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.
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| 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!
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