Type is more than a means of visual communication: it serves the dual purpose of form and function. It is a graphic composed of design elements such as line, shape, and size, while simultaneously a readable element that contains communicable information. The meaning of this message can be enhanced through the use of type, ultimately translating or transforming it. The typeface selected in addition to its size, leading, kerning, tracking, colour, and shape of the text block can all influence how the information is perceived and interpreted by a reader.

However, typography should also be invisible—content always trumps form. To that end, listed below is a series of tips and tricks that serve to keep a reader’s focus on the message instead of the type itself. If you have something to add or have any questions, please send me an email.

Guidelines to choosing the perfect typeface

Typography is an art not a science, so choosing the best typeface is a matter of personal taste but depends on what they’re being used for. As designers your bear a two responsibilities: first, don’t hinder the reading process but instead aid it; and second, respect the typefaces employed. And since selecting type is not exact, what follows is a set of guiding principles rather than rules.

Sans or Serif?
This is a large, complex issue that has been and will be continue to be debated for many, many years. Ultimately, when setting extended text, it’s up to you to decide whether to use a sans or serif typeface. However, bear in mind that we read most easily that which are most familiar with. Most of us learned to read using books set in serif, but if you feel the job would be better served using a sans-serif, do so.

Honour Content
Anything that stands in the way of the reading process is wrong. Any inventiveness must be tempered by the communication process. Before undertaking any typographic process, ask yourself these four questions:
1. How can I best expose the meaning of the textual information?
2. How can I make the reading seem easy?
3. How can I make understanding effortless?
4. How can I present this type so it will be perceived as “reader-friendly”?

The answer to all of these is to make your type look good enough to read. This is accomplished through font choice, hierarchy, placement of information on the page, size, contract, etc. If you make your information hard to find and difficult to read, chances are people won’t bother to read it at all.

Read It
Reading the text to be set will not only help you decide which typeface(s) to use but also in the overall design of the page.

Audience and Canvas
Select and set type appropriate to your audience. For example, if your audience is retirement-aged, don’t set your type too small, and depending on the project, stick to a serif. Generally, if your audience is more upscale, use smaller type; larger type for more downscale audiences. If your message is loud, use a sans-serif; serif for quiet. If your layout is busy, use narrow columns; wider columns for quiet layouts. Again, these are generalities that may not be appropriate for every job.

Also consider the page itself. For example, if you have small margins, select a lighter type, but ample margins may benefit from a heavier typeface.

Does it Look Right?
Test, test, test. If your text’s final destination is paper, print it out and see. What looks good on screen may look terrible on paper. If you’re setting type for the screen, check it on both Mac and PC at different resolutions.

And if you’re still unsure, ask others. Many of the decisions you make about selecting your type and layout are subjective and often a second opinion is very helpful (and you don’t always have to ask another designer). They will see things that you have become blind to as well as help determine if your layout is readable.

Four rules to combing typefaces

With thousands, upon thousands of typefaces to choose from, successfully combining typefaces is a daunting task. Fortunately, there are four basic rules to combining typefaces.

1. The family comes first
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 (light, demi, regular, bold, extra bold, condensed, etc.) provide a range of versatility for headers, sub-heads, and body copy. And since all these variations are from the same family, you know there will be no stylistic clashes. Super families (such as ITC Stone) offer different sub-families (serif, sans, humanistic, informal) that each can have their own weights and/or italic versions. Each sub-family stands on its own but can also be successfully combined with the others to provide typographic variety as they share simi liar cap heights, x-heights, stem weights, and general proportions.

2. Embrace diversity
While working with one big family is good, using very different typeface designs is usually better. Combining distinctly different typeface designs can create a more obvious hierarchy and 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.

