Table of Contents

Pg. 4-5

Ch. 5 Intro

Pg. 12

Rule No. 6

Pg. 6

Rule No. 1

Pg. 13

Rule No. 7

Pg. 7

Rule No. 2

Pg. 14-15

Rule No. 8

Pg. 8-9

Rule No. 3

Pg. 16

Rule No. 9

Pg. 10

Rule No. 4

Pg. 17

Rule No. 10

Pg. 11

Rule No. 5

Pg. 18

Designers Bio

typographic rules 1-10

ver the centuries, typographic guidelines have been developed to provide consistency and competency within the profession, to preserve the beauty and legibility of typographic form, and to ensure that typographic functions as often mandated: to clearly represent the thoughts of the author. The guidelines presented in this chapter are not absolute or definitive, but they are representatives of a sturdy time-tested collection of typographic rules. They are presented here to provide a context for informed typographic exploration. In other words, rules must first be understood before they can be broken. Once it is known how to obey rules, one can freely venture into unconventional terrain. For some readers, these pages offer a welcome review. For those new to the fascinating but confusing world of typography, they provide a critical foundation for informed and responsible practice.

The division pages located at the beginning of each chapter constitute both typographical experiments and purposeful rule applications. Eric Brandt comments: Letterforms are the architectural elements of our being-toward-reality. As such they can be treated as syntactic and semantic vehicles. These pages are simple attempts to isolate and experiment. They are intended as quiet moments to consider: How much experimentation is actually necessary? I urge that simplicity achieves both maximum clarity and maximum entropy.

Obeying The Rules

Credit and disclaimer for source material: All body text and images are provided from a variety of sources, both printed and on line. Text and images are used solely for educational design concept purposes and are not intended for publication or distribution.

Obeying The Rules

Obeying The Rules

Typographic Rule

No.1
Legibility is primarily the concern of the typeface designer, to ensure that each individual character or glyph is unambiguous and distinguishable from all other characters in the font. It is also in part the concern of the typographer to select a typeface with appropriate clarity of design for the intended use at the intended size. If you want the most legible and readable, tried and true typefaces for text, choose classic serif fonts. Some examples are: Baskerville, Bodoni, Garamond, and Sabon. Many of these classic fonts have been around for centuries and are versatile and reliable standards; designed with consistency among characters and are proportioned well for readability. Benjamin Franklin chose the font Caslon for the first printing of the American Declaration of Independence. Fonts based on the typefaces of William Caslon are good, readable choices for text. W The crisp, clean, uncluttered lines of classic sans serif fonts are perennial favorites that designers turn to again and again. Some examples are: Futura, Helvetica, Gill Sans, Frutiger and Universe. Within each grouping are many varieties and renditions, some more suitable than others for body copy. The introduction of Helvetica Neue brought some order to the

For optimum legibility, choose classical, timetested typefaces with a proven track record.

Be mindful not to use too many different typefaces at any one time.

Typographic Rule

No.2
Right Wrong

Well-seasoned typographic designers can usually count their favorite typefaces in one hand. Most often, they are drawn and crafted with consistency among characters, and those that exhibit highly legible proportions.

The primary purpose for using more than one typeface is to create emphasis or to separate one part of the text from another. When too many typefaces are used, the page becomes a three ring circus, and the reader is unable to determine what is and not important.

Right

chaos with more design consistency among the various weights that had developed throughout the 60s and 70s. Helvetica works well for many applications from body text to billboards. Frankin Gothic is a popular choice for newspaper work, the various weights give this sans serif font great versatility and the condensed versions maintain high legibility in tight spaces. So what makes a typeface legible? A longstanding typographic maxim is that the most legible typefaces are transparent to the readerthat is, they dont call undue attention to themselves. Additionally, the most legible typefaces contain big features and have restrained design characteristics. While this may seem like a typographic oxymoron, its not. Big features refers to things such as large, open counters, ample lowercase x-heights, and character shapes that are obvious and easy to recognize. The most legible typefaces are also restrained. They are not excessively light or bold, weight changes within character strokes are subtle, and serifs, if the face has them, do not call attention to themselves.

