Typography Flashcards
What’s a font?
The delivery mechanism for letterforms.
What’s a typeface?
The design of the letterforms.
What is kerning?
Manually adjusting the individual spaces between letter pairs for legibility.
What is tracking?
Adding or subtracting white space equally amongst all characters in a word, line or paragraph.
What is leading?
The vertical distance between baselines of type. Leading is the space between the baselines
What does the term ‘x-height’ refer to?
The height of the lowercase letter.
What’s an interrobang?
A glyph used to convey incredulous disbelief, as in: WHAT (interrobang).
What’s a diacritical?
An accent applied to letterforms in languages such as French and Czech.
In letterform nomenclature, how is the bowl different from the counter?
The bowl is the completely enclosed round part of letterforms such as p, b, and r, both the positive and negative spaces, while the counter refers only to the negative space, whether it’s completely enclosed or not.
How would type nerds describe the difference between an eye and an ear?
An eye is similar to the counter but refers to the enclosed part of the letter e, and an ear is a small stroke extending off the upper part of a lowercase g.
What does the term ‘monospace’ refer to?
Each character is the same horizontal width.
When using Adobe Creative Suite typographic preferences, is it better to specify optical or metric letterspacing? Why?
Metric, because it uses the letterspacing values built into the typeface by the type designer.
In typesetting, what’s a river?
Text that has a noticeable vertical white space formed by accidentally stacked word spaces.
If you asked a typesetter what an orphan is, he/she would say that while there’s some disagreement, it usually refers to:
A paragraph opening line that appears by itself at the bottom of a page or column, separated from the rest of the text.
What is a widow?
A paragraph ending line that falls at the beginning of the following page or column, separated from the rest of the text.
What’s a pilcrow?
A paragraph symbol
What’s the difference between variable and parametric fonts?
Variable typefaces allow a single font file to have a variety of weights, widths, and other attributes while parametric fonts use defined parameters to create adjustable x-heights, stroke widths, and letter widths.
Very small text (5 points or less) needs what to make it most legible?
Additional overall letterspacing.
What are glyphs?
symbols e.g., numbers(1, 2, 3), ! @ # $ % ^ & * ( )
What is typography?
Typography is the art and technique of arranging type to make written language readable and visually appealing. It refers to anything from the size of the letters, to the way letters are displayed on a page.
What is font-family?
A group of fonts that are designed to use together.
One point equals to ____ of an inch.
1/72
What is a serif?
Serif is a styling element of characters that refers to the small embellishment finishing a stroke of a character.
What is a sans-serif?
“Sans” in French means “without”, so sans serif would be a typeface without the ornaments.
What is a slab-serif?
This refers to a specific type of serif. Slab Serif is thick and block-like.
What is a script?
Script typefaces are meant to look like handwriting.
What is blackletter?
Blackletter typeface is also known as Gothic script, Gothic minuscule, Textura and sometimes as Old English. You can recognize this style by the varying thin and thick strokes, ornamental look, swirls and serifs.
Serif typefaces evoke what kinds of emotions?
Traditional respectable, nostalgia, authority, and stability
Sans Serif typefaces evoke what kinds of emotions?
Minimalistic and straight forward
Decorative typefaces evoke what kinds of emotions?
Quirky and fun
Headline typefaces evoke what kinds of emotions?
Bold and dramatic
Handwritten typefaces evoke what kinds of emotions?
Personal and fancy
Modern typefaces evoke what kinds of emotions?
Efficient and forward-thinking
If you want to convey softness, comfort, femininity, beauty, use ____ fonts.
round fonts (also shown to be effective for domains related to sweet foods).
If you want to convey masculinity and durability that’s effective for formal and official texts and also for bitter, salty or sour food related domains, use ____ fonts.
Angular fonts.
If you want to convey softness, comfort, femininity, beauty, use ____ fonts.
Round fonts (also shown to be effective for domains related to sweet foods).
If you want to convey masculinity and durability that’s effective for formal and official texts and also for bitter, salty or sour food-related domains, use ____ fonts.
Angular fonts.
If you want to convey movement and speed, use ____ fonts.
Slanted fonts
If you want to send a message of stability and durability, use _____ fonts.
Straight
What’s more effective if you want to evoke compassion, altruism, self-expression: lowercase, or uppercase letters?
Lowercase letters. Study suggests they are the “caregiver” brands (L’Oréal, Nivea, Starbucks, and Volvo).
What’s more effective if you want to evoke discipline and focus: lowercase or uppercase letters?
Uppercase letters. Study shows that capital letters are effective for “hero” brands (BMW, Diesel, Nike, and Sony)
What feelings do condensed letters give off?
Efficiency, as they are precise and economical in space, as you can pack more information. They can also feel cramped and restrictive.
What feelings do wide typefaces give off?
They give off a relaxed feeling and are seen in a positive light.
It is common to have at least 2 fonts. So, what types of texts should have different fonts? Usually, you’ll have to choose a different font for the headings and body.
Usually, you’ll have to choose a different font for the headings and body.
