Typography
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Typography is the art and technique of setting written subject matter in type using a combination of fonts, font size, line length, leading (line spacing) and letter spacing.
Typography is performed by typesetters, compositors, typographers, graphic artists, art directors, and clerical workers. Until the Digital Age typography was a specialized occupation. Digitization opened up typography to new generations of visual designers and lay users.
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[edit] History
- For the origins and evolution of typography, see the main articles History of western typography and Movable type
Etymology: Typography (from the Greek words τύπος type = "to strike" "That by which something is symbolized or figured..." and γραφία graphia = to write).
Typography traces its origins to the first punches and dies used to make seals and currency in ancient times. Typography with Moveable type invented by Pì Shēng (Traditional Chinese: 畢昇; Simplified Chinese: 毕升, pinyin: Bì Shēng; died 1052) was the inventor of movable type printing in between 1041 to 1048 in China. modular movable metal type began in 13th-century Korea, and was developed again in mid-15th century Europe with the development of specialized techniques for casting and combining cheap copies of letterpunches in the vast quantities required to print multiple copies of texts.
[edit] Scope
In contemporary use, the practice and study of typography is very broad, covering all aspects of letter design and application, including typesetting & typeface design; handwriting & calligraphy; graffiti; inscriptional & architectural lettering; poster design and other large scale lettering such as signage and billboards; business communications & promotional collateral; advertising; wordmarks & typographic logos (logotypes); apparel (clothing); vehicle instrument panels; kinetic typography in motion picture films and television; and as a component of industrial design—type resides on household appliances, pens and wristwatches.
Since digitization typography's range of applications has become more eclectic, appearing on web pages, LCD mobile phone screens, and hand-held video games. The ubiquity of type has led typographers to coin the phrase "Type is everywhere".
Typography generally follows four principles, using repetition, contrast, proximity, and alignment.
[edit] Text typography
In traditional typography, text is composed to create a readable, coherent, and visually satisfying whole that works invisibly, without the awareness of the reader. Even distribution with a minimum of distractions and anomalies are aimed at producing clarity and transparency.
Choice of font(s) is perhaps the primary aspect of text typography—prose fiction, non-fiction, editorial, educational, religious, scientific, spiritual and commercial writing all have differing characteristics and requirements. For historic material, established text typefaces are frequently chosen according to a scheme of historical genre acquired by a long process of accretion, with considerable overlap between historical periods.
Contemporary books are more likely to be set with state-of-the-art seriffed "text romans" or "book romans" with design values echoing present-day design arts, which are closely based on traditional models like Jenson, Aldines and Bembo. With their more specialized requirements, newspapers and magazines rely on compact, tightly-fitted text romans specially designed for the task, which offer maximum flexibility, readability and efficient use of page space. Sans serif text fonts are used for introductory paragraphs, incidental text and whole short articles. A current fashion is to pair sans serif type for headings with a high-performance seriffed font of matching style for the text of an article.
The text layout, tone or color of set matter, and the interplay of text with white space of the page and other graphic elements combine to impart a "feel" or "resonance" to the subject matter. With printed media typographers are also concerned with binding margins, paper selection and printing methods.
Typography is modulated by Orthography and linguistics, word structures, word frequencies, morphology, phonetic constructs and linguistic syntax. Typography also is subject to specific cultural conventions. For example, in French it is customary to insert a non-breaking space before a colon (:) or semicolon (;) in a sentence, while in English it is not.
[edit] Readability and legibility
Readability concerns how easily or comfortably a typeset text reads. Studies of readability suggest that our ability to read is based on recognition of individual glyph forms ("parallel letterwise recognition"), performed by the human brain's highly-developed shape cognition facility. Text set in lower case is found to be more readable, presumably because lower case letter structures and word shapes are more distinctive, having greater saliency with the presence of extenders (ascenders, descenders and other projecting parts). Readers cognize the upper portions of letters more than the lower portions in the recognition process. Capital letters by comparison are of uniform height and less varied in structure; this the generally accepted reason that all-capitals text is found to be less readable in tests of extended reading, causing slower reading speed and less comprehension.
Readability is compromised by letterspacing, word spacing and leading that are too tight or too loose. Generous vertical space separates lines of text, making it easier for the eye to distinguish one line from the next, or previous line. Poorly designed fonts and those that are too tightly or loosely fitted can also result in poor readability.
Some typographers believe that another factor, the Bouma or overall word shape, is also very important in readability, and that parallel letterwise recognition is either wrong, less important, or not the entire picture. Studies that distinguish between between the two models have favored parallel letterwise recognition, and the latter is widely accepted by cognitive psychologists.
Legibility is the ease and speed with which the reader can decipher each letterform and word. This is determined by the design of individual characters and how clearly they are rendered. Legibility can be affected by choice of ink and paper colors.
[edit] Newspapers, magazines, and periodicals
Typography is used in all newspapers, magazines and periodicals. Headlines are often set in larger type to attract attention and are placed near the masthead. For example, USAToday uses a bold, colorful and slightly modern style through their use of different fonts and colors; type sizes vary widely, and the newspaper name is placed on a color background. In contrast, New York Times use a more traditional approach with less colors, less font variation and more columns.
[edit] Display typography
Typography is a potent element in graphic design, where there is less concern for readability and more potential for using type in an artistic manner. Type is combined with negative space, graphic elements and pictures, forming relationships and dialog between words and images.
Color and size of type elements are much more prevalent than in text typography. Most display typography exploits type at larger sizes, where the details of letter design are magnified. Color is used for its emotional effect in conveying the tone and nature of subject matter.
