Compose to a Vertical Rhythm “Space in typography is like time in music. It is infinitely divisible, but a few proportional intervals can be much more useful than a limitless choice of arbitrary quantities.” So says the typographer Robert Bringhurst, and just as regular use of time provides rhythm in music, so regular use of space provides rhythm in typography, and without rhythm the listener, or the reader, becomes disorientated and lost. On the Web, vertical rhythm – the spacing and arrangement of text as the reader descends the page – is contributed to by three factors: font size, line height and margin or padding. The basic unit of vertical space is line height. Establishing a suitable line height The easiest place to begin determining a basic line height unit is with the font size of the body copy. There are many ways to size text in CSS and the above approach provides and accessible method of achieving the pixel-precision solid typography requires. Spacing between paragraphs Variations in text size Headings
Contrast through Scale « Back to Blog on Friday 19th of October 2012 Typographic contrast is a deft and powerful weapon in your design arsenal. Its presence and impact typically goes unnoticed by readers, but its absence can ruin a site. In this series of posts, Christopher Murphy of The Standardistas takes a look at a number of techniques you can use to establish harmonious contrast in your designs. A typographic scale. by CHRISTOPHER MURPHY Contrast defines hierarchy, creates emphasis, suggests the relationship and relative importance of content, and can control how quickly text is read. You can create contrast through thoughtful use of: scaleweightclassificationcasecolor. Used individually, each can be hugely effective. In this first article, I’ll focus on scale, offer some tips on setting a scale, and share some sites that I feel have used scale particularly well. What is scale? Scale refers to the range of values at which type is sized. By setting a typographic scale, you can: Newspapers are masters at this.
Setting Weights And Styles With The @font-face Declaration The Creative Way To Maximize Design Ideas With Type Advertisement As with most designers, being sure that we explore and select the most successful, memorable and stimulating designs is a vital aspect that underpins every project we undertake. For us, the beginning of a new challenge has never been as simple as asking ourselves what might be the best avenue to take and then sitting down at a computer and attempting to fulfill that idea. After researching the subject matter, we will almost always begin with a sheet of paper and pencil and draw out a variety of design options to help bring together and develop the breadth of ideas that are maturing in our minds. In this article, we will explore the use of drawing and mark-making as an integral part of the creative process. An example of mark-making that helps to formulate design ideas for working with type and image. Why Textural And Tonal Qualities Of Type Should Be Addressed In Drawing Finding The Right Marking Tools And Paper Developing Your Own Design Shorthand Useful Ressources (al)
The Great Discontent (TGD) Font kerning: 10 expert tips | Typography Kerning is the process of adjusting the spacing between letters to achieve a visually pleasing result. Some designers find it easy, others find it a tricky process where success is achieved more by luck than real judgement. But follow these tips and you should find yourself on the right track... 01. Choose your typeface early on Each typeface requires its own kerning and specific adjustments and attention to detail. 02. The main focus of kerning is usually the spacing between characters, but don't forget the spacing between words as well. 03. Remember that some letters that don’t kern as well as others within a word. 04. You may hear other designers talk about 'tracking' and assume it's the same thing as kerning. 05. Like mastering any technique, the best and most effective way to improve your kerning skills is through practice. 06. 07. Another useful exercise for kerning is to turn the typeface upside-down. 08. 09. 10. Words: Meryem Meg and Brian Hoff Like this?
75 top typography tutorials The web is brimming with typography tutorials, but many are low quality and others are very out of date. So we’ve trawled the internet to uncover the diamonds in the rough, in the form of 50 top-quality typography tutorials, to bring your knowledge and skills up to speed. Get Creative Cloud Perhaps you’re looking for a good introduction to the fundamentals of typography? Or perhaps you want to develop and push your type abilities further? We’ll be adding to this list as time moves on, so make sure you bookmark this fantastic resource, and come back from time to time to see what’s new in the world of typography tutorials. We'll start by looking at tutorials to help you with mastering the fundamentals of typography – skip through to another page if you're after something more advanced. 01. Not sure exactly what typography terms mean? Six further terms (tracking, widows and orphans, serif fonts, sans-serif fonts and script & cursive fonts) are explained in part two, which you can watch here.
