OUGD404: An Introduction to Type 2

A quick look into the anatomy of type and the anatomical features common to glyphs and letterforms as well as the common terminology used in judging the height and size of a typeface.

Ascender: Upwards vertical stem on some lowercase letters. The stem extending above the x-height is the ascender.

Aperture: The opening of a counter to the exterior of a glyph

Bowl: The urged part os the characters that encloses the white space

Base Line: The imaginary line on which fonts/typefaces rest

Cap Height: The height from the baseline to the top of uppercase letters

Counter: Enclosed or partially enclosed circular or curved negative space of some letters e.g. d, o and g

Cross Bar: The usually horizontal stroke across the middle of uppercase H or A

Descender: Any part in a lower case letter that drops below the baseline

Ear: Decorative flourish typically found on a lower case g- upper right of the bowl

Tail: Descending decorative stroke on the uppercase letter Q or the curved diagonal on K or R

X-height: Height of lower case letters (with disregard to ascenders or descenders) The relationship of the x-height to body defines the type size. Type with a large x-height looks much bigger than type with a small x-height, even at the same size. 

Point Size

Fonts are measured in point size, usually determined by the x-height through design. How we get a fonts point size is by gaining a pica measurement. 

 1 point = 1⁄72 inches = 25.4⁄72 mm = 0.3527 mm

12 points = 1 pica

Type face and Type Families

Many people would class Times New Roman as a font, however a font only refers to the production of a typeface: there are four categories. However 'Times New Roman' is actually one typeface from a whole type family, so what's the difference?

TYPEFACE

The letters, numbers, and symbols that make up a design of type. A typeface is often part of a type family of coordinated designs. The individual typefaces are named after the family and are also specified with a designation, such as italic, bold or condensed.


TYPE FAMILY

Type family the collection of faces that were designed together and intended to be used together. For example, the Garamond font family consists of roman and italic styles, as well as regular, semibold, and bold weights. Each of the style and weight combinations is called a face.

OUGD404: Legibility and Readabilty

Legibility and Readability, what's the difference?

Legibility 

How easy it is to distinguish one glyph/letter from another Legibility describes the design of a typeface. How legible a typeface is designed to be depends on its purpose. Legible typefaces usually have larger closed or open inner spaces (counters). They generally have a larger x-height, though not too large. Things that affect the legibility of a letter form include the kerning, leading, tracking, the counter size, and the origin of the font (Gothic, Script, Block, Roman).

Readability 

How easy words, phrases, and blocks of text can be read. Readability describes how a typeface is used on the page. Good typography (more readable) encourages a desire to read the copy and reduces the effort required to read and comprehend the type. The reader shouldn’t even notice the type. She should simply understand the words. Things that can affect readability include typeface choices, the distance at which something is read/the size of the type, as well as kerning, tracking and leading. 

During the session we compared the legibility and readability of fonts from the four type categories; roman, gothic, block and script, all reading the same message: the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. We also went on to consider which context they'd be most suited in. 

My four fonts were:

Roman: Baskerville
Gothic: Century Gothic
Block: Britannica Bold
Script: Bello Script

When discussing the legibility of these fonts I found my most legible and readable font was Baskerville in lowercase, and my most difficult to read was the Uppercase Bello Script. When comparing the results with my other class mates we discovered that on a whole that the most legible and readable fonts were the gothic and the roman and the hardest to read were the block and script fonts.

Upon further discussion it was suggested that roman and gothic fonts were more suited in the context of body text and that script and block were the more decorative fonts- better suited for headers or signs, something where the intention is to catch the eye rather than pure communication. 

TASK
We then cut up our sentences and arranged them in such an order that they should be read in the correct order by what catches you eye first. 

To extend this exercise we were then asked to arrange the layout and size of the fonts in squares so that the sentence read in the correct order by what caught your eye first. 

OUGD404: An Introduction to Type

Type basics and beginnings including the origins of type and categorising type through characteristics. The categories of type include production (relating to origin, see below) anatomy (stem width, x-height, serif or san serif etc) identity (what, where and when it was used) and character (e.g. decorative, simple, tall, childish, elegant, masculine etc.)

Stone 
Created using stone, chisel and hammer, the key characteristic of this type is it's serifs, produced from where the chisel had to work it's way into the stone.

Sable 
Originates from China and Japan with brush script, brush, ink and paper were used for the process. Characteristics include joined-up writing and tapered strokes.

Bone 
Using ink and paper like with sable but instead of a brush to apply it instead a nib is used. Although sable and bone share many traits (joint writing, hand written look) the stiffness of a nib in place of a brush gives a different quality to the strokes. They're thinner, more controlled and have a harsher feel on the eye and the page.

Wood

The origins of printed text and type, wood is characterised by it's flat apexes and edges and it's chunky, yet even width stems. Type would've been carved out of wood blocks and then rolled over with ink and pressed, due to the intensity of this repeated process many letters would become damaged or broken, wood type looks like it does because these are the most enduring shapes under stress of constant printing.

Lead

Lead type was the next generation of printed text, with letter forms being cast instead of carved, the possibilities for creation and reproduction became even greater than that of wood block. The durability of lead type proved much larger than that of wood block and the type could last much longer than it's predecessor during the printing process. A mix of casting type and the durability of the letters meant that glyphs with thinner stems with serif details were able to be produced and last. 

Silicone

Silicone type is the newest category and covers all digitally produced type. Software, programmes and the ability to save, alter and undo mistakes with ease means that silicone type is the most adventurous. The physical letterform only needs to exist on screen or printed paper and so how to print individual glyphs becomes less of a problem. Silicone type has many different examples but usually pushes on being decorative rather than functional .