Display typography encompasses posters; book covers; typographic logos and wordmarks; billboards; packaging; on-product typography; calligraphy; graffitti; inscriptional & architectural lettering; poster design and other large scale lettering signage; business communications & promotional collateral; advertising; wordmarks & typographic logos (logotypes), and kinetic typography in motion pictures and television; vending machine displays; online & computer screen displays.
The wanted poster for the assassins of Abraham Lincoln was printed with lead and woodcut type, and incorporates photography.
[edit] Advertising
Typography has long been a vital part of promotional material and advertising. Designers often use typography to set a theme and mood in an advertisement; for example using bold, large text to convey a particular message to the reader. Type is often used to draw attention to a particular advertisement, combined with efficient use of color, shapes and images. Today, typography in advertising often reflects a company's brand. Fonts used in advertisements convey different messages to the reader, classical fonts are for a strong personality, while more modern fonts are for a cleaner, neutral look. Bold fonts are used for making statements and attracting attention.
[edit] Inscriptional & architectural lettering
- see also Epigraphy
The history of inscriptional lettering is intimately tied to the history of writing, the evolution of letterforms, and the craft of the hand. The widespread use of the computer and various etching and sandblasting techniques today has made the hand carved monument a rarity, and the number of lettercarvers left in the States continues to dwindle.
For monumental lettering to be effective it must be considered carefully in its context. Proportions of letters need to be altered as their size and distance from the viewer increases. An expert letterer gains understanding of these nuances through much practice and observation of their craft. Letters drawn by hand and for a specific project have the possibility of being richly specific and profoundly beautiful in the hand of a master. Each can also take up to an hour to carve, so it is no wonder that the automated sandblasting process has become the industry standard.
To create a sandblasted letter, a rubber mat is laser cut from a computer file and glued to the stone. The sand then bites a coarse groove or channel into the exposed surface. Unfortunately, many of the computer applications which create these files and interface with the laser cutter do not have many typefaces available, and often have inferior versions of typefaces that are available. What can now be done in minutes, however, lacks the striking architecture and geometry of the chisel-cut letter which allows light to play across its distinct interior planes.
There are a number of online retailers of gravestones which offer fill-in forms, and a couple dozen clip-art borders and imagery, and some which cater to remembrances of your pet chihuahua, cockatiel, or llama. On the outer edge of gravestone technology there is the Vidstone Serenity Panel, a solar-powered LCD screen inlaid right into the stone which will play “a short personalized video tribute”.
Recently, there has been some rumbling in typographic circles over the proposed 9/11 memorial in New Jersey. Frederic Schwartz, the project architect, has chosen to render the names of the victims, in his words, in “a familiar and easy-to-read typeface”: Times New Roman. This democratic choice (the families of victims were closely involved with the design plan) could perhaps be echoing the controversial Emigre adage “People read best what they read most” in that Times is the default for many applications, but it seems to many that the choice is really a non-choice, or poor choice at best. These letterforms, originally designed for small print in newspaper setting, will be blown up to nearly four inches high.
John Benson, speaking of his work in stone says, “You are making something that will outlast you. And I believe if you invest it with a certain honesty and the focus of your intellect and your sensitivities, those things are in the piece and are capable of being retrieved at a later date. That’s what art is all about, isn’t it?” (quoted in Kathleen Silver’s “Men of Letters”) Inscriptional typography can certainly rise to this level of intellectual and physical quality, as can be seen in the recent choice of Gotham for the World Trade Cornerstone, but too often our culture settles for unconsidered and unthoughtful lettering for even our most important visual memorials.
[edit] See also
- For a more comprehensive list of topics, see Category:Typography
[edit] References
- Bringhurst, Robert (2002). The Elements of Typographic Style (version 2.5). Vancouver: Hartley & Marks. ISBN 0-88179-133-4. Often referred to simply as "Bringhurst", Elements is widely respected as the current authority on typographic style for Latin typography. (excerpts).
- Steven Heller and Meggs, Phillip B. Texts on Type: Critical Writings on Typography (c) 2001, Allworth Press, Allworth Communications, New York. ISBN 1-58115-082-2. A compilation of over fifty texts on the history, practice, and aesthetics of type design and typography.
- Lexique des règles typographiques en usage à l'Imprimerie nationale, Imprimerie nationale, 2002, ISBN 2-7433-0482-0, for French typography.
- Swanson, Gunnar Graphic Design and Reading: explorations of an uneasy relationship (c) 2000, Allworth Press, Allworth Communications, New York. ISBN 1-58115-063-6. The Crystal Goblet, or Printing Should Be Invisible Beatrice Warde; Improving the Tool Hrant H. Papazian.
- White, Alex W. (1999). Type in Use - Effective typography for electronic publishing (version 2.0). W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. New York. ISBN 0-393-73034-4 (pbk).
[edit] Supporting organizations
- The Typophiles
- International Typographic Association, (Association Typographique Internationale, ATypI)
- Type Directors Club
- International Center for the Typographic Arts (ICTA)
[edit] External links
- Typophile forums
- Comp.fonts FAQ: General Info Section four of six of the newsgroup FAQ
- Diacritics Project: Designing a font with correct accents
- Planet Typography: Online magazine on contemporary typography, directory, manual and other topics
- History on printed books
- Caligraft :: Computational calligraphy
- ABC typography: A virtual type museum
- Typecastfilm.com A film about Swiss design and typography
- A List Apart: Typography Matters for web developers
- Tipometar: Typography in Serbia
- Typography & The Design of Letterforms
- Legible? by Gerard Unger
- Thinking With Type Introductory typography guide
- TypeCulture Academic Resource educational resources, including documentary videos about typographyca:Tipografia
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