Typography Flashcards
What is the difference between a font and a typeface?
A typeface is composed of fonts.
The font is really the delivery mechanism.
You choose a typeface. You use a font.
What are Type Classifications?
A basic system for classifying typefaces devised in the nineteenth century, when printers sought to identify a heritage for their own craft analogous to that of art history.
What are Type Families?
A system for organizing typefaces
Type Families refers to a series of weights or variations on a typeface that all live within the same stylistic or aesthetic kind of realm.
roman, italic, small caps, bold, semibold, etc.
What are Humanist letterforms closely connected to?
Calligraphy and the movement of the hand
Transitional and modern typefaces are more ______ and less organic.
abstract
Humanist letterforms and Transitional and modern typefaces are three main groups that correspond roughly to what periods in art and literature?
Renaissance, Baroque and Enlightment
What is a Serif typeface?
A typeface with serifs. Serifs can be classified as Old-Style, Transitional, Modern, and Slab.
What are Serifs?
A stroke is added to the beginning or end of one of the main strokes of a letter.
What are the characteristics of Old-Style typefaces?
- Have a low contrast between thick and thin strokes
- Have diagonal stress in the strokes
- Have slanted serifs on lower-case ascenders
What are the characteristics of Transitional typefaces?
- Have a high contrast between thick and thin strokes
- Have a medium-high x -height
- Have vertical stress in the strokes
- Have bracketed serifs
What are Modern (Didone, Neoclassical) typefaces?
- Have a high contrast between thick and thin strokes
- Have a medium-high x -height
- Have vertical stress in the strokes
- Have bracketed serifs
What are Slab typefaces?
- Are heavy serifs with subtle differences between the stroke weight
- Usually have minimal or no bracketing
What are sans serif typefaces?
A typeface without serifs, from the French word “sans” that, means “without”.
Sans serifs can be classified as Transitional, Humanist, and Geometric.
What are the characteristics of Sans Serif Transitional Typefaces?
- Have a low contrast between thick and thin strokes
* Have vertical or no observable stress
What are the characteristics of Sans Serif Humanist Typefaces?
- Have a medium-contrast between thick and thin strokes
* Have a slanted stress
What are the characteristics of Sans Serif Geometric Typefaces?
- Have a low contrast between thick and thin strokes
* Have vertical stress and circular round forms
What is a Monospace typeface?
A typeface that displays all characters with the same width is known as Monospace.
What is a Script typeface?
Script typefaces have a natural, handwritten feel. Scripts can be classified as Black letter, Calligraphic and Handwriting.
What are the characteristics of Black Letter Script typefaces?
- Have a high contrast between thick and thin strokes
* Are narrow with straight lines and angular curves
What are the characteristics of Calligraphic Script typefaces?
*Are replications of calligraphic styles of writing (formal)
What are the characteristics of Handwriting Script typefaces?
*Are replications of handwriting (casual)
What are display typefaces aka decorative?
A broad category of typefaces that do not fit into the preceding classifications. They are typically suited for large point sizes and primarily used for display.
What are the characteristics of decorative display typefaces?
*Are distinctive, eye-catching and orginal
What are Type superfamilies?
A superfamily consists of dozens of related fonts in multiple weights and/ or widths, oftern with both sans-serif and serif versions.
What are the Common Type Classifications?
Serif, Sans Serif, Monospace, Script and Display
Why does Type matter?
Because everything we read involves type. Everything — be it a thoughtful note from a friend, an important email from a colleague or a serious news story on TV.
Type is necessary. It can’t be an afterthought. Type is and has to be considered in all parts of usability and visual communication.
What is visual inflection?
A way to communicate tone through type.
If you want to be clear in your communication, you need to be clear in your choice of typography, because what is said is influenced by how it is set.
The partially enclosed space of a letterform.
Aperture
An upward vertical stroke that extends beyond the x-height.
Ascender
The invisible line on which all letters rest
Baseline
The generally round or elliptical forms which are the basic body shape of letters.