FOR NEXT SESSION

OUGD404: 7 Colour Contrasts

Colour Contrasts

Today we were introduced to the seven colour contrasts used in colour theory. Despite the contrasts being seven individual contrasts they exist to work together and build upon each other and wouldn't stand alone. Contrast of tone determines how light or dark something is, Hue determines the colour, saturation determines how bright that colour is etc. Without the previously set contrasts in place the next one couldn't function (e.g. you can't have saturation of colour without colour) and so when it comes to contrasts in colour, there is always more than one and often grouped under simultaneous contrast.

Contrast of Tone: How light or dark something is, works in monochrome. 

Contrast of Hue: What colour something is/where it is on the colour wheel

Contrast of Saturation: How vibrant/bright the colour is 

Contrast of Extension: The proportion of one colour to another

Contrast of Temperature: Hot and cold colours

Complimentary Contrast: Contrasts colours/colour wheel opposites

Simultaneous Contrast: Multiple Contrasts happening at once.

TASK

Taking what we now know about colour contrasts we would compare a coloured item and how it's contrasts changed when introduced to another colour/s. 

Green Paper

Due to red and green being opposites on the colour wheel it's clear that a complimentary contrast was occurring, due to the extreme difference in colour we can also say there's a contrast go hue. The red also brings out a bluish tint to the green where as the green transforms the red into looking 'pinker'. Due to green being considered a cold colour and red a hot one, we could also argue there is a contrast of temperature.

Orange and green are still rather opposite on the colour wheel, but not directly, this creates a contrast of extension, as well as a contrast of temperature (orange=warm, green=cool). The orange, like with the red manages to draw out a blue tinge from the green scarp of paper. We could also argue with all these contrasts that a contrast of extension is present for all, proportionately the green is always lesser than it's background colour.

Green on yellow seems to be the only colour that make's the green's saturation appear greener, in a very subtle way i would argue there is a contrast of temperature but rather on the extreme scale of red=boiling and blue=freezing yellow equals warm and green, cool. There is also a contrast in Hue (despite this being true of all colour comparisons that have a different colour, for the green and the yellow it is subtler, the two sit very closely on a colour wheel)

Not only do we see a contrast of tone, the green of the background being considerable darker but also a contrast of saturation, the background green is far more vibrant and saturated than the green on the scrap of paper. We can also see a contrast of extension, the only reason the scarp of paper looks so washed out is because of the amount of darker toned green surrounding it.

Here we can see a contrast of hue, the lightened tone of the green paper manages to further darken the tone of the blue when introduced to it, the green however becomes very yellow when swarmed by blue, almost changes hue entirely.

Blue Pen

The red is an extremely hot colour the blue a cold one, we see a very high contrast in temperature between these two. We also see, due to the darkened tone of the blue pen a slight lift in tone for the red, it becomes slightly less vibrant than it was before and a touch more pink.

Blue and orange opposites and complimentary contrasts, the blue of the pen desaturates the orange paper and the orange paper in turn darkens the tone of the pen rather greatly. 

Blue is cold, yellow is warm, here we a see a contrast a temperature as well as a contrast of extension (the pen takes up about 9% of the total space). The blue manages to darken the yellow and gives the whole piece of paper a green tint.

Here we see a contrast of hue, between the green and the blue and the tone, the background is a slot lighter than the pen. It appears that the only coloured paper thus far not to darken the ton elf the pen however is the green, which actually makes the colour appear ever so slightly more vibrant. 

The two types of blue display a contrast in saturation, extension and a contrast in tone, the blue paper's influence of the pen lightens the tone and brightens the colour whereas the pen desaturates the paper and fades the blue greatly (further exaggerated by the contrast of extension and the proportion of the pen to the paper)

OUGD404: Type Journal

Wired Magazine

In this months issue of WIRED I found a few examples of type that proved particularly appealing. The Fetish section uses a very minimalist san serif typeface with all glyph in uppercase. The clean minimal design gives the type a modern feel that works well with the sections high tech content, and when used in this context, this seemingly characterless san serif becomes very futuristic. 

The decorative type used in the 100 of 2014 section is very fun, playful and looks three dimensional, like it's just slightly jutting out of the page. It certainly works in context of header or title type with it's tall wide stems. Despite the actual weight of the line in this type it manages to not become over dominating on the eye thanks to the white lined interior leaving space for blocks of colour or white stock to shine through. 

OUGD404: Type Journal

Colours May Vary: 'I Like it. What is it?' Book and Framed Print

I Like it what is it? It's bold, tall and high impact and perfect for grabbing attention. Each letter is symmetrical and feels sturdy on a page, the flat apex and even width, thick stems suggests it's a block font in origin and despite it's simplicity it has a very loud and page controlling character (perfect for headers or titles, definitely not suitable for body copy). It feels masculine with it's tall squarish shape and has a distinct look about it with the varying crossbar height, on the A the crossbar is lower making that glyph particularly eye-catching.

Ping, Ratatat, Twack, Kapow, all display block characteristics (thick even stems, flattened apex's/corners, bold dan serif) but retain different characters an details. Ping's san serif, incredibly heavy weighted font is a block font, it's dramatically wide glyphs make it appear very heavy and sturdy on a page and the large pt. size gives a sense that the word is being shouted at you. Ratatat is also san serif but thinner and a lot friendlier, it's rounded stem ends give the typeface a bubbly look, as if each letter would bounce if dropped from a height. Thwack feels very comic book, tall, san serif with uneven/irregular stem widths (adding a hand rendered dynamic) and an angular cross bar on the H. Kapow reminds me of football type with it's sawn off corners on each stem and an blocky look to it's glyphs, it gives the typeface a masculine quality which is added to by the line weight and the tall cap height of each glyph.