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The ability to successfully combine typefaces is clearly a valuable design skill. But with over 100,000 fonts to choose from, the task can seem daunting. The good news is that there are four basic rules for combining different typeface designs. Follow these and you are well on your way to successful typographic mixology. The safest and easiest way to take advantage of multiple typeface designs is to rely on a single, large type family for your choices. The various weights and proportions within the family provide a range of versatility. Since all the designs are from the same family, you are also guaranteed that there will be no stylistic clashes. Even the simplest type family of roman, italic and bold can provide reasonable type mixing capabilities. For most projects, however, a large family of several weightseach with italic counterpartswill provide more flexibility. Larger type families provide more latitude of choice. So if one weight is not quite right, youll probably be able to find one that is. Some type families also have condensed designs that can be put to good use in headlines and subheads or where space is at a premium. While working in-family is good, using very different typeface designs is

usually better. Combining distinctively different typeface designs can create a more obvious hierarchy and generate higher levels of visual interest. The typographic Golden Rule for combining fonts from unrelated families is simple: the more dissimilar the type designs, the better the mix. Counterpoint is a stronger typographic tool and easier to use than harmony. The least risky out of family contrast is combining a serif with a sans serif typeface. Select virtually any sans serif design, combine it with just about any serif font and youre just one step over the line from absolute conservatism. Combine Avenir with Bembo, Slate with Dante or Franklin Gothic with Cartier Book, and you almost cant go wrong. One thing to keep in mind: A little diversity helps here also. Serif and sans serif typefaces that have similar design roots like Goudy Sans and Tiepolo, which are both based on calligraphic forms, can be combined, but the result may not be as successful as two designs with strong visual contrasts.

Type Example Good amount. THIS IS TOO MUCH

Type Example This is legible. This not as much.

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Rule Applications The role of typographic experimentation is to extend the boundaries of language by freely probing visual and verbal syntax and the relationships between word and image. Syntactic exploration enables designers to discover among typographic media an enormous potential to edify, entertain, and surprise. The role of typographic experimentation is to extend the boundaries of language by freely probing visual and verbal syntax and the relationships between word and image. Syntactic exploration

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Rule Applications The role of typographic experimentation is to extend the boundaries of language by freely probing visual and verbal syntax and the relationships between word and image. Syntactic exploration enables designers to discover among typographic media an enormous potential to edify, entertain, and surprise. The role of typographic experimentation is to extend the boundaries of language by freely probing visual and verbal syntax and the relationships between word and image. Syntactic exploration enables designers to discover among typographic media

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Obeying The Rules

Typographic Rule

No.3
If the reason for combining typefaces is to create emphasis, it is important to avoid ambiguity caused by combining types that are too similar in appearance. When this occurs, it usually looks like a mistake, because not enough contrast exists between the typefaces.

Avoid combining typefaces that are too similar in appearance.

As a general rule of thumb, theres a very little need in using more than two typefaces or type families in a design. However, this rule can be broken depending on the project. First of all, what is the point of using different typefaces in design? The obvious answer is to differentiate certain elements of design. A typical page can consist of more than one element such as plain body text, headlines, subheads, sidenotes, captions, numbers. If a design doesnt have much text then using more than one typeface may look too garish. On the other hand, if a design has lots of content with various elements that need to be projected differently, then more than two typefaces may be used to achieve the right effect. With the variety of typefaces available, there are hundredsprobably thousandsof potentially good combinations. Combining just sans serif designs, however, becomes more challenging. The problem with combining two sans serif typefaces is that most are similar in designespecially to average readers. Strong typographic contrasts typically dont create problems, but when typefaces from different families that are similar in design

are combined, design imbalance is often the result. The casual reader may not even notice that the typefaces are different, but will probably be aware of a subtle, discordant undertone within the design (think navy socks paired with black shoes). Almost all publications will contain headlines and body copy, or at least subordinate textual information. Commonly youll need or want to use different typefaces for the various levels of information in the publication. There are several possible outcomes when you combine typefaces in a publicationthey may complement one another, contrast with one another, or conflict with one another. The first two are usually good, but the last one is usually bad. Avoid using two or more similar typefaces on a page. Selecting fonts that are not different enough can cause conflict. For example, its usually a poor idea to use two script typefaces on a single page, or a script and an italic, or two different slab serifs, or two different old faces, etc..

