Text Flashcards
What are 6 major design criteria to consider with text?
- Presence vs Absence
- Style (fonts and lettering)
- Form
- Size
- Colour
- Placement
What is the most time consuming part of cartography?
Text and lettering
- Very detail oriented
What is an integral part of any map?
Text and lettering
- It is there to be seen and read
What are some issues to be considered with text on a map?
- Can crowd and complicate
- Can negate hard work on the rest of the map details
- Labels can be redundant in some cases
4 important words for type vocabulary
- Type Family (Times, Arial, Brush, etc)
- Type Style (regular, bold, italic)
- Typeface
- Type Size (12 vs. 16)
Why is font important on a map?
- Clarity
- Style matching
- Legibility
- Fonts have personality
What are 3 typeface classifications?
- Old Style/ Classic (thick hairlines, blunt serifs)
- Transitional (Thin hairlines, rounded serifs)
- Modern (Thin hairlines, straight serifs)
What are 5 case types?
- UPPERCASE
- lowercase
- Title Case
- Sentence case
- Small Caps (all upper case but sized like lower case)
What are 2 Style types?
- Avec Serif
- Sans Serif
Why is the Old Style typeface thick?
- Needed width and magnitude for type setting to hold ink
- New printing technology has transitioned to thinner and straighter typefaces
What kind of typeface has a ‘Power’ personality?
Bold sans serifs
What kind of typeface has a ‘Grace’ personality?
Italics
What kind of typeface has a ‘Precision’ personality?
New san serifs
What kind of typeface has a ‘Dignity’ personality?
OldStyle
What are form variations within a style?
- Upper vs. lower case
- Upright vs. italic
- Bold
- Shadowing
What is Upper case used for?
- Important and large things
What text form is used for water features?
Italics because it implies flow and grace, nature of movement
What text form is used for human constructions?
- Upright, not italics
What is the smallest recognizable font?
6 point
How is font measured?
Point size
- 1 point = 1/72” or 0.35mm
What should the size difference between fonts be?
25% to make differences clear
- Size relates to importance or magnitude
Nomograph
Shows the relationship between size and legibility from a distance
- Like an eye doctor test
- Font sizes can be chosen based on how far away the viewer is expected to be (wall, sign, etc.)
What are some common spacing issues with words?
- Double OO’s cramps
- Strong verticals (NINE) cramp
- O, A, J, L, P, T, V, and W can look like holes in a word
- TH can be improved by increasing space between T and H
Typesetting
- Very laborious and highly skilled occupation
- Now automated by computer
Kerning
- Process of adjusting spacing between characters in a proportional font
- Usually to achieve a visually pleasing result
Placement Guidelines
- Letters sit on top of things
- Letters follow linear features
- Spread letters out to show extent of features
- Make letters bend to overall shapes
- Letters should float above surface if labelling points
What is the number one spot for labelling points?
- Upper right
What are the preferred placement spots from 1 - 8 around a point?
1) Upper Right
2) Upper Left
3) Lower Right
4) Lower Left
5) Right
6) Left
7) Up and a bit left
8) Down and a bit right
What are some of the main factors to consider for text?
- Legibility (easy to read)
- Perceptibility (lettering stands out)
- Harmony (# and type of styles not clashing)
- Search Time
- Suitability for production/reproduction
What size should sources be on a map?
Between 6-8 point font
What was something Eduard Imhof invented?
- Cross-hatching to give Atlas 3D effect
Why should suitability for reproduction be considered?
- How does the map print
- How does it look on screen
- Might not be good for both
Why should harmony be considered?
- Do the styles compliment one another?
- Is there too many fonts?
- Keep number of fonts limited and differentiate with style (bold, italics) and size
Why should Search time be considered?
- Can the words easily be found and are they in the right spot
Why should perceptibility be considered?
- Do the words stand out against the background (black on white better than white on black - expensive ink)
What are some considerations for type (Imhof)?
- Graphic structure
- Type Style
- Type Size
- Type Appearance
- Type Colour
- Association of type with object
- Type Style for each class of objects
- Type Arrangement
- Type Position
- Actually placing of the type
What is a rule emphasized by Imhof?
No rule without Exception
- Often 2 rules stand in opposition
- Each case is individually considered
What are some of Imhofs general principles?
- Legibility of text distinguishable from figure ground
- Clear graphic association for object associated with text
- Minimal disturbance to other map contents
- Text hierarchy of objects by style and size
- Names not dispersed or too dense
What are the 3 types of designations by Imhof?
- Position designations, or names for point-like objects and concepts
- Linear designations, names for objects with linear or ribbon extent
- Areal or surface designations
When placing text non-horizontal, how should the direction be placed?
- Clock-wise for reading legibility
- From right to left
