Lecture 7: Types of font

Fig 1.0 Examples of Serif fonts

Sans Serif
Sans Serif are fonts without serif and usually have an overall even stroke weight, which creates little contrast for the letters.

Fig 1.1 Examples Sans Serif

Display
Displays are decorative fonts and are designed to be used as attention getting headline fonts.

Fig 1.2 Examples of display fonts

Script
Script fonts are designed to mimic handwriting. Scripts should never be used in all capitals.

Fig 1.3 Examples of script fonts

Text
This font is based on the hand-drawn letter made by early monks for religious books. They are mostly used certificates, diplomas, and invitations. Like script fonts, they should never be used in all capitals.

Fig 1.4 Examples of text font

Mono-spaced
Mono-spaced fonts, which are usually typewriter-style fonts, take up the same amount of space regardless of the actual letter.

Fig 1.5 Examples of mono-spaced fonts

Dingbats
Dingbats are symbols that are small pieces of art to enhance the design of the text or page.

Fig 1.6 Examples of dingbats Credit: Outer Space JL

Font Style
Font style refers to the individual font's weight, for example regular, italic, bold or black.

Typeface
A Typeface however refers to the entire set of weights within one family. It is sometimes referred as Type Family or Font Family.

Fig 1.7 Typeface of Univers Credit: Fonts.com

Small Caps and All Caps
Small capitals are good for subheads or for the first line of the paragraph. Text set in all caps should be used in short headlines or subheads. All caps should never be used for long sentences and for emphasis.

Fig 1.8 Examples of small caps and ALL CAPS

Outline and Shadow
It is advised to avoid having outline and shadow as far as possible as it might overshadow the fonts/text if used incorrectly.

Fig 1.9 Examples of outline and show on a text.

Typography: Text/Tracking: Kerning and Letterspacing

  The term 'kerning' refers to the automatic adjustment of space between letters. Letterspacing on the other hand means to add space between letters. Tracking is referred as the addition and removal of space in a word or sentence.

There are a few types of text formatting:
1. Flush left
2. Centered
3. Flush right
4. Justified

Fig 2.2 Type of text formatting. Source: Web Typography

  The aim in setting text type is to allow for easy and prolonged reading. At the same time, a field of type should occupy the page as much as the photograph does.

Type size: Text type should be large enough to be read easily at arms' length.
Leading: Text that is set too tightly encourages vertical eye movement.  A type that is set too losely creates striped patterns that distract the reader from the material at hand.
Line length: Appropriate for text is as much a function of the line length as it is a question for type size and leading. A good rule is to keep line length between 35-65 characters.

  A type specimen book shows samples of typefaces in various different sizes. A type specimen book is to provide an accurate reference for type, type size, type leading, type line length etc.

Fig 2.3 Example of type specimen book. Source: Aashika Gupta

Week 7 - Week 8

  For our Project 1, we are told to make a booklet with Adobe InDesign to create a booklet on the contents of "First Things First Manifesto 2000" with the type expression skills we obtained through the previous exercises with minimal graphics.

  On the first week, we were introduced to InDesign and were asked to paste the article and create it into 4 formats - flush left, flush right, centered and justified. We can choose the typeface for the text form the 9 type families given to us. Next, we have to do kerning to the contents so that they will look better.

  After we complete the kerning for each formatted and approved by Mr Shamsul and Mr Vinod, we have to choose one format out of the four. I chose left alignment as it is more tidy in my opinion. 

  On every page, we have to choose a sentence or two to express. We may just express one word out of the sentence.

Fig 3.4 Front cover for the booklet.

Fig 3.5 First page of the booklet.

Fig 3.6 First expression for the booklet.

Fig 3.7 Second expression for the booklet.

Fig 3.8 Fourth page of the booklet.

Fig 3.9 Final page for the booklet.

  There was plenty of changes done for both of the expression. However, I didn't manage to save any of the progress and accidentally deleted them.

 However, my design has yet to reach 8 pages for the printing. Therefore, I added two more pages to satisfy the needs of having 8 pages.

Thumbnails for my final outcome:

Week 7

Mr Vinod commented that my kerning shouldn't be too straignt and should let the articles has it's natural curve. The main purpose of kerning isn't to make the overall outline of the article straight since it can be done by using 'Justified'. I should also lessen the boxes used in the design of my booklet as to make it feel less cramp and crowded. 

Week 8

Mr Vinod commented that I should darken the grey boxes of the front cover and of the contents, otherwise it will not be visible enough when printed. Other than that, my type expression should be more consistent for both design and being able to take care about the white spaces around theIt  design. 

Week 7

As we were introduced to InDesign, it felt pretty new and there's so much to learn in one day. Kerning the article is a task that requires a lot of patience and observation skill. 

Week 8

It was pretty stressful as my design for the type expression kept getting rejected. After several feedback from the lecturers, I was able to overcome it and finish everything on that day. 

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Week 7

I noticed that a lot of my classmates are also having difficulties with kerning of the article. Most people were also quite confused of InDesign as we are still pretty new to the software. 

Week 8

I noticed that the text expression designed by everyone is very different as everyone has their own style, which is quite amazing to me. 

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Week 7

I found out that there are typography skills needed even in alignment of the contents of an article. 

Week 8

I realized that type expression doesn't have to be too complicated for a sentence, that we just have to highlight that one particular main point of the sentence to show it's impact. 

Week 7 
Stop Stealing Sheep and find out how type works by Erik Spiekermann and E.M. Ginger

Fig 4.0 The book cover of 'Stop Stealing Sheep and find out how type works'.

Chapter 5: Type Build Characters
  This chapter showcase the different use of different types on different medias. Every type expresses differently, depending on what you're working on. For example, Times New Roman are meant for newspaper printing, Helvetica for advertising, and Verdana as well as Georgia for web page. Choosing the right type for the correct purposes is important as it will affect the legibility and the impact given out to the reader. The arrangement and the choice of typeface of an article will also be able to show the characteristics of a country, for example on the same article, the style of Italy and Germany may differ. Understanding the tone, or feeling, of text is essential in determining which typeface to use, and how it might be arranged on the page.

Week 8

Typographic Design: Form and Communication by Ben Day, Philip B. Meggs, and Rob Carter

Fig 2.1 Book cover for 'Typographic Design: Form and Communication'.

Chapter 3: Legibility