Bowl
The distance from the baseline to the top of the capital letter
Cap height
The white space enclosed by a letterform
Counter
The horizontal stroke in letters
Cross bar
A downward vertical stroke that extends beyond the baseline
Descender
Also known as a tittle, is a small diacritic on a lowercase i or j
Dot
The closed counter of a lowercase e
Eye
A tapered or curved end on a letterform
Finial
Two or more letters tied into a single character
Ligature
A smaller form of letters in a typeface
Lowercase
A curved stroke originating from a stem
Shoulder
The main curved stroke of a lowercase or capital letter
Spine
A main stroke that is more or less straight, not part of a bowl
Stem
A stroke added to the beginning or end of one of the main strokes of a letter.
Serif
Short capital letters designed to blend with lowercase text
Small Capital
A straight or curved line that creates the principal part of a letter.
Stroke
A circular form at the end of the arm, leg or brow in letters.
Terminal
A typecase containing capital letters.
Uppercase
The distance between the baseline and the height of the lowercase letter ‘x’.
x-height
The thickness of a font’s stroke.
Weight
A distinctive form of drawing you may use to propose, explore, refine and communicate your ideas.
Sketching. As a designer, you can use sketching as your first line of attack to crack a design problem.
What does the physicality of the material represent?
The physicality of the material represents the nature of immortality. In the case of John’s chosen material, stone, the material is timeless and can last lifetimes.
What is Leading?
Leading is vertical space between lines of text, also known as line spacing.
What is Tracking?
Tracking is the space between a whole group of letters, sometimes called letter spacing.
What is the difference between a type designer and a typographer?
Type designers make type.
Typographers use type.
What is Kerning?
Kerning is the space between two individual letters.
Unlike tracking, it varies over the course of the word because each letter fits together differently.
What is Keming?
The result of improper kerning in typography.
Fun Fact: Tracking and kerning are both measured in _____, a unit of measure that is relative to the current type size.
1/1000em
Where was the term leading derived from?
The practice of placing thin lead strips between lines of type to increase the vertical space between them.
What is hierarchy?
Hierarchy is used to guide the reader’s eye to whatever is most important. In other words, it shows them where to begin and where to go next using different levels of emphasis.
What is Legibility?
Legibility refers to how clear it is to distinguish one letter from another in a particular typeface.
What is Readability?
Readability refers to how easy it is to read words, phrases and blocks of text.
Type is based on a ________ ____ _____.
vernacular of gesture. When we talk about handling type, it’s because historically type was a physical thing, derived from the hand-setting of wood and metal type. Many common typographic terms are built on the same vernacular language.
What is the formula for the Golden Section?
1 : 1.618
What is the formula for the Golden Section?
a : b = b : (a+b)
What is the simplest type of grid?
Single-Column Grid
Which grid has consistent horizontal divisions from top to bottom in addition to vertical divisions from left to right?
Modular Grid
What is a Single-Column Grid?
Grids are the simplest, consisting of a single column of text surrounded by margins.
What is a Multi-Column Grid?
Grids provide flexible formats for publications that have a complex hierarchy or that integrate text and illustrations.
multi-column grids provide flexible formats for publications that have a complex hierarchy or that integrate text and illustrations. The more columns you create, the more flexible your grid becomes.
What is a Modular Grid?
A modular grid has consistent horizontal divisions from top to bottom in addition to vertical divisions from left to right.
Why are Typographic grids important?
Typographic Grids are all about control. They establish a system for arranging content within the space of a space, screen or built environment.
What is the Golden Ratio?
a ratio (relationship between two numbers) that has been used in Western art and architecture for more than two thousand years. The formula for the golden section is a : b = b : (a+b).
This means that the smaller of two elements (such as the shorter side of a rectangle) relates to the larger element in the same way that the larger element relates to the two parts combined. In other words, side a is to side b as side b is to the sum of both sides. Expressed numerically, the ratio for the golden section is 1 : 1.618.
What is the recommended word count per line of text to reduce eye fatigue and create an enjoyable reading experience?
10-12 words per line
What happens when you put too many words per line?
It can strain your reader’s eye’s causing eye fatigue while reading.
When choosing a typeface, a good rule is to:
a. stick to one typeface
b. stick to two typefaces
c. Use as many typefaces as possible
b. stick to two typefaces
When designing with type, you should always consider the _______ ______ of your user.
Cultural context
