NM4208 Lecture Notes: Typography

Notes > Typography

Typography: Review & Type in Magazines
Dr. Linda M. Perry

Do typefaces really matter?

About 200,000 typefaces today
To most people, typefaces are pretty insignificant.
Yet to their devotees, they are the most important feature of text, giving subliminal messages that can either entice or revolt readers.

“Avatar” typeface

"I hated it on the posters and then threw up a little in my mouth when I realised I would have to read that ugly font throughout the film in the subtitles." – Blogger
Typeface was Papyrus!

A new look (2010)

In July, Gatwick Airport (London) unveiled a new logo, replacing a more austere style with a custom-made, handwritten script.
- Spokeswoman: the change was to emphasise the airport's "personal touch.”
Typeface matters because of its power to create a sense of recognition and trust.
– Julie Strawson, director of Monotype Imaging

Barclays created its own branded font to reinforce a sense of security.
In April, the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office spent £80,000 (US $160,000+-) to change its typeface to one that was almost identical.

BBC: Gill Sans

In July, the BBC website replaced Verdana with Arial (on PCs) and Neue Helvetica (on Macs).
- Main logo is Gill Sans
"Everyone recognises the BBC just from three characters in Gill Sans. It's an icon. If you wrote BBC in a flowery font people wouldn't recognise it." -- Strawson

Dark or playful: Priori

Jonathan Barnbrook, founder of the website Virus Fonts, designed the cover of Heathen, David Bowie's 2002 album.
"I talked a lot with Bowie -- the discussions went back and forth. He's the creator and you're trying to get the atmosphere of the music across in the design. I chose one of our own fonts -- Priori -- which is formal but playful, as the album was quite dark."

Helvetica: Fans and foes

Modern design: 2007 documentary “Helvetica”
“Cultural blight” based on antique designs
- “Lower case Ss are notoriously difficult to get right. But in Helvetica it's not straight - you want to go in there and tighten it up. And the 'a' looks so woolly and ill-conceived, it really winds me up.” -– Bruno Maag, creative director of
  typeface studio Dalton Maag

Comic Sans

Vincent Connare designed Comic Sans for Microsoft.
Casual script designed to look like comic-book lettering.
Ban Comic Sans movement about 7 years ago
- -- Wall Street Journal, April 17, 2009

Futura versus Verdana

When Ikea casually abandoned its version of the famed 20th-century font Futura, which had served it for 50 years, and replaced it in its 2010 catalog with Verdana, professional outrage was immense.
Microsoft released Verdana in 1996 as a versatile font for new technologies.
- On the screen differences, for example, between the lowercase i, j and l and the number 1 have to be clear.
- And the font has to be crisp even at the smallest sizes.
- “The Verdana fonts,” Microsoft explains, “are stripped of features redundant when applied to the screen. They exhibit new characteristics, derived from the pixel rather than the pen, the brush or the chisel.”
- Verdana, designed by Matthew Carter, serves technology with its leanness, height and loose spacing; it is bland, but efficient.
- The Ikea spokeswoman called it “a simple, cost-effective font.”
  - For print??
Futura was created by the German designer Paul Renner in the 1920s.
- It was meant to herald the same efficient technological future that Verdana now claims to serve.
- Futura was Stanley Kubrick’s favorite typeface used in the titles and advertising of
  “2001: A Space Odyssey.”
- It was the first font to land on the moon, on a plaque left there in 1969.

What's new?

PostScript, page description, 1976
TrueType, Apple, late 80’s
OpenType, 1996: scalable
Fonts for sale (links open in a new window)

Fonts for free
- http://www.free-fonts.com/

Top typefaces for newspapers (2004)

An analysis of the typefaces used by nearly 100 leading newspapers shows that 10 fonts have emerged as industry leaders.
- The top 10 are:

Type in magazines

Magazines develop a formula and format
- Format for type
  - One typeface for body copy throughout the magazine
    - Serif type best for print (debatable)
    - 9-11 point most common size
    - Consider audience
  - Your project
    - May dummy type 13 points and smaller
    - You must justify a choice above 12 points
  - Titles
    - Display type: 14 points or larger, serif or sans serif, from any group
    - May be consistent: A typeface for all headlines, or
    - May be varied: Typefaces chosen to help illustrate article
    - Consider color, type as art
    - Your project: You must write all display type
  - Miscellaneous copy:
    - Another (or same) typeface as body copy for cutlines, captions, folio, etc

Typography

Choosing appropriate typeface is important to good design, effective communication.

Type terminology

Serif--finishing stroke at the end of a main stroke of a letter in some typefaces
- A, E, T, l, i.
Sans serif--Sans = without. No finishing stroke at end of main stroke.
- A, E, T, l, i.

Typography Groups

Type is organized into groups or styles; families; fonts and series.
- Groups--based on historical development.
  - Text
  - Oldstyle Roman
  - Transitional Roman
  - Modern Roman
  - Sans Serif
  - Square-Serif
  - Script and Cursive
  - Novelty

Groups

Text Oldest, like calligraphy.
- Difficult to read in all caps or in several lines.
- Used on newspaper banners, specialty announcements, diplomas).
Old Style Roman: Lighter, more elegant.
- Variation in thickness of strokes.
- Dramatic serifs but retained angles similar to pen strokes, especially on serifs.
  - Serifs slant or curve and extend outward at top of T
    
    and top and/or bottom of E
  - Serif slanting or curved and terminates in point.
- Slight tilt to round letters.
- Little contrast: thin to thick.
- Variations of strokes make it legible (readable), especially for textual matter.
Transitional Roman: Type in transition from Old Style to Modern.
- Little contrast.
- Angle of thin strokes not as pronounced.

Modern Roman: Designs began 200 years ago.
- Straight, thin, unbracketed serif.
- High contrast: thick v. thin strokes.
- Bodoni is a Modern Roman typeface.
Square Serif (also block type, slab serif)
- Heavier, bolder serif, squared serif.
Sans Serif (also gothic or grotesque)
- Uniform strokes, without serif.
- Often preferred for display and headline type.

Script/Cursive—emulates handwriting.
- Script letters appear to be joined.
- Cursives do not appear to join.
Novelty-- not precise.
- Create sense of mood, time or decoration.
  - San Francisco, a style once possible only by hand-rendering.

Typesize considerations

Can use larger type size with lead paragraph or quote out--14 to 18 pt
- Give prominence to lead, inviting reader into article, which is set normally.

Should use larger size with reversed copy block--white on black or light color against darker background
- Keeps type from being overwhelmed.
Line length: 1-1/2 alphabets standard and most readable.
- Short measure (less than a full alphabet of the type in a designated size) hurts flow.
- Too long (in excess of two full alphabets of a designated typesize) hurts readability:
  - Hurts rhythm and
  - Causes reader to lose track of line.

Design & readability

Avoid reversing (white on black) on long runs in magazine
Careful with text over illustrations, tint blocks.
- Words need sufficient contrast and a clean field.
Break up long runs of copy for easy reading.
- Indent graf at least one em.
- Use subheads of contrasting face or weight.
- Use boldface and italics at points for emphasis.

Creative Uses of Type

Larger, dominant, artistic display faces.
More daring combinations in logos, titles.
Type should
- attract reader,
- be easy to read,
- emphasize important information,
- be expressive, and
- create recognition.
Initial letters, initial caps or drop caps
- Create point of focus.
- Display type integrated into text.
- Should not attract too much attention.
Emphasize function.
- Form follows function.