Typography

Typography is the art and techniques of arranging type, type design, and modifying type glyphs. Type glyphs are created and modified using a variety of illustration techniques. The arrangement of type involves the selection of typefaces, point size, line length, leading (line spacing), letter spacing (tracking) and kerning.

Below are some resources that I have collected on the subject of typography. The information that I have research have been very useful, it has taught me the fundamentals of typography, why and how it works and how it can be used to create breakthrough, innovative typography- but only after basics have been learned.



Type Terms
A type face may be named for its original designer (Baskerville, Bodoni, Garamond, Goudy); for its use (Times Roman was designed for the London Times; Century and Avant Garde were designed for Century and Avant Garde magazines); for its characteristics (Excelsior and Paragon were designed for high legibility); or for its designer's fancy (Perpetua, Souvenir, Centaur).
Type faces are also given generic names as well as brand names, e.g. different type-founder's call Times Roman different names, e.g. Times New Roman, Geneva, and English.

Measurements
To understand and define many parts of a letter or a line of text, some measurements must be distinguished.

Ascent Line
The imaginary line that marks the topmost point of the ascenders within a font. The ascent line is most commonly located above the cap line.

Cap Line
The imaginary line that represents the uppermost part of capital letters. The distance from the cap line to the baseline is the capsize.

Mean Line
The top imaginary point of all lowercase characters without ascenders. Often referred to as “x-height”.

x-Height
The distance between the baseline and the midline of the alphabet, usually the approximate height of the unextended Lowercase letters (a, c, e, m, n,...) and of the torso of extenders (b, h, d, k, p, q,...). Cap height, and the relation of x-height to the length of extenders, are two important characteristics in Latin typeface.

Baseline
The imaginary line on which the letters of a font sit.

Descent Line
The lowest imaginary line that a character’s descender extends to. (j, y, p,...)


Distinction between Spur and Serif
A spur only appears at the end of a curved letter-form.


A serif only appears at the ends of the main strokes of a letter-form.

Descenders are only elements of lowercase characters that extend below the baseline.


Serif vs. Sans-serif
Serif typefaces are generally easier to read when it comes to big bodies of small text. The serifs are what make the body copy so readable. Using serif typefaces creates better eye flow.

Sans-serif typefaces work well for titles and other brief bodies of text that require greater attention. Other names for sans-serif include gothic and grotesque. The most commonly used sans-serif font is Helvetica


Here is a video that I found on you-tube (www.youtube.com) from the Vancouver Film School that demonstrates excellent typography and how effectively it can be used.


Sources

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typography
• http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=2o1U4o1bc2k
• http://ilovetypography.com/2007/08/26/who-shot-the-serif-typography-terms/