THINKING WITH TYPE

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THINKING WITH TYPE
ellen lupton
a critical guide for designers, writers,
editors, students

• Julie Doherty
• Organizational Media Production

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What is typography?

• The organization of letters on a blank page or
  screen
• Designers are constantly asking
• What kind of font to use?
• How big?
• How should page elements be manipulated?
• A mode of interpretation
• An interface to the alphabet
• The purpose of typography is enhancing the
  readability of the written word
• To help readers avoid reading

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SECTION I. LETTER
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Humanism and the body

• Words originated as gestures of the body
• The first typefaces were modeled after
  calligraphy
• Many fonts used today are named for early 15th
  century printers
• Garamond
• Bembo
• Palatino
• Italic letters were modeled on casual handwriting
• Upright scripts appeared in expensively produced
  books
• Cursive form saved money by saving space

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Monster fonts

• Industrialization, mass consumption and
  advertising demanded new kinds of typography
• Big, bold faces were designed
• Fonts of large height, width, and depth appeared
• Typefaces were expanded, contracted, shadowed,
  and fattened

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Type and program

• In the mid-1980s, coarse-resolution fonts were
  developed for desktop and screen printers
• By the early 1990s and beyond, high-resolution
  printers and the Internet introduced pixel-based
  fonts

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Type as narrative

• Designers decided to create fonts using physical
  processes instead of digital design tools
• Template Gothic was based on letters drawn with a
  plastic stencil
• Dead History was created by manipulating vectors
  of readymade fonts
• Beowulf was the first typeface with randomized
  outlines

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Back to work

• General purpose fonts were developed to
  comfortably accommodate broad bodies of text
• Mrs Eaves became one of the most popular
  typefaces of its time
• The Quadraat family has expanded to include
  sans-serif forms in numerous weights and styles

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Anatomy

• Letters are built like people

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Size

• Typography can be measured in inches,
  millimeters, or pixels

• Most software programs let the designer choose a
  preferred unit of measure
• Picas and points are standard
  defaults
• 12 points 1 pica
• 6 picas (72 points) 1 inch

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Classification

• Classifying typefaces was devised in the 19th
  century
• Humanist letterforms are closely connected to
  calligraphy and the movement of hand
• Transitional and Modern typefaces are more
  abstract
• There are also typeface families such as
• Roman fonts
• Italic fonts
• small caps
• Bold typefaces

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Logotypes

• Logotypes use typography or lettering to depict
  the name of an organization in a memorable way

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Bitmap fonts

• Bitmap fonts are built out of pixels that
  structure a screen display
• The pixels do not melt away as the letters get
  bigger
• Pixels fonts are widely used in both print and
  digital media

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SECTION II. TEXT
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Text

• In typography, text is defined as an ongoing
  sequence of words, distinct from shorter
  headlines or captions
• The main block is known as the body or running
  text
• Designers provide ways to break up text into
  pieces
• Indents
• Highlighted links

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Errors and ownership

• Before the invention of printing, handwritten
  documents were riddled with errors
• Printing with moveable type was the first system
  of mass production
• It replaced the hand-copied manuscript
• Digital tools have dissolved manuscript originals
• Electronic redlining
• On-line texts

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Spacing

• Designers are concerned with the negative gaps
  between and around the letterforms
• Spaces were introduced after the invention of the
  Greek alphabet
• It made words intelligible as distinct units
• Tryreadingtextwithoutspacingtoseehowimportantithas
  become
• The alphabet represents sound
• It cannot function without silent marks and spaces

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Kerning

• Adjusting the spacing between two characters
• If letters are spaced uniformly, gaps occur
• Especially in letters whose forms angle outward
  or frame an open space (W, Y, V, T, L)

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Tracking

• Adjusting the overall space between letters
• Also known as letterspacing
• It is common practice to letterspace CAPITALS and
  small capitals which appear more regal when
  standing apart

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Line spacing

• The distance from the baseline of one line of
  type to another
• Also known as leading
• The default setting in most layout and imaging
  programs is slightly greater than the cap height
  of the letters

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Alignment

• The arrangement of text into columns with hard or
  soft edges
• Each alignment style brings aesthetic qualities
  and potential hazards to the design of page or
  screen

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SECTION III. GRID
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Grid

• A grid breaks space or time into regular units
• Typographic grids are all about control
• They establish a system for arranging content
  within the space of page, screen, or built
  environment
• Typography is an art of framing
• Designers focus on margins, edges, and empty
  spaces

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The golden section

• A ratio that has been used in Western art and
  architecture for more than two thousand years
• a b b (ab)
• Side a is to side b as side b is to the sum of
  both sides
• Some designers use the golden section to create
  various grids and page formats

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Single-column grid

• The simplest grid consists of a single column of
  text surrounded by margins
• Single-column grids work well for simple documents

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Multi-column grid

• Multi-column grids provide flexible formats for
  publications that
• Have a complex hierarchy
• Integrate text and illustrations
• The more columns the more flexible the grid
  becomes

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Modular grid

• A modular grid has consistent horizontal
  divisions from top to bottom, in addition to
  vertical divisions from left to right
• The modules govern placement and cropping of
  pictures and text

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Book rating

• I learned a lot of designer tips and tricks of
  and relating to typography
• The essays were easy to understand and provided a
  solid background of how typography came to be
  where it is today
• There were many graphic examples that
  demonstrated the key points
• On a 5-star rating scale, I would give this book
  a 4

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Intended audience

• Anyone who regularly and enthusiastically
  commits acts of visual communication will find
  something to use and enjoy in this book.
• A great book for those learning or brushing up on
  their typographic skills
• A good read for a design student
• A good refresher for a design expert
• Some might be interested in the essays, which
  look at the cultural frameworks of typography
  while others will enjoy perusing through the
  typographic layouts

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References

• Lupton, E. (2004). Thinking with type a critical
  guide for designers, writers, editors,
  students. New York, New York Princeton
  Architectural Press.
• Lupton, E. (2005, October 13). Thinking with
  type. Retrieved September 29, 2007, from
  http//www.thinkingwithtype.com