The least risky contrast is to combine a serif with a sans serif (Venire with Bembo, Slate with Dante, or Franklin Gothic with Cartier Book, for example. When combining two serif designs, it’s best to choose very different appearing typefaces, such as the old style ITC Weidermann with the modern ITC Fenice, or a transitional like Baskerville with a glyphic like Friz Quadrata. Combining two sans serif designs is more challenging because most are similar in design and therefore lack strong typographic contrasts. If combining two sans serifs, choose only vastly different styles and weights (such as the 19th-century Franklin Gothic with the geometric Avenir).

3. Combine similar proportions
When combining different typefaces, they should have similar proportions: lowercase x-heights should be close to the same size, ascender and descend ers ought to be about the same length, and the generally width of the characters should be similar. Combining typefaces with dissimilar proportions can disrupt the typographic color of your copy by making the line spacing appear uneven and the text copy mottled, which is distracting to the reader and can disrupt the horizontal motion across the page.

4. Limit combinations
Don’t use a typeface if you don’t need to: there’s a thin line between typographic variety and font clutter. While one typeface is rarely en ought, four is almost always too many. Each typeface should provide a definite and specific purpose within the context of the piece you are designing. Different typefaces can provide emphasis and guidance to the reader.

The devil is in the details…

Only a single space after all punctuation, be it period, comma, or semi colon.
No double paragraph returns—ever. Use the paragraph spacing options found in the Paragraph palette of InDesign.
Use proper en and em dashes—never double hyphens. En dashes are used to mark ranges of number, such as time or dates (e.g. 1940–45) and em dashes represent a break in a sentence.
No primes (also called tick marks) in place of curly quotes or apostrophes. Primes are used to denote feet ('), inches ("), minutes ('), and seconds (").
No widows and orphans. Also watch for bad breaks (or as I call them, half-widows) at the end of columns, such as the first half of hyphenated word or the first word of a sentence.
Bullets don’t always have to be round. They can be diamonds, arrows, or what works best with the text being set. And remember to watch the default indent for bullets—there’s often too much space between the bullet and its associated text.
Hang your punctuation.
Use italics where appropriate: book and periodical titles, names of works of art (including musical compositions), films, plays, albums (but not song titles), and television shows. Italics can also be used for emphasis, but that is up to the discretion of the author.
Watch your hyphens. Don’t have hyphens at the end of sequential lines (stacked hyphens) and don’t have too many hyphenated lines per paragraph. For example, if you have an eight-line paragraph, and four of them end in a hyphen, that’s too many. Try to get it down to two.
Manually kern type (letter by letter) in type set larger than 24 points.
Watch the default paragraph indent—it’s often too deep. The indent should be no shallower than a capital M of the typeface you’re using, and no deeper than two M’s.
Avoid using bold text in body copy. It obstructs the flow by adding calling attention to itself, distracting the eye.
Watch phrasing in titles and headings—break where it makes sense.
Don’t track text either too loosely or too tight. It’s difficult to read both ways.
Drop caps should be at least three lines deep (or other odd number) and align with the baseline of the last row of the cap. The top should optically align with the cap height of the first line.

I am going to nag you about your rag.

Good rag is more of an art than a science. There are no hard and fast rules to setting rag—it comes with practice and experimentation—but bad rag is disruptive to the eye. Use a combination of hyphenation, forced returns, and tracking to avoid unsightly gaps and horns. If you opt for justified text as a way to avoid rag, you’re still not off the hook. In this scenario, stacked hyphenation becomes an issue. Use the same techniques as right rag in order to have as few hyphens as possible.

It often takes multiple attempts to get a paragraph just right, so remember to leave enough time to do your rag. But keep it up—the more you do it, the better you’ll get.

And remember, the computer is just a tool.

You’re the designer. Don’t blithely accept your software’s defaults—if it doesn’t look right, tweak it until it does.

That’s All Folks...

We’re Done!

Your font creation assignments are ready for pick up in the Agency, as well as any others you haven’t retrieved. If have neglected to pick up past assignments, I’ve bundled them together. At least they were—I can’t guarantee they’ll stay that way.

Your font application assignments will be ready for pick up after 6:30 p.m. on April 30th. Your marks have already been posted.

Have a great summer!