A Guide to Typography

You spend so much time reading the words, but do you think about how they look? The way words look on the page or on the screen can be just as important as the content itself.

A Brief History

The history of typography dates back to around 1850-1600 BC, where the first complete text comprising of identical characters was that of the Phaistos Disc, a print item originating from the island of Crete. Around the mid-15th Century, modern movable type and the printing press were born in Europe as invented by German goldsmith Johannes Gutenberg, and the lead-based alloy he used for type pieces is still in use today as it is excellently suited for printing. By 1500, the printing phenomenon became so significant that at least 10 million copies of 3,500 different works were printed and sold throughout Europe.

Today, the concept of typography has certainly grown even more broad, used in calligraphy, advertising, posters, graffiti, typesetting and labels, among many others.

So, How Does It Work?

Typography involves making language visible to the audience by selecting typefaces, line length, line spacing (leading), point size, spacing between groups of letters (tracking) and spacing between pairs of letters (kerning), as well as putting type into motion through TV, film and online content to emote words to viewers.

Those involved in the process of typography include typographers, graphic designers, art directors, artists, typesetters and even those working in more clerical settings. Now with the advent of technology, typography is inspiring even the most amateur of artists and designers.

According to Professional Reports, there are four main ways to make typography look presentable yet effective:

• Repetition: Being consistent with colours, lines and fonts throughout your design
• Contrast: Drawing attention to your design by using opposing colours, lines or fonts, for example using black text on a white background
• Proximity: Deciphering between what elements of a typographic design work and what doesn't. The ones that do are grouped together while those that do not are kept separate, for example, putting a heading and subheading next to one another, but colours that don't complement one another are not used together in the same design.
• Alignment: This promotes unity in a design, with a left or right alignment giving a stronger line on the edges than a centre alignment, which tends to look cleaner and more refined.

Any Tips to Remember?

Want to create a beautiful typeface of your own? Here's a few tips to help get you started:

• Use a single space after all punctuation: With the advent of digital type, characters are now designed to allow only a single space after all punctuation.
• Use bold text where appropriate: Would you like it if your whole document were typed out like this? Leave bold text for headings and subheadings so as not to distract the reader.
• Avoid underlining text: With the introduction of computer technology and different typefaces to choose from, there's no need to have to underline your type in order for it to stand out on the page.
• Use caps sparingly: Using all caps LIKE THIS in typography are seldom used, especially when it comes to using decorative and script fonts, and can make typeface look illegible to read.
• Using the ellipsis character: Use the ellipsis symbol on your computer when designing your work, which appears closer together than using three separate periods together in your type.
• Body text size: The average document uses 9-12 point size text, but be sure to print out a copy of your work first as printed text comes out bigger than what you seen on the screen.
• Using Sans Serif fonts: These work well for headlines and to set text either vertically or horizontally, while fonts like Gill Sans, Times New Roman and Calibri work well for bodies of text.
• Using quotation marks: Don’t forget to place all punctuation within quotation marks and avoid using feet and inch marks (like this: “”).
• Don’t repeat the same word over three consecutive lines: Lines are automatically broken up according to a certain number of variables, so avoid repeating the same word at the beginning of each line in the text, which makes your work look repetitive and makes type look sloppy and out of place.
• Edit your work carefully, of course: Ensure your work is clean and correct by spellchecking and printing out a copy of your work, because what you see on the monitor is not necessarily as it seems on the page! Assume nothing.