Understanding The Difference Between Type And Lettering Make use of grids for typographical layouts. Good typography skills are essential for any graphic designer - and those of us who work with text every day know how difficult it can be at times. A well-planned grid is key to creating a good typographical layout, as having a strong foundation to work with is a great way to keep a text-heavy document looking clean, consistent and easy to navigate. InDesign has some great features to make this process simple, enabling you to achieve some impressive results with minimal time and effort. As designers, we're always experimenting and pushing the boundaries of design, at times creating very complicated layouts. Click here to download the tutorial for free
How to Use Icon Fonts in Your Website Icon fonts are quickly becoming a web design trend and there is a good reason for that. Creating icons with icon fonts gives designers the ability to manipulate the icons with CSS. The days of creating two different icon images for rollovers or effects are long gone. Aside from giving designers and developers more control, icon fonts also offer many features that bitmap image icons simply do not. Here is a demonstration of how icon fonts look scaled up compared to bitmap icons. As you can see, the bitmap icons get pixelated while the vector font icons scale up fine and look as sharp and precise as they did in a smaller size. One other advantage we get with icon fonts is load time. So let’s go over how to implement icon fonts in your website. Step 1: Load The Font via @font-face This is the same process as loading any other font using the @font-face method. Step 2: Create CSS Rules That Apply to Every Icon Explanation for each of these CSS properties and their values This is the fun part.
Adobe® Edge Web Fonts Choosing web fonts: 15 expert tips | Web design Over the last few years, the possibilities for using type on the web have expanded enormously. In the bad old days of the web, designers were restricted to a few 'web safe' fonts, which meant everything looked pretty much the same, or using images to replace the type – a clunky solution that caused problems for the reader and technical problems in the browser. Nowadays, though, you can access an astonishing array of professional typefaces for use on your sites, bringing the aesthetics of print design to the web. Since around 2010, widespread support of @font-face in all the major browsers, plus a new web open font format, WOFF, has led to a technical revolution and the rise of a number of web font hosting services. These companies allow users to pay a subscription to host an enormous range of web fonts on their website. Tim Brown is the type manager at Typekit. 01. 02. 03. The web may move at lightning speed, but quality typesetting requires lots of patience. 04. 05. 06. 07. 08. 09.
Plugin Try FontShop fonts in Adobe® Creative Suite® The free FontShop Plugin lets you preview any of our 150,000+ fonts, in the context of your own artwork in Adobe® Photoshop®, Adobe® Illustrator®, Adobe® InDesign®, or Adobe® Fireworks® (CS5, CS5.5 and CS6). This is a great new way to find the perfect typographic fit for your project. Features: Supports Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign & Fireworks Preview fonts in your document Search by name, designer or foundry Collect and tag favorite fonts Watch the introductory video and read on for details on how to download, install and use the FontShop Plugin. Free Download This is the beta version. Installation First download the latest version of the plugin. Double-click on the downloaded file to install the extension using the CS5, CS5.5 or CS6 Adobe Extension Manager (AEM). That’s it! Note: Windows Users, if double-clicking does not work, you may need to right-click on the downloaded file and then choose “Run as Admin”. Getting Started Finding Fonts
Sans Serif Fonts: Most Popular Typefaces, Best for Webfonts As San Serif typefaces have only been around for about 100 years, it is necessary for designers or enthusiasts to have an understanding how it all came about. Based on known historical accounts, officially, modern sans serif has been created on 1816 by William Caslon IV at the English Type foundry. The English Egyptian Typeface is designed only in capital letters in 28 points. Then came; Akzidenz Grotesk created in Berlin at the German Berthold type foundry. Why grotesk / grotesque? When the first typefaces of this sort came about in the 1830, people first considered them as blatantly grotesque and due to their controversial appeal; they are a rarity in texts and other printed forms with an exception of advertising. Why sans Serif? The main appeal of Sans Serif would not be understood until the early 20th century. German influences It seems the prevalence of sans serif, from the Akzidenz Grotesk would not push through without the Bauhaus ideology which began and evolved in Germany. Futura