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Type Example This seems intentional. Arial & Helvetica?!

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Rule Applications The role of typographic experimentation is to extend the boundaries of language by freely probing visual and verbal syntax and the relationships between word and image. Syntactic exploration enables designers to discover among typographic media an enormous potential to edify, entertain, and surprise. The role of typographic experimentation is to extend the boundaries of language by freely probing visual and verbal syntax and the relationships between word and image. Syntactic exploration enables designers to discover among typographic media an enormous potential to edify, entertain, and surprise.

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Obeying The Rules

Obeying The Rules

Typographic Rule

No.4
In alphabets with a case distinction, capitals are used for capitalization, acronyms, supposed better legibility (see ascender), and emphasis (in some languages). Capital letters were sometimes used for typographical emphasis in text made on a typewriter. However, long spans of Latinalphabet text in all upper-case are harder to read because of the absence of the ascenders and descenders found in lower-case letters, which can aid recognition. With the advent of modern computer editing technology and the Internet, emphasis is usually indicated by use of a single word Capital, italic, or bold font, similar to what has long been common practice in print. In typesetting, when an acronym or initialism requires a string of upper-case letters, it is frequently set in small capitals, to avoid overemphasizing the word in mostly lower-case running text. In electronic communications, it is often considered very poor netiquette to type in all capitals, because it can be harder to read and because it is seen as tantamount to shouting. Indeed, this is the oft-used name for the practice. Capitalization is the writing of a word with its first letter in uppercase and the remaining letters in lowercase. Capitalization rules vary by language and are often quite com-

Text set in all capital letters severely retards reading. Use upper-case and lowercase letters for optimum readability.

For text type, use sizes that according to legibility studies prove most readable.

Typographic Rule

No.5
Right Wrong

Lower-case letters provide the most necessary visual clues to make text most readable. This is due to the presence ascenders, descenders and the varied patterns of lower-case letters. Using both lower-case and upper-case letters is the most normative means for setting text type, and a convention to which readers are the most accustomed. Upper-case letters can successfully be used for display type, however. Right plex, but in most modern languages that have capitalization, the first word of every sentence is capitalized, as are all proper nouns. Some languages, such as German, capitalize the first letter of all nouns; this was previously common in English as well. Lower case letters are designed to make text most readable. The presence of ascenders, descenders and the internal patterns between the letters make this the case. Using all capital letters severely affects readability however they can be successfully used in display type. The normal convention is to use both upper and lower case letters as this is what readers are most accustomed to. One designer said that when using all capitals in the text, there are no ascenders or descenders. One designer said that when using all capitals in the text, there are no ascenders or descenders. The two are what makes it easy to identify the shape of a word. The shape of almost every word becomes a rectangle, and its harder to read. But this doesnt also mean that you cannot use capital letters. Where can you use capital letters? Short phrases or headings do look attractive in all caps. Sans serif also works better in all caps.

