is the art and technique of arranging type in order to make language visible. Text is composed to create a readable, coherent, and visually satisfying whole.
30
votes
6answers
1k views
What are best practices for choosing and pairing fonts?
I've always found font selection to be a little bit of a mystery. What factors should be considered when choosing a font? How does one successfully incorporate two fonts into a design?
I realize that ...
16
votes
6answers
14k views
What font types are good for a technical document?
What are some good fonts to use for a highly technical document? Is there any specific type that should be used/avoided?
15
votes
2answers
5k views
Difference between kerning vs letter spacing?
What is the difference between kerning vs. letter spacing?
8
votes
5answers
5k views
Visually similar alternatives to Helvetica?
I'd like to use something similar-but-different for my poster project.
I've already ruled out:
Arial
Avant Garde/Futura - too geometric
Frutiger - too humanist
/'friendly'
I guess I'm looking for ...
13
votes
3answers
338 views
Does hyphenation increase legibility?
All I could find on the subject was this paper, which is pretty interesting in itself. But it only deals with preference. 57% of the test subject prefers hyphenated text.
This is kind of surprising ...
5
votes
5answers
229 views
How do I create a solid line of uniform thickness inside of a letterform in Illustrator?
I've seen all sorts of headlines and ads that use this style a solid color section of type has a solid uniform line of a different color running through the exact middle of each letter. I've done all ...
3
votes
2answers
2k views
what is the largest glyph width in Arial?
Im designing a DIV container that will contain some rows of text.
Every row can contain 0 to 35 chars.
I need to specify a fixed width for the div, but I cannot predict how "wide" the string can be.
...
17
votes
6answers
1k views
“Serifs improve fast, easy readability for long text” - myth or truth?
It's an old question, but an important one. Let's see if we can get a good, nuanced, ideally evidence-based answer.
So, old-school wisdom (certainly, how I was taught back in the day) says that serif ...
12
votes
4answers
542 views
Baseline Grid vs. Readability
Any designer worth their salt will talk about the importance of the grid, and rightfully so. However, as I've continued to practice my trade, I've found that the baseline grid in particular doesn't ...
11
votes
2answers
996 views
Optimum line height in relation to font size
Is there an agreement on the optimum mathematical proportion of line height and the size of a text? And if there is, is it the same for print and web?
8
votes
3answers
130 views
The role of the designer in content – should he have one and how big should it be?
I'm a designer, not a marketer, and not a writer (at least not professionally). A lot of the work I do involves working with material in a field that can be above my head. Because of that, I'm content ...
8
votes
4answers
435 views
Writing text with character variations
I am looking for alternatives to hand-lettering a Comic. One attractive alternative would be building a custom font. (I'll be asking about details on that in a separate question.)
However, I would ...
6
votes
3answers
182 views
Do you have a “formula” for the webfont vs graphic type threshold?
Disclaimer:
I realize there is not a perfect "formula" for this question. I'm looking for your experiential working practices. If you don't have any, I won't hold it against you.
Over the last ...
4
votes
3answers
4k views
Is there a way to sort fonts inside Photoshop, as “serif,” “sans-serif,” “script,” etc.?
In my years as a graphic designer (and now web designer and developer,) I've acquired a great number of fonts; inasmuch as backing them up was a responsibility paramount attendant upon formatting my ...
15
votes
1answer
163 views
What's the term used when the first word of one page is repeated at the end of the previous page?
There's a common feature in old typography where the first word of a page is repeated at the end of the previous page, usually right-aligned on a line by itself. This book from 1759 shows this ...
10
votes
4answers
736 views
Do discretionary ligatures hold any other purpose than visual?
Discretionary ligatures are non-standard ligatures such as:
st and ct in Atlantica LF font
Are they purely visual or is there any other reasoning to back it up? Psychological? Letter-press related? ...
9
votes
2answers
671 views
Why all the hate? --Two spaces after the period
The nuns enforced it with a ruler: two spaces after a period at the end of a sentence. I, along with many others do this instinctively. Why is this considered incorrect/improper in printed materials ...
8
votes
2answers
203 views
What are the best practices and techniques to fix rags?
What would be the best practices to fix the rags on a left aligned text for print.
Besides breaking lines and hyphenations, should you use tracking, and if so how much.
Also, how would you judged a ...
7
votes
3answers
362 views
Readability and appeal of justified text
If I write a document that I have to hand in to somebody (a report, summary, draft, whatever) I usually justify the text because it seems more appealing (at least to me) if it all finishes at the same ...
5
votes
3answers
1k views
Different Logo Colors for Different Uses, Appropriate?
I am finalizing the last step of my logo redesign process.
Is it ok not to have a regular color when presenting my logo?
I am thinking about having a defined list of colors for different use cases ...
4
votes
2answers
879 views
Footnote/Endnote references before or after punctuation? (comma, full stop/period, semi-colon…)
Simple question: what's the convention (or, if there's disagreement, guiding principles) for where to place reference, footnote and endnote numbers that apply to a clause leading up to a punctuation ...
3
votes
3answers
1k views
Popular serif and sans-serif browser compatible font combinations?
I was curious as to which combinations of serif and sans-serif fonts are preferable to use that are compatible with most browsers.
While I am aware that with the introduction of CSS3 importing ...
2
votes
1answer
78 views
Are light type face versions simply thinner than the roman (regular) ones?
I am taking a regular version of a typeface I love and making a light version of it, and I'm wondering:
Is the light version just an inset of the regular version?
Are there any special ...
9
votes
1answer
197 views
What's the practical difference between a 'glyph' and a 'character'?
I saw this question on the Typography site proposal and it bugged me that I didn't know the answer. I'd always treated 'glyph' and 'character' as interchangable.
After reading an explanation on the ...
7
votes
2answers
998 views
Examples of good academic poster design
Do you have any good examples of academic poster design? Most posters look exactly the same (I don't want to pick on anyone in particular), and from my experience at conferences, almost nobody reads ...
4
votes
1answer
149 views
Hyphenation on many line breaks
Sometimes, word processors screw up hyphenation by hyphenating a series of consecutive lines. This just happened to me in a spectacular way:
What's most annoying in the above case is ...
3
votes
2answers
1k views
Highlighting text in Adobe InDesign
I want to have inline code snippets in my InDesign document. Similar to how StackExchange does it, like this. So the gray background is perfect. Basically I just want to highlight certain text. ...
2
votes
1answer
55 views
Footnote/Endnote reference characters before or after an ellipsis?
I was checking guidance on where to put footnote or endnote reference characters relative to punctuation and found a really clear answer for everything except an ellipsis.
It's pretty unlikely and ...
1
vote
1answer
152 views
Vector pasting in wrong spot / Font Lab and Illustrator
I built out some shapes to test out a font icon idea.
I drew them in Illustrator. I set my art-board to pt at 1000 x 1000.
I filled the objects and moved the ruler so that 0 was the baseline.
From ...
1
vote
2answers
536 views
Will text laid out on an image in Photoshop, when printed look pixelated? Or sharp enough?
The title really says it all. I want to design a poster for my home. But here's my question, if I lay out the text in photoshop, save it and then print it - will the text look pixelated? Or sharp ...
0
votes
2answers
91 views
Should I be concerned about optimal font size for a particular font
I am aware that certain fonts, are designed for use at certain sizes,
at least in the physical print world.
They make uses of things like Ink Traps to prevent running.
With type for the digital ...
