What is typography?

January 9, 2023

Typography definition

Typography is often a term used by designers and others working in the print and web publication industries. Typography is the art or process of printing with type, the work of setting and arranging types and of printing from them, or the general character or appearance of printed matter. Simply, typography is the design and layout of characters and words on a page.

Typography is the art or process of setting, arranging, or designing type. Typography is by far one of the most important aspects of good design. It provides context to visuals and eliminates misconceptions or miscommunications. Designers have a responsibility to insure the right typography is chosen to convey the appropriate message. This is no simple task, but an understanding of the components of typography will allow you to make great design choices.

Origins of typography

Originally, all books and other reading materials had to be written by hand. This was an extremely expensive and time consuming process. The average scribe could usually produce about 3 pages of text each day. Around 1440, Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press. A printing press was a device used for pressing inked letters onto a material such as paper or cloth.

The printing press is considered one of the greatest innovations of the previous millennium. Not only did it make printing more efficient, but it provided a way to distribute information across a much wider audience. The ability to mass produce books, short musings, and newspapers meant that people could learn more about other cultures and current events all around the world. It also increased the literacy rates of future generations.

Because books were so expensive before the printing press, only the wealthy could afford them. A few decades after the printing press became popular and widely accepted, books became significantly more affordable and available to all classes of people.

The printing press was based on one central font when it was first invented. The original font is based on Blackletter, which is similar to the font used with handwritten material. Blackletter has thick horizontal lines and thin vertical connections. It was good for handwriting and scribing but not good for printing because the words were too squished together. Roman Type was created as an attempt to solve this problem. The first Roman type was Jenson; which had straight lines and modest curves, but the most recognizable Roman font is Cambria.

Italics were the next creation in the transition to typography as we know it today. Italics were created to save space and money when printing books and long form texts. This typography style paved the way for the three category of typography styles: old style, transitional style, and modern style.

In the 18th century, William Caslon created one of the most popular typefaces in what we call the “old style” or “Antiqua” of type. Old style typefaces have very thick serifs and low contrast between the strokes. Typefaces created between about 1470 to 1600 are all considered to be old style typefaces. This style of typography was created to resemble handwritten text, but retain readability. The original Blackletter font is in this category.

The “transitional style” typefaces have thin serifs with high contrast between strokes. These typefaces were created as improvements upon the old style of typefaces. The most notable typeface of the transitional style category is Baskerville.

Baskerville was created in 1757 by John Baskerville as a direct improvement to the Caslon typeface. Some of the most identifiable character features of Baskerville are: the “A” that has a loop that rises to the top and right to join the main stem, the “E” where the bottom limb comes out further than the upper limb, the “G” which has an open bottom loop, and the “J” which has a ball terminal at the bottom. Most of the characters in Baskerville have distinct ball terminals which differs greatly from the more slanted and angular shaped characters of the old style typefaces.

Typography today

The “modern style” typefaces have very thin serifs with extreme contrast between the strokes. Modern style typefaces were created to strike or reject the old and transitional styles of typography. Typographers grew annoyed with typefaces based on handwriting, and ached for something cleaner and more contemporary.

The modern style of typography was initiated by Firmin Didot and Giambatista Bodoni. Firmin Didot was the first to create a typeface based on the characteristics of the modern style classification. Thirty years later, Giambatista Bodoni popularized the Bodoni typefaces.

As typography continued to develop, new styles and variations on the serif were created. In 1816, William Caslon IV created the first printed sans serif typefaces. A sans serif typeface does not have the small projecting features (serifs) at the end of the strokes. Sans Serif typefaces are extremely popular for printed materials as well as digital materials. Sans serifs typefaces are the most popular typefaces used for digital only content today.

Helvetica is known as the world’s favorite type face, and it’s one of the most popular sans serif typefaces. Other variations on typography include slab serifs and and geometric sans. Slab serifs were created for magazines and newspaper headers, and geometric sans are typefaces based on simple geometric shapes.

Where typography is headed

Computers have given us the power to create unique typefaces. The high resolution screens provide unlimited possibilities for what we can see and consume. Designers and other creatives have used the power of technology to share millions of typefaces and typography based concept art.

The internet has made it easier than ever to acquire information, and distribute works of art. Just like the typography of the past, future typography will be inspired by previous works. The ability to gain access to the past at an instant paves the way for an amazing and inspired future.

The different elements of typography

The words typeface and font are often used interchangeably, but they have different definitions. A typeface is a particular design of type. Typefaces are the design of a single group of fonts. For example, Ariel is a typeface. The name Ariel was given to a specific styling of type. A font is a complete set of characters that share the same typeface, size, and styling. Ariel Narrow is a font. Narrow describes the specific styling of a character set found in the Ariel typeface.

To simplify, imagine a family with parents and a child. The surname of this family is Ariel. The Ariel family members look similar, but each member of the family has a unique trait. Think of the surname Ariel as the typeface.