If you want to become a master of using the appropriate type, it’s important that you never lose sight of
the fact that the message is still more important than the style. If the message cannot be understood due to the style being too fancy or complex, then the graphic designer has failed. The key to success in this field is to mix style with clarity.
What are the five basic principles of typography design?
- Balance that conveys a consistent structure
- Hierarchy that defines organization and direction
- Contrast to emphasize highlights
- Repetition to create consistency and familiarity
- Alignment to present a sharp and structured image
Alignment
Result of lining up letters to a reference such as a margin
Aperture
white space at the end of an open counter
Apex
The top point where two strokes are joined together
Arm
When a horizontal stroke is not attached to a stem on one end
Ascender
The stem of a lowercase letter projecting above the x-height.
Backslanted
Italics leaning backward
Ball Terminal
Ball-shape extension of a letter
Baseline
The imaginary line upon which a line of text rests
Bowl
The generally round or elliptical forms which are the basic body shape of letters such as C, G, O in the uppercase, and b, c, e, o, p in the lowercase.
Bracket
A curved connection between the stem and serif of some fonts. Not all serifs are bracketed serifs.
Calligraphy
The art of writing letters with a very specific tool
Cap Height
the height of capital letters, measured from baseline to the top of the capital letter. It is based on letters that are flat on the top and bottom, such as an H or an E. Capital letters with curves, such as B, C, D, G, O, Q, and S extended slightly above and below the cap height to appear optically similar in size to other letters.
Center aligned
when text is aligned to the center of a text frame, with the rag on the left and right sides of the text frame
Character
A letter, number, punctuation mark or symbol
Character Set
Entire collection of characters for any given typeface weight
Counter
The white space enclosed by a letterform, whether wholly enclosed, as in ‘d’ or ‘o’, or partially, as in ‘c’ or a double-story ‘a’.
Crossbar
A stroke across a stem (as in the horizontal line of the letter ‘T’, ‘H’, ‘E’, etc.)
Descender
the stem of a lowercase letter that extended below the baseline, such as the g, j, p, q, and y.
Ear
the stroke attached to the bowl of the lowercase g. Some typographers use the same term for the lowercase r.
Ellipsis
character composed of three dots.
Extended
character with an exaggerated width a character such as an accent mark
Grid
imaginary or actual layout of vertical and horizontal lines for alignment
Display
A category of typefaces that is primarily used for headlines and subheads due to their heavy weight and/or detailed nature
Hook
curved arch (such as on the letter ‘f’)
Hand-lettering
creating custom letters from scratch for a specific purpose/client.
Joint
stroke connects with a stem
Justified
instances when text is aligned to the left and right margin within a text frame, with no rag on either side
Leg
short stroke in a downward direction
Ligature
occurs where two or more letters are joined together as one character.
Link
the stroke connecting the bowl and the loop of the lowercase g.
Monospaced
an example of a typeface where each character is the same width
Orphan
a single word that appears at the beginning of a page.
Point size
the distance from the top of the highest ascender to the bottom of the lowest descender is the point size of any given typeface. Originally, this was the height of the face of the metal block on which each individual letter was cast.
Rag
the uneven vertical edge of a block of type. Could be on the left side, right side, or both.
Shoulder
curved stroke connected to a stem
Stem
A vertical stroke in a letterform. Can be found in both lowercase and uppercase letters.
Stress
diagonal or vertical change in stroke width across a letter
Stroke
any linear feature on a letter
Swash
addition of a decorative stroke
System Font
main font used by a computer operating system
Terminal
any stroke which does not terminate in a serif is a terminal. It can be either straight or curved.
Type Classification
type of characters based on style
Type properties
qualities that allow characters to fit on a grid
Typeface Design
the process of creating a complete set of characters in a specific style. This could include uppercase & lowercase characters, mathematical symbols, punctuation, numerals, etc.
Typesetting
the process of laying out large amounts of text (e.g., a book, a magazine, etc.) and making sure it’s legible and readable
Vertex
the bottom point where two strokes are joined together
Widow
one word on its own line at the end of a paragraph or a column.
What are the 3 primary measurement systems in use today for measuring type?
Two are based on printers point and 1 is based on the metric system.
- Point
- Didot
- Metric
What is an “em”?
A unit of type measurement. Derived from the width of a square body or the cast uppercase M. (Mainly used in America).
What is “en”?
A unit of type measurement of half of 1 em. (Mainly used in Europe).
1 inch equals how many picas?
6 picas
6 picas equal how many points?
72 points
72 points equal to how many inches?
1 inch
1 metric equal to how many cm?
2.54cm
1 metric equal to how many mm?
25.4mm
The metric system standard unites are based on?
millimeters
What are the 3 key components of graphic design?
- color
- Layout
- Type
Why is knowing the history of graphic design beneficial?
It will help you determine what era resonates most with you, your idea, and your design aesthetic.
When creating a logo what should you think of?
- Understand the client
- Who they really are
- What they are trying to say
with this information, designers explore colors, images, and types to best communicate the message.
