the really awesome student guide to type.

‘ave a flick through.

love at first type.size does matter.align them lines!

urgh. maths. really?care for the lonely.

keep on track!rock that baseline.

‘ang on a minute!

‘ang on a minute!

what the f*ck is typography?

?

Typography ain’t that complicated!It’s just the way you use type.

one last thing( and an important thing so you don’t

sound like a nob in the design world

.

a font is the bit you use to create the type. like a typewriter, digital file or a metal block.

got it?

a typeface is the bit that is designed by the typographer. The bit you look at.

)

love

<3

at

firs

t ty

pe.

it ain’t all about looks ya know.

{ {

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:

: :

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Typefaces are like people. You gotta like them for who they are as well as what they look like. Find out Where they

are from and who they are

friends with.

You also gotta do a bit of digging find out who they have

been with. b’cos that can say a lot about who they

really are!

Typefaces are like people. You gotta like them for who they are as well as what they look like. Find out Where they

are from and who they are

friends with.

You also gotta do a bit of digging find out who they have

been with. b’cos that can say a lot about who they

really are!

{ {

{ :

::

Mr Comic Sans is cast out by most cos he’s funny lookin’. i mean you wouldn’t want to meet him down a dark alley! but he has his place so use him wisely.

Mr “Perfect” I mean Mr Helvetica of course. The obvious choice for most, but is that really what you’re after? Do you want to be another helvetica lemming?

Mr Times! Good sir, one of the rather more distinguished folk. Utmost respect from you m’boy or you’ll get yourself a jolly good hiding. Tally ho!

size

mat

ters

.si

zem

atte

rs.

whats the pt?

A

point sizes are the height of the block of space that the character is placed on.

That’s why typefaces like helvetica and courier look like they ‘ave different heights when they are actually same point size.

a Aathis is the baseline what the letters sit on.

Axthe caps height is the height of all the capital letters.

the x height is the height of all the lowercase letters.

eM!the em — is the width of the capital m. this measurementis equal to the point size.

the caps and x heights are.percentages of the em.

alig

n th

em

line

s so

ldie

r!

left.left.left.

left.right.

left alignment’s when its lined up on the left.

right alignment’s. when its lined up.

on the right.

(it’s not rocket surgery!)

left is more commonly usedjust so ya know.

attention!yeah i get it.centre in the

centre.

attention!

justified is the oth-er one that is used for stuff like news-papers. it makes all the spacing weird and hyphen-ates things unless you turn it off .it usually looks a bit shite so only use it when n e c e s s a r y !

*these are called rivers. they start flowin’ when there’s too many gaps. so sort ya spacing!

*

urgh

. mat

hsre

ally

?

line lengthperfectionby numbers.

a-z x 1.5

simple as.

choose ya typeface and point size. type out the alphabet in lower case.

the length of that plus another half of it is your

line length.

6+6

406 words with 6 characters in a line.

just 40 characters!

(they’re guidelines alright!)

it all adds up!

abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzabcdefghijklm

666666 666666 666666 666666 666666 666666

4040404040404040404040404040404040404040

ish.(they’re guidelines alright!)

care

for

the

lone

ly.(:

orphansare those fellas that get left by ‘em selves at the start of their little lives. poor thing!

widows are the lonely old words that are left behind but get a bit clingy at the end of theirlives.

they make the place look untidy so either welcome ‘em into the family or send ‘em on their way. cos they ain’t stayin’ here!

keep

on t

rack

!

t r a c k i n g i s t h e o v e r a l l s p a c e b e t w e e n a l l t h e c h a r a c t e r s .

you need to get it right so you are able toread

what it sayseasily.

t r a c k i n g i s t h e o v e r a l l s p a c e b e t w e e n a l l t h e c h a r a c t e r s .

you need to get it right so you are able toread

what it sayseasily.

my pen isout!its properly important to watch the space between individual characters too.

kerning is adjusting the space between 2 characters. it is easiest to do this by turning it upside down so you look at the shapes rather than reading the words.

don’t be afraid to look a bit mental with ya book upside down!

rock

tha

tba

seli

ne.

Leading Is the space between the baseline and the top of the next line. In the olden days it was actually a bit o’ lead. now its just digital spaceage.

120%

if there is no leading it is called set solid.

computer programmes auto set the leading to

but it’s down to you as designer. to adjust these kinda things to.

what is right for the design.

all this stuff’s been about how to make your work

which ya need to know.

legible.(easy to read)

but that can get kinda boring right?

so...

now that you know the rules...‘ a v e a l o v e l y t i m e

breaking

now that you know the rules...‘ a v e a l o v e l y t i m e

breaking‘ e m a l l !

this

boo

k is

for

stu

dent

des

igne

rs

who

wan

t to

kno

w a

bit

abo

ut t

ype

but

don’

t w

ant

to t

raw

l thr

ough

lo

ads

of lo

ng b

orin

g bo

oks

i hav

e do

ne it

all

for

you

(ain

’t t

hat

nice

) and

lovi

ngly

put

it a

ll i

n th

is

hand

y li

ttle

boo

k ju

st f

or y

ou

so, ‘

av a

love

ly t

ime

gett

ing

type

rig

ht

. !.