These sizes generally range from from 8 to 12 points (and all sizes in between) for text that is read from an average of 12 to 14 inches. However, it is important to be aware of the fact that typefaces of the same size may actually appear different in size depending upon the x-height of the letters (the distance between the baseline and the meanline). The point system is the standard unit of measurement for type. It originated centuries ago, when points referred to the size of the metal body that accommodated each character. Since each size of a typeface had to be cut individually, point size was determined by the distance from the height of the tallest ascender to the tip of the longest descender, plus a wee bit more. The point system is still used today, although in digital type the original determining factors (ascenders and descenders) are not strictly adhered to. In print, 72 points equals about an inch. Does it then follow that all fonts set in 72 point look alike in size? Absolutely not! Heres why: the actual appearance of a typeface at a particular size varies with the size of its ascenders, descenders and x-height. Therefore, a design with a tall x-height and/or short ascenders and descenders will usually look larger than one with opposite traits. Because point size doesnt tell you everything about how big a particular typeface will actually look, select type size optically. That is, let your eye guide you, not the numerical value of the font. Repeat the optical decision-making process every time you change typefaces, whether its for subheads, captions, lengthy quoted passages, or another reason. This is especially important in text sizes, where readability is strongly determined by point size. Use a size suitable for your audience. Ideal text type size ranges from 9-12 point depending on the x-height. Remember older people may need a larger point size to read. Very long lines disrupt reading. When the eyes get tired, they are no longer able to find the beginning of the next line of type. An ideal line length can be estimated by doubling the point size. For instance, 12 point type should have a line length of 24 picas (or four inches). Generally, shorter lines should be used for typefaces with small x-heights and thick/thin designs, and also bold and italic fonts. Usually a serif typeface can tolerate a longer line than a sans serif. Body text is set anywhere from 9-12 points. When you print text, it is usually larger than what it looked like on the screen. So, print out your text before finalizing your layout. Type studies will help you determine the proper size before you proceed with your layout.

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Type Example

10pt is always good.

Itd be a miracle if you could read this

Type Example
Uppercase and lowercase are BFFs

TURN OFF YOUR CAPSLOCK

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Rule Applications The role of typographic experimentation is to extend the boundaries of language by freely probing visual and verbal syntax and the relationships between word and image. Syntactic exploration enables designers to discover among typographic media an enormous potential to edify, entertain, and surprise. THE ROLE OF TYPOGRAPHIC EXPERIMENTATION IS TO EXTEND THE BOUNDARIES OF LANGAUGE BY FREELY PROBING VISUAL AND VERBAL SYNTAX AND THE RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN WORD AND IMAGE.

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The role of typographic experimentation is to extend the boundaries of language by freely probing visual and verbal syntax and the relationships between word and image. Syntactic exploration enables designers to disThe role of typographic experimentation is to extend the boundaries of language by freely probing visual and verbal syntax and the relationships between word and image. Syntactic exploration enables designers to discover among typographic media an enormous potential to edify, entertain, and surprise.

Rule Applications

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Obeying The Rules

Obeying The Rules

Typographic Rule

No.6
The weight of type refers to the thickness of the characters strokes. Many typefaces will come in at least three weights. Common ones are: Light, Book, Regular, Medium, Bold, Extra Bold. Type sizes are described in points. This goes back to the days when typesetting was done by printers, and printing was done by letterpress (pressing a sheet of paper against metal type to get an image on the sheet). Small blocks of lead with raised characters were arranged in trays, and the size of the block (not the character), measured with a pica ruler (12 points to one pica), described the size of that font. Thats one reason why a 12 point typeface may appear smaller or larger than another 12 point typeface. The weight of a particular font is the thickness of the character outlines relative to their height. The base weight differs among typefaces; that means one normal font may appear bolder than some other normal font. For example fonts intended to be used in posters are often quite bold by default while fonts for long runs of text are rather light. Therefore weight designations in font names may differ in regard to the actual absolute stroke weight or density of glyphs in the font. Most typefaces contain bold and bold

Avoid using too many type sizes and weights at the same time.

Use text types of book weight. Avoid typefaces appearing too heavy or too light.

Typographic Rule

No.7
Right Wrong

You only need to use as many different sizes and weights as needed to establish a clear hierarchy among parts of information. Josef MullerBrockmann advocates using no more than two sizes, one for display titles and one for text type. Restraint in the number of sizes used leads to functional and attractive pages. Right italic typestyles which are much heavier in stroke weight than the Roman. Many typefaces for office, Web and non-professional use come with just a normal and a bold weight. A typeface may come in fonts of many weights, from ultra-light to extra-bold or black; four to six weights are not unusual, and a few typefaces have as many as a dozen. Some typefaces include typestyles with character widths which are narrower than roman, called condensed, and wider, called extended. These typestyles generally include accompanying weight variations. Most typefaces contain bold and bold italic typestyles which are much heavier in stroke weight than the Roman. Many typefaces offer a broader range of weights in addition to Roman, including light and medium (or book) and in addition to bold, including semibold (or demibold), extrabold (or heavy), and black.

