.

Calligrapher's flat nib pen creates the contrast. So elegant!

Let's pick up the pace. Next is the Sans Serif where "sans" means "without" hence without serif. Take away the small pointy elements on the end of the strokes and you now have a sans serif or the earlier term "grotesque". Examples of sans serif typefaces are Akzidenz Grotesk, Helvetica, Univers, Optima and definitely our Radnika. It is believed that Schelter & Giesecke Foundry had cast the first "grotesque" as early as 1825. I am not a historian (although typeface design involves a lot of history) so we can move on.

Sans serifs are simple forms which were popular back then because of the legibility and clarity at long distances for advertising or display. The removal of the serifs made it easier for the brain to render. I can imagine some of the difficulties with the uppercase "I" and the lowercase "l" as it will slow down reading or comprehension in some cases. But that is the magic of the human brain—words are read so fast and, with comprehension, we skip all the details in between the words' letterforms.

Ok, that is enough about serifs and sans serifs. Let us move on to the basic parts of the two types.



Alrightee! Check out all that mark up and labeling. You can see that the size of the font (height) is from the descender line up to the cap height or the ascender height. Now you can see the terminal of the lowercase "a" and the ear of the lowercase "r". These are again due to the flicking or "flat" ending of the calligrapher's nib. The flat nib calligraphy, though, is not so evident across the letterforms as metal type had a different production method. Some of them are cut one by one and most of them where punch cut using a negative mold cutter. Yup!

The Sans Serif on the other hand has more of a uniform stroke with very low contrast. Its like when we were first taught to write and still how we write. Monoline strokes. But because of the monoline nature, it is prone to ink-filled corners on print. Solution? Ink Traps. These are cavities in the corners that "traps" ink to fill the space and have the desired "corner" on print. Clever? Yes. Another designer problem there which had me thinking; we all should know this. All graphic designers should at least, to some degree, make their own typefaces or edit typefaces if it will create a solution for them. I know there are a lot of typefaces already. How about licensing? Are they open source? Free to modify and use perpetually? If we make our own type. It will get around the licensing will it? But it is hard work, I know. Again, I said to provide solutions. The font doesn't have to be the complete character set—only enough to satisfy the need. I am going of topic now! Hey!

Typeface anatomy is easy and you will probably realise that this is primary school territory. The terms are just more technical. Check out the image above and keep them in mind as in the next post, I will be talking about spacing typefaces and why it is important to know its effects—consciously.

See you next Sunday!

The Typeface Design Revolution

Typeface is another term for font. The font is one of the greatest inventions ever conceived by man as it revolutionized communication in forms other than speech. This led to many advances and most importantly—advanced cooperation. Why cooperation? With this modular system of letters, numerals and punctuation; we have increased the speed of sending mass messages to a faraway land by printing on paper (referencing movable type) and sending it simultaneously across regions. This enabled kingdoms and governments to not only rely on calligraphic scribes but also relied on scholars/writers. The focus was diverted from art to content—function. People will not have to wait outside the assembly area to hear decrees verbally. They were sent as prints.

Although this revolution was great and the system didn't really change from the time it was invented (I am talking about the modular design of the alphabet) printing methods have been improving exponentially and with the rise of the digital age, people started making other use of type.

Typeface design now has gone from pure function to psychological aesthetic. People are so attuned to the forms that they now give extra meaning to the forms. Foundries were established and type was developed for marketing the printer company or highlight the quality of the printing. Typeface design has been evolving—significantly. It has become personal. It is the age were printing is so excellent and the digital screens so high resolution that any sort of typeface will be displayed exactly how it was designed to look like. Some took advantage of this.

Digital type foundries have been rising these past years and are revolutionizing type design by creating solutions based on human psychology. Things like typefaces that make you feel good, that looks quirky and fun, that is warm and friendly, that is business-like and corporate—it is now an age where anybody is able to create their own typeface and not worry about how it will cater other users as it will only be created for a specific function.

This blog is all about that. About designing and making typefaces. I hope you will enjoy how I deconstruct the tutorials you may see online and break it down into easier-to-understand chunks.

I will be updating this blog weekly with the exception of the first blog that will be released tomorrow.

Happy typography!