OUGD404 - Anatomy of Type

Type and Character

Type is speech made visible

• Education & reading became important - before this it was all spoken - typefaces were not important
• Transition from oral to type
• Typefaces start to translate speaking ways - bold as loud etc
• Images reinforced decisions on associating typefaces

Vocabulary

• Font
• Font family
• Typeface
• Weight
• Stroke
• Uppercase
• Lowercase
• Kerning
• Serif
• Sans Serif
• Script
• Monotype
• Black Letter
• Display
• Symbol

• Typeface - A collection of characters, letters, numbers, symbols, punctuation etc. which have the same distinct design.

• Font - The physical means used to create a typeface, be it computer code, lithographic film, metal or woodcut. Font allows you to work with all letters - European etc.

Typefaces change the way we perceive the word.

Font - equal weights
Typeface - different weights
Example of a typeface: Gill Sans - light, regular, bold, ultra-bold, italic light, italic regular, italic bold - 7 fonts, 1 typeface.

• Gothic - stripped down simple - NOT black letter

• Roman - serif font. curved serifs

• Block - Print blocks - largely used for headlines etc, big block stroke

• Script - Hand written style - sweep of a brush etc.

Might struggle to identify light, regular etc but can define gothic, block, roman and script. Block is harder - can have block gothic, block roman. The other three rely on anatomy of letter. Block is to do with weight and Stroke.

Legibility and Readability

• Counter - the negative space within the letterform either fully or partially.
• Read the counters - counter define letter

• Gothic - designed for body text
• Block - designed for large text, headings etc.
• Script - a few headings/words - display font
• Roman - serifs give more on counters - body text

Space a bold typeface to make it readable - spacing.

Legibility is the degree to which glyphs (individual characters) in text are understandable or recognisable based on appearance. Based on anatomy.

Readability is the ease which text can be read and understood. It is influenced by line length, primary and secondary leading, justification, typeset, kerning, tracking, point size etc.

• Tracking - pull along its baseline & spacing out
• Kerning - Pull together spacing

Never use more than three fonts from different typefaces in one piece of work.

Further research into type

Gothic typefaces are sans serif typefaces. They are relatively uniform in stroke weight. There are various styles of Gothic typefaces. They are also sometimes called sans serif or block letter. Gothic fonts should not be confused with Old English or blackletter typefaces.

Gothic typefaces include; Helvetica, Gill Sans, Futura. 

Roman type was modelled from a European scribal manuscript style of the 1400s. Roman and italic type are mixed, and most typefaces are composed of an upright roman style with an associated italic or oblique style. 

Roman typefaces include; Baskerville, Caslon, Garamond.

Script typefaces are ones that resemble or have aesthetic qualities of hand writing and scripted text. Script is better read at a large point size because of this. Their stroke width variate on letters in a typeface, but generally have a uniform approach.
Script typefaces include; Brush Script, Comic Sans, Lobster.

Block type was initially created in advertising, used as headings and pieces of information that needed to stand out and be noticeable. It can sometimes be referred to as Slab Serif. Block type is type that has much thicker stroke weights than others. It can contain serifs.
Block typefaces include; Impact, Freshman, Arial Black.