About Typography
Typography is the art and technique of arranging type to make written language legible, readable, and appealing when displayed, and involves selecting typefaces, point size, line length, line-spacing (leading), letter-spacing (tracking), and adjusting the space within letters pairs (kerning). Type design is a closely related craft, sometimes considered part of typography.
Typefaces
A typeface is a set of one or more fonts, each composed of glyphs that share common design features. A glyph represent an individual letter, number, punctuation mark or other symbol. The art of designing typefaces is called type design.
Featured Font — ITC Anna
ITC Anna was little more than a gleam in the eye of designer Daniel Pelavin in the mid-1980s, when he drew a few letters for an Aramis Cologne holiday promotion. Pelavin continued to use these letters for various projects, always adding new characters.
Type Design
Type design is the art and process of designing typefaces. It remains one of the most challenging assignments in graphic design.
Programming Typography Software
A computer font is ultimately a computer program. I also like developing support software for typography.
Here are some useful links:
- FreeType is a freely available software library to render font.
- SharpFont is a library that provides .NET bindings for FreeType.
Model & Favorite Typefaces
Here I give you a pair of lists: the ones I consider to be model typefaces (classic designs, and of good quality, time proven), and also my favorites.
Models
| Class and Usage | Name |
|---|---|
| Generic Serif Book text and general high-end typographic use. |
Adobe Garamond |
| Display Serif Titling |
Trajan |
| Didone Serif | Bodoni Didot |
| Generic Sans-serif | Helvetica Myriad |
| Geometric Sans-serif | Futura Gotham |
| Display Sans-serif | Eurostile |
Favorites
- Gotham - Designed in 2000 by Tobias Frere-Jones - Geometric Sans-Serif
- ITC Anna - Designed in 1991 by Daniel Pelavin - Geometric Decorative, Art Deco
Page last modified February 26, 2024