The weight of a typefaces is determined by the thickness of the letter strokes. Text typefaces that are too light cannot easily be distinguished from their backgrounds. In typefaces that are too heavy, counterforms diminish in size, making them less legible. Book weights strike a happy medium, and are ideal for text. With multiple master typefaces, the concept of a typeface family is redefined. A typical contemporary typeface family contains only three or four different weights. Multiple master typefaces with a weight axis make it possible for users to generate additional weight variations to suit specific needs. If the designer thinks that an existing typeface with a weight axis would benefit from the addition of an optical size axis, the appropriate point size range for the design must be determined. For example, the range may vary from about 6 to 18 points if the design is intended solely for text use, 24 to 72 points for display setting, or perhaps a complete range from 6 to 72 points if the design is appropriate for both text and display use. Then the designer must create small and large size master designs for both the light and bold weights. Numerous weight classes exist, including the general classes with which you may already be familiar: regular, bold, and light. Regular is the average weight class, simple and unadorned. Bold is heavier and slightly wider than regular typeface and is used to emphasize text. Light typeface is slender, and as its name implies, lighter than regular typeface. It also has a subtler impact than regular or bold forms and can help achieve a minimalistic look. The weight of a typefaces is determined by the thickness of the letter strokes. Text typefaces that are too light cannot easily be distinguished from their backgrounds. In typefaces that are too heavy, counterforms diminish in size, making them less legible. Book weights strike a happy medium, and are ideal for text.Type weight influences the way faces appear. Well designed typefaces already have visual qualities that make them readable. Dont distort the type just because a design program gives you the capability to. When type is artificially distorted, again it has an amateurish feel. Weight is the amount of vertical thickness in the characters of a font. It is the ratio between the height of the letter and the thickness of the stroke. As the stroke becomes thicker, the letter appears heavier. Weights go from ultra light/ thin to light to semi-light to book to normal to medium to semi-bold to bold to heavy to black to ultra-black. The weight determines the relationship between the black of the letterform and the light or white space that surrounds it.

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Type Example

Type Example

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Rule Applications The role of typographic experimentation is to extend the boundaries of language by freely probing visual and verbal syntax and the relationships between word and image. Syntactic exploration enables designers to discover among typographic media an enormous potential to edify, entertain, and surprise. experimentation is to of language by freely probing visual and verbal syntax and the relationships between word and image. Syntactic exploration enables designers to discover among typographic media an enorextend the boundaries

Right

Rule Applications The role of typographic experimentation is to extend the boundaries of language by freely probing visual and verbal syntax and the relationships between word and image. Syntactic exploration enables designers to discover among typographic media an enormous potential to edify, entertain, and surprise.
The role of typographic experimentation is to extend the boundaries of lan-

The role of typographic

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guage by freely probing visual and verbal syntax and the relationships between word and image. Syntactic exploration enables designers to discover among typographic media an enormous potential to edify, entertain, and surprise.

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Obeying The Rules

Typographic Rule

No.8
Distorting text to make letters wider or narrower by stretching or squeezing them with a computer impedes the reading process. The proportions of such letters are no longer familiar to us. Well designed type families include condensed and extended faces that fall within accepted proportional norms.

Use typefaces of medium width. Avoid typefaces that appear extremely wide or narrow in width.

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Typefaces can have a variety of widths. The two most common type widths, which are somewhat self explanatory, are condensed and expanded. A condensed, or compressed, form has a tighter letterform width than the standard version, and an expanded, or extended, typeface is wider than the standard version. There are several classifications of typefaces. Firstly, there are fixed width fonts, and variable width fonts. The fixed width fonts look like typewriter text, because each character is the same width. This quality is desirable for something like a text editor or a computer console, but not desirable for the body text of a long document. The other class is variable width. Most of the fonts you will use are variable width, though fixed width can be useful also (*for example, shell commands in a document). The most well known fixed width font is courier. Letters are identified by their physical characteristics like bars, stems, curves, loops and so on. The clearer they are the legible they are to read. As they get compressed or expanded, they get distorted and makes them harder to identify. Lowercase characters height are commonly attached to its x-height.

