Typography Flashcards
Concordant
Relationship between only 1 type family without much variety in size, weight ect.
Conflicting
A combination of typefaces that are similar (but not the same) in style, size, weight ect.
Contrasting
Occurs when you combine separate typefaces and elements that are clearly different
Categories of type:
Old style, modern, slab serif, sans serif, script and decorative
Characteristics of Oldstyle:
- Diagonal stress (in an O)
- lowercase serifs are always at an angle
- Bracketing (the curve when a serif meets the stem)
- thick to thin contrast
Characteristics of Modern:
- Vertical stress
- Horizontal serifs that are very thin
- Radical thick to thin contrast
Characteristics of Slab serif:
- Vertical stress
- Serifs on lowercase are horizontal/ thick slabs
- little or no thick to thin contrast
Characteristics of sans serif:
- without serifs on the end
- no thick to thin transition
- no stress
What is leading?
The default space between lines of text in a column
What is tracking?
The entire line of text expanded or condensed
What is kerning?
The space between any 2 characters
What is the Bowl?
The fully closed, rounded part of a letter. (0, g)
What is the ascender?
The final height of a letter
What is a descender?
The bottom piece of a letter
What is the cap height?
The final height of a capital letter
What is the median?
The final height of a lowercase letter
What is the baseline?
The line that all letters rest on
What font is based on simple geometric designs?
Futura
The shape of the world is sometimes recognized before the eye actually reads the word?
Coastline
What is the most popular that is recognized by simple curves with various weights?
Helvetica
What was the first typeface modelled after the artistic writing of the monks?
Black letter
When the last line of a paragraph has fewer than seven characters, what is it called?
A widow
What typeface (created by Jenson) that was inspired by ancient Roman buildings and has straight lines and regular curves?
Roman
What types of font should not be paired together?
Italic and script
When the last line of paragraph ends at the top of the next column, what is it called?
An orphan
A typeface that is best used for headings and online and works better at lager sizes?
Transitional —— check answer
What are 6 ways in which you can vary the contrast of typography?
- type
- colour
- size
- line thickness
- shapes
- space
What is a typeface that is best used for paragraph text that some believe help guide the eye especially at smaller sizes?
Serif
What is an example of en dash? And why is it that way?
October-December. A small version of a dash
What is an example of an em dash? And why is it that way?
The pies – meat and fruit – were cheap. They are a full dash
What is an example of a hyphen?
Hello –
What is proximity? Why do you use proximity? When should you use it?
- Visual unity in a design.
- Minimize visual clutter, emphasize organization and increase viewer comprehension
- items relating to each other should be grouped close together
What do you avoid with proximity?
- too many separate elements on a page
- too many relationships or relationships that don’t make sense
- sticking items in blank space
What is alignment? Why do you use it? When should you use it?
- every element in a design is visually connected to another
- it allows for cohesiveness and nothing feels out of place or disconnected
- nothing should be placed arbitrarily, every item should be visually connected
What do you avoid with alignment?
- using more than one text alignment on the page
- be creative (don’t just use centre)
What is repetition? Why do you use it? When should you use it?
- breeds cohesiveness in a design
- establish a style for each element in a design and use it on similar elements
- turn the inconspicuous repetition into a visual key that ties the publication together
What do you avoid with repetition?
-repeating too much that it becomes annoying
What is contrast? Why do you use it? What elements can cause contrast?
- unique elements in a design should stand apart for one another
- contrast & organize info, draw the reader’s eye to the page & provide focus
- colour, tone/value, size/shape, and direction
What to avoid with contrast?
make them very different otherwise you have conflict
What is a brand?
the perceived emotional corporate image as a whole
What is identity?
is the visual aspect that forms part of the overall brand
What is a logo?
identifies a business in its simplest form via the use of a mark or icon
Who designed the original colour wheel? When? How?
1666 Issac Newton. Experimenting with the nature of light
How was a colour wheel created?
slit sunlight through a prism and created a colour circle based on how the colours disperse in wedges
What is the colour wheel divided into?
primary, secondary, and tertiary
What are secondary colours?
green
purple
orange
What are tertiary colours?
Repeat the process to get tertiary colours:
- red-violet
- blue-violet
- blue-green
- yellow-green
- yellow-orange
- red-orange
What are colour relationships?
creating combinations of colours that are pretty much guaranteed to work together
What kind of colour relationships are there?
complementary
split complementary triads
analogous colours
What are complementary colours?
colours directly across from each other
- blue and orange
- red and green
What are triads?
set of three colours equidistant from each other always creates a triad of pleasing colours
What is a primary triad and a secondary?
- primary: red, yellow, blue
- secondary: orange, green, purple
What are split complementary colours?
choose a colour from one side of the wheel, finds its complement directly across the wheel, but use the colours on each side of the complement instead of the direct complement
What is an analogous?
combination of colours next to each other on the colour wheel. They share the same undertone of the same colour, creating harmony
What are monochromatic tones?
-combination composed of one hue with any number of corresponding tints and shades
What is a hue?
pure colour (base colour)
What is a shade?
add black to the hue
What is a tint?
add white to the hue
What is a tone?
add grey to the hue
What are some facts for warm colours?
- Adding more red or yellow to can warm them up
- warm colours come forward/stand out from and background
- takes very little of a warm colour to make an impact
What are facts about cool colours?
- adding more blue can cool it down
- cool colours recede into the background
- you can use more of a cool colour to make an impact or to contract effectively
What is RGB colour?
-beams or light produced by a computer, screen eat directly from the screen to your eyes
What does equal amounts of RGB? What does an absence of RGB create?
White
Black
What is the benefit to RGB?
- much wider gamut (range) of colour
- may look different in print from your screen
What is CMYK?
Cyan, magenta, yellow and key colour (black)
What does CMYK serve to do on ink paper?
CMYK serves as a filter, subtracting varying degrees of red, green and blue from white light to produce a selective gamut of colours
Review the 10 commandments of colour theory
1-10