Within the Ariel family, you have a father which is Ariel Black, a mother which is Ariel Regular, and a child, which is Ariel Narrow. Each member of the family has their own attributes, but they all are apart of the Ariel family. The concept of typefaces and fonts can be confusing, but the differences will become more clear as the lesson continues.

Typography goes far beyond understanding typefaces versus fonts. Although there are thousands of typefaces, each having its own unique characteristics; the pioneers of typography have assigned names and terminology to the elements of typography.

Knowing the appropriate term for the anatomy of different characters is imperative to mastering typography and creating great designs. There is a term to describe every part of every character, but the most common terms used are as follows:

Baseline is the imaginary line upon which type sits.
X height is the distance between the baseline where type sits and the top of lowercase letters. Some letters such as the letter h extend beyond the x height.
Cap height is the distance between the top of a capital letter and the baseline.
Ascenders are the stem above lower case letters that extend above the x height such as the letter h. Some letters may also go past the cap height.
Descenders are the opposite of ascenders. They extend below the baseline such as in the letters g, p, and y.
Stem is the main stroke of a letter. It is usually vertical.
Tail is the descending, often decorative stroke found on letters such as lowercase y and capital q.
Serif is the small flair that extends off the edge of letters.
Counter is the inclosed space within letters such as o and g
Ear is the small extension on the lower half of the letter g
Terminal is the end of a stroke that does not contain a serif.
Aperture is the partially enclosed, somewhat rounded negative space in some characters such as the letters, c, s, n. The upper part of a double story letter a and the lower part of the lowercase letter e also contain aperture.
Bowl is the curved part of the character that encloses the circular or curved parts known as the counter of some letters such as capital and lowercase letters o, d and b.

Mastering typography takes dedication and a passion for art and great design. To understand and appreciate typography, you should spend some time reviewing the history type. It’s amazing how many advances to type design and type setting have been made over the course of history.

Typographic measurement

Measuring type is important for scale and conversion. Type is measured in pica and points. A pica is a unit used for measuring type. There are 6 pica in 1 inch. Pica are most commonly used for measuring lines of type. Originally, pica measured lines of type based on typewriters.

Pica was a typewriter type providing 10 characters to the linear inch and six lines to the vertical inch. To further measure type, there are points. A point is also a unit used to measure type. There are 72 points in 1 inch and 12 points in 1 pica. Measuring type in this way is helpful when designing digital documents that will be printed.

Knowing those units of measurement and their conversions will save a lot of time and resources. It can be very costly reprinting and resigning the same project numerous times due to inaccurate scaling.

Type can also be measured with distance and spacing. Leading is the space between each line of type. In a text editing program such as Microsoft Word, the leading could be recognized as line spacing. For example, selecting double spaced or single spaced documents. The tracking is the space between characters in a word. Tracking refers specifically to the spacing of the characters in a whole word. The kerning is the spacing between individual characters within a word.

For example, tracking refers to spacing of each character in the word “happy”. Each character is evenly spaced. The kerning would refer to the space between the “h” and the “a” only, the “a” and the “p” only, the “p” and the “p” only, or the “p” and the “y” only. The term kerning can only be applied when dealing with individual spacing between characters within a word. Although not units of measurement, glyphs are very important. A glyph is an alternate version of a character.

Many typefaces provide several versions of the same character. These versions are often stylized, or dramatized alternatives to the original character. In applications such as Adobe’s Illustrator and Adobe’s InDesign, a menu containing glyphs is provided. Within this menu, alternatives to all the characters in the selected font are listed. This can be helpful for providing a visual description of the glyphs available.

Typography Guidelines

Before diving into pairing and combining typography, it’s important to review some rules and best practices for working with type. As mentioned in the previous lesson, type serves to provided clarity and improve communication. Typography should be esthetically pleasing and complement the overall design, but clarity really is most important in the majority of designs.

A well designed poster is useless if the desired audience can’t understand the message. So, with that in mind, here are some suggestions for working with typography.

Always choose typefaces and fonts that are clear and legible.
Maintain the scaling and integrity of typefaces. Skewing, warping, or morphing type is unprofessional and unnecessary. Choose a font that meets the needs of your design. Do not stretch or squish a font to fit a certain space or design style.
Use consistency throughout your design, and limit the number of typefaces. Having too many different typefaces, fonts, sizes, colors and alignments can confuse viewers. It’s best to pick a single style and limit distractions.
Work with traditional typefaces. Anyone can create a font, but it doesn’t mean all the fonts available are high quality, reliable fonts. Using traditional fonts such as Gotham, Helvetica, and Ariel are safe choices for almost any project. Experimenting with new styles can add uniqueness to a design, but for important text that needs to be legible, its best to work with what has already been tested and proven effective.

There are hundreds of rules and tips for incorporating effective typography. The above guidelines are a starting point on your journey of mastering typography. The following image is a great example of implementing traditional type in conjunction with stylized type. The design uses effective typography to convey the idea of wilderness and nature. The design is conservative yet esthetically pleasing.

By Freepik