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Typography

Type is the means by which an idea is

written and given the visual form
Selection of the visual form can affect
readability
Arouse passions, symbolise artistic and
philosophical movements
Explains the personality of the
organization.
 History of type
Type occupies a formal role in the recording of
the history
It develops and changes over a time
Type is the means by which an idea is written
and given the visual form

1436- Johannes Guttenberg invented movable types

History of type (origin- reading directions)
 History of type
Cuneiform Tablets- (Mesopotamian Civilization 4000BC-
100BC) possessed standardized writing system using
wedge type stylus to make impressions on clay
Hieroglyphs- (Egyptian) used graphic element that
describes an action or series of actions through visual
references or clues.
 History of type- ideogram
Uses characters and symbols to represent an idea or concept
without expressing the pronunciation of a particular word.
Has one-to-one relationship between a symbol and an idea.
Separation of sign and signified is found in Chinese and
Japanese scripts

These Chinese ideogram represents four seasons: Spring,

Summer, Autumn, Winter
 History of type- Phoenician characters (Lebanon)
Developed 22 magic signs representing sounds not objects
The symbols could be coupled to form words
Has lead to the emergence of modern characters like Greek,
Hebrew, Latin
 History of type- The Greek Alphabet
Adopted from the Phoenician system (24 characters)
History of type- Cyrillic Languages

The Cyrillic alphabet has 33 letters

History of type- the Roman Alphabet
26 letter Roman Alphabet
are formed from Greek
alphabet and spread
through roman empire.
Majuscules (Upper Case)
derive directly from the
forms carved in stone by the
Romans.
This serve the basis for many
modern day type faces.
Roman is now used to
describe the basic letter
forms, principally the
minuscule (lowercase
letters).
 The modern alphabet
The modern alphabet consists of 52 uppercase &
lowercase letters with 10 numerals and a variety of
other symbols, punctuation marks etc.
Indian contribution
Modern numbers derive from Arabic characters
The numerals themselves were originated in India
Movable Types (1436)
 Baseline
The baseline is the invisible line on which
characters sit. While the baseline may differ from
typeface to typeface, it is consistent within a
typeface. Rounded letters such as "e" may extend
slightly below the baseline.
 Mean line

The mean line falls at the top of many lowercase

letters such as "e," "g" and "y." It is also at the curve
of letters like "h."
 x-height
The x-height is the distance between the meanline
and the baseline. It is referred to as the x-height
because it is the height of a lowercase "x." This
height can vary greatly between typefaces.
cap height

The cap height is the distance from the baseline to

the top of uppercase letters like "H" and "J."
ascender

The part of a character that extends

above the meanline is known as an
ascender. Note that this is the same as
extending above the x-height.
 Stem
The vertical line of a "B" and the primary diagonal line
of a "V" are known as the stem. The stem is often the
main "body" of a letter
 Bars
The horizontal lines of an "E" are known as bars.
Bars are horizontal or diagonal lines of a letter,
also known as arms, and are open on at least
one side.
 bowl
An open or closed circular line that creates an
interior space, such as in "e" and "b."
 counter
The inside of a bowl.
 leg
The bottom stroke of a letter, such as the base
of an "L" or diagonal stroke of a "K."
 shoulder

The curve at the beginning of a leg of a

character, such as in an "m.
 Stress
Many of the characteristics of types are based on the
characteristics of hand writing. The serifs follow oblique
stress pattern
Typeface
 TYPE
FAMILIE
Basic Classification
Serif
Sans Serif
Script/ Cursive
Based on Width
Condensed
Extended
Based on Weight
Ultra light
Thin
Light
Roman

TYPE
Medium
Bold
Heavy
Black FAMILIES
Serif- a slight projection finishing off a
stroke of a letter in certain typefaces
 Sans Serif
little or no variation between thick and thin strokes
lack of serifs
larger x-height
no stress in rounded strokes
 Script/cursive
Script and cursive typefaces are those
designed to literally represent handwriting or
hand lettering styles.
 Type Family- Width

Condensed fonts Tight space situations

Extended Fonts- for headlines to dramatically
filling the space
Type Family- Weight
 Point system
In typography, a point is the smallest unit of measure,
being a subdivision of the larger pica. It is commonly
abbreviated as pt.

1 of an inch
72
12 pt= 1 pica
 Leading
In typography, leading refers to the distance between
the baselines of successive lines of type

In consumer-oriented word processing software, this

concept is usually referred to as "line spacing" or
"interline spacing."
 Kerning
In typography, kerning (less commonly mortising) is the
process of adjusting the spacing between characters in
a proportional font, usually to achieve a visually pleasing
result.
Kerning adjusts the space between individual letter forms,
while tracking (letter-spacing) adjusts spacing uniformly
over a range of characters.