Characters with larger the x-height are more denser or crowded in appearance. But what we want medium; so consider the x-height carefully. Remarkably tall or short x-height characters are better suited for specialty projects. The best text faces have stroke weights that vary somewhat, which make converging lines that help the eye flow smoothly. But avoid extremes. Modern styles vary too much; at high resolution their beautiful, superthin strokes disappear in a dazzle. Sleek geometric styles vary little or not at all, so are too uniform. The organization of typefaces by weight and width may be one of Modernisms great gifts to typography, but the expectation that fonts should cohere to some prefabricated schedule of styles is one of its greatest fallacies. Demanding that every typeface march to the drumbeat of roman, italic, bold, bold italic is an arbitrary imposition on a naturally diverse world; in other professions, this kind of universalist thinking gives us brutalist worker housing, or prairies planted with monocultures. Knockout defies the Modernist canon, in order to reclaim one of typographys great natural wildernesses: the American sans serif.

Type Example This typeface has good proportions.

Are you calling me fat? Wrong Right

Rule Applications The role of typographic experimentation is to extend the boundaries of language by freely probing visual and verbal syntax and the relationships between word and image. Syntactic exploration enables designers to discover among typographic media an enormous potential to edify, entertain, and surprise.
The role of typographic is to ex-

experimentation

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tend the boundaries of language by freely probing visual and verbal syntax and

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Obeying The Rules

Obeying The Rules

Typographic Rule

No.9
In typography, letter-spacing, also called tracking, refers to the amount of space between a group of letters to affect density in a line or block of text. Letter-spacing can be confused with kerning. Letter-spacing refers to the overall spacing of a word or block of text affecting its overall density and texture. Kerning is a term applied specifically to the adjustment of spacing of two particular characters to correct visually uneven spacing. Letter-spacing adjustments are frequently used in news design. The speed with which pages must be built on deadline does not usually leave time to rewrite paragraphs that end in split words or that create orphans or widows. Letter-spacing is increased or decreased by modest (usually unnoticeable) amounts to fix these unattractive situations. Even though typefaces are designed with optimum readability in mind, sometimes you need extra help for those letters that dont sit well together, such as lower case f and l. Historically these appear too close and special ligatures were created for these, but you can also use a small amount of kerning to add space and get the letters to sit right. The same applies to capital letters at the beginning of a sentence which sometimes appear disjointed from its neighbor-

For text type, use consistent letter and word spacing to produce an even, uninterrupted texture.

Use appropriate line lengths. Lines that are too short or too long disrupt the reading process.

Typographic Rule

No.10
Right Wrong

Letters should flow gracefully and naturally into words, and words into lines. This means that word spacing should increase proportionally as letter spacing increases.

