subject: A Guide To Typography And How To Use Them For Your Exhibition Stand Artwork [print this page] Top typography tips for graphic design Top typography tips for graphic design
1. Useful typography terms
Ascender
Descender
Ascender Height
Descender Height
Serif
Stem
Link
Loop
Ear
Shoulder
Cap Height
x Height
Baseline
2. Legibility
The most important part or factor of typography is legibility these include the following: Leading, Kerning, Measure, Alignment and Contrast. Leading should always be 1.5 times at least the size of the font. Text should align left by default but can obviously change if required. Leading should be a good reasonable size.
Contrast is also very important, if you choose the in correct colours for your artwork the headings wont stand out against the other text elements. Try to make you headings/sub headings and callouts/body text contrast and work well together.
3. Kerning
Never settle with default kerning software has built into it, always use manual
settings to get the kerning right by eye.
4. Choose your fonts carefully
Some fonts dont work well together and need to be chosen carefully, never take shortcuts when choosing fonts for your artwork piece. Students or new Designers have a struggle with making fonts work as I know from experience. Typography can make your artwork looks completely amazing or even award winning.
The fonts that are chosen are probably more important than the graphic elements in some cases. You can even just use type and enlarge specific parts to make the design stand out. Remember the principles of graphic design dont just work with graphics or Illustrations they can also be applied to type, follow the rules of design and break them this can make an award winning design. So shapes, Illustrations or graphics can be replaced by type making the artwork different and unusual.
5. Typefaces
Serif
Slab Serif
Transitional
Sans Serif
Modern
Monospaced
Script
Display
Blackletter
Stencil
Dingbat
6. Legibility on-line
Using typography online is a completely different ball game, the spacing defaults can be pretty poor so tweaks are required to get the body copy looking correct. Always use a top-margin equalling the same as the line-height (leading).
7. Using typography in print does require changes in order for the typography to look even spaced and not too cramped. The leading should not be more than a maximum of 2 point above the font size otherwise the text wont look right. Paragraphs should be left aligned unless you are making your design different or unusual.
Being consistent is vital, if your heading or headline ranges left, make sub headings and body copy the same. If your Headline has an indent, again make the body copy follow this style it all helps with keeping the style/typography consistent. Stationery such as business card, compliment slips and letterheads can all follow the same styles to make them consistent across the board. Dont make your fonts smaller then 6pt specifically on business cards, letterheads and comp slips allow 7pt smaller size.
8. Choose different fonts for your design
It can be all so easy to use the same fonts all the time, break out of your mould and try to use different fonts for your artwork. Fonts you use can be directed by your design a certain graphic or photo could lean towards a certain style. Just because you favour a particular font doesnt mean you can use this on every design.