When lines of type are either too long or too short, the reading process becomes tedious and wearisome. As the eye travels along overly long lines, negotiating the next line becomes difficult. Reading overly short lines creates choppy eye movements that tire and annoy the reader. ing letter. Use appropriate line spacing too, dont just rely on the automatic settings in a program. The general rule I like to use is for any size up to 12 point use 1 extra point of leading, and anything over that use 2 extra points. The amount of letter-spacing in text can affect legibility. Tight letter-spacing, particularly in small text sizes can diminish legibility. The addition of minimal letter-spacing can often increase the legibility, and readability. Added whitespace around the characters allows the individual characters to emerge and be recognized more quickly. (However, addition of space to the point that individual letters become isolated rather than simply easily identifiable destroys legibility and readability. Words are often identified by their shape as well as by the individual letters.) As reading with phonetic writing systems is based in part on word shape recognition, part on context, and with unfamiliar words, on phonetic pronunciation, recognition of individual characters can be aided by slightly increased letter-spacing. In typography line length is the width occupied by a block of typeset text, measured in inches, picas and points. A block of text or paragraph has a maximum line length that fits a determined design. Line length is determined by typographic parameters based on a formal grid and template with several goals in mind; balance and function for fit and readability with a sensitivity to aesthetic style in typography. Typographers adjust line length to aid legibility or copy fit. Text can be flush left and ragged right, flush right and ragged left, or justified where all lines are of equal length. In a ragged right setting line lengths vary to create a ragged right edge of lines varying in length. Sometimes this can be visually satisfying. For justified and ragged right settings typographers can adjust line length to avoid unwanted hyphens, rivers of white space, and orphaned words/characters at the end of lines (eg: The, I, He, We). Line length is pretty much what it says on the tin. It is the maximum length of a single line of text before the next word in a sentence wraps onto the next line underneath. This is correctly referred to as the measure of a paragraph which seems to be a dying phrase. The eyes and brain can only stay focused on a line of text for so long before fatigue kicks in and the reader loses position which destroys the reading process. Some typographers once came up with an optimum line length of an alphabet and a half, or about 39-45 letters. This is obviously far too prescriptive a rule to maintain but it does serve as a yard stick when evaluating a paragraph or column of text for good readability. The ideal line length for text layout is based on the physiology of the human eye... At normal reading distance the arc of the visual field is only a few inches - about the width of a welldesigned column of text, or about 12 words per line. Research shows that reading slows and retention rates fall as line length begins to exceed the ideal width, because the reader then needs to use the muscles of the eye and neck to track from the end of one line to the beginning of the next line. If the eye must traverse great distances on the page, the reader is easily lost and must hunt for the beginning of the next line. Quantitative studies show that moderate line lengths significantly increase the legibility of text.

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Type Example Good measure for a title. THIS IS NARROW

Type Example Good kerning. B ad kerning.

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Rule Applications The role of typographic experimentation is to extend the boundaries of language by freely probing visual and verbal syntax and the relationships between word and image. Syntactic exploration enables designers to discover among typographic media an enormous potential to edify, entertain, and surprise. The role of t y pographic experime ntation is to extend the boundaries of langu age by freely pro bing visual and verbal syntax and the relationships between word and image. Syntactic exploration enables designers to discover among typographic media an

Right

Rule Applications The role of typographic experimentation is to extend the boundaries of language by freely probing visual and verbal syntax and the relationships between word and image. Syntactic exploration enables designers to discover among typographic media an enormous potential to edify, entertain, and surprise. The role of typographic experimentation is to extend the boundaries of language by freely probing visual and verbal

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My name is Robert Lieu and I am a senior and a graph-

Designer Bio

ic design student at Cal State Fullerton. Im a Chinese-Vietnamese American, and my parents were born in Vietnam; they immigrated to the US after the end of the Vietnam War. At the moment I live in the dorms on campus, however I plan to move to an apartment after this semester. I come from Irvine, California and I originally wanted to be a graphic designer because I enjoyed playing with Photoshop since the age of 12. As I aged and matured, my reasoning for being a graphic designer evolved to the idea of problem solving via 2D design. My first design job involved helping my parents wedding gown design business; I helped designed posters and maintained the website. My second design job was at the Mihaylo Business College as a graphic design assistant; it consisted of designing flyers, brochures, website elements, and even animated gif ads. My hobbies include TV (Breaking Bad, Mad Men, Firefly, etc.); relaxing with friends, playing video games, sketching, and coming up with ideas by observing my surroundings. I am also very into technology; I enjoy reading about features on new phones, electronics, etc. I have my own desktop computer which I built myself.

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A concise review of the tractional rules of typography provide a departure point for personal typographic investigations. Hundreds of vivid full color examples showcase the use of color and type. Clear and concise presentation of basic color and type design principles. Easy-to-follow guidelines provide a foundation for making creative and legible type solutions. Dozens of case studies reveal how prominent graphic designers combine type & elements. A morphology (collection of experimental possibilities) offers a method for typographic experimentation. Profiles from prominent designers include published work with thorough explanations, as well as personal studies specifically for this book. Examples throughout the book are discussed in detail; revealing both methods and rationale.