Shopping on line can be easy, simple and save you lots of money. It can also take a lot of your time, frustrate you, and result in unwanted purchases. Now the same can be said for regular high street shopping, but with the vast opportunity presented by the Internet it will pay you to spend a few minutes reading this and understanding how to better optimize your Typography shopping experience:

1. Compare - without doubt the biggest advantage that the Typography offers shoppers today is the ability to compare thousands of Typography at a time. This is a great thing, but not necessarily all the time! Too much can be daunting at times so take advantage of the great comparison sites and where possible let them do the hard work for you.

2. Research - if it has been said it will be on the internet. Ignorance is no longer a justifiable reason for buying the wrong thing. Take the time to research in detail everything that you could possible want to know about

3. Testimonials - don't know anybody that has bought a Typography? Wrong! If the Typography is good the internet will let you know. Use the Internet as a friend and get testimonials before you buy.

4. Questions - Got a question about Typography then search the Forums, FAQ's, Blogs etc. Don't be afraid to ask .....

5. Reputation - Never heard of the company selling Typography? Don't worry, no reason why you should know every company in the world, but you know someone that does! Use the internet to find out what people are saying about Typography and build up a picture of their reputation for sales, returns, customer service, delivery etc.

6. Returns - still worried that even after all of the above your Typography wont be what you want? Check out the returns policy. There is so much competition now that someone, somewhere is bound to offer the terms that you are comfortable with.

7. Feedback - happy with your Typography then let people know, after all you are depending on others people input in your buying decision, so why not give a little back.

8. Security - check for the yellow padlock on the Typography site before you buy, and the s after http:/ /i.e. https:// = a secure site

9. Contact - got a question about Typography, or want to leave a comment then check out the sites contact page. Reputable companies have them and respond.

10. Payment - ready to pay for your Typography, then use your credit card or PayPal! Be aware of companies that don't accept them, there may be genuine reasons but given the huge amount of choice you have when buying online there is no reason at all not to buy via credit card or PayPal.

Typography is the art and techniques of type design, modifying type glyphs, and typesetting. Type glyphs (Character (computing)) are created and modified using a variety of illustration techniques. The arrangement of type is the selection of typefaces, Point (typography), line length, leading (line spacing) and Tracking (typography).

Typography is performed by typesetters, compositors, typographers, graphic artists, art directors, and clerical workers. Until the Digital Age, typography was a specialized occupation. Digitization opened up typography to new generations of visual designers and lay users.

History For the origins and evolution of typography, see the main articles History of western typography, History of typography in East Asia, and Moveable type.

Etymology: Typography (from the Greek language words type = "to strike" "That by which something is symbolized or figured..." and graphia = to write).

Typography traces its origins to the first Punch (numismatics)es and Die (manufacturing)s used to make Seal (device)s and currency in ancient history. The first known movable type printing artifact is the Phaistos Disc, dating between 1850 BC and 1600 BC. The item dates back to Minoan civilization age and is now on display at the archaeological museum of Herakleion in Crete, Greece.

Typography with moveable type continued in 11th-century China, and Moveable type began in 13th-century China and Korea, was developed again in mid-15th century Europe with the development of specialized techniques for casting and combining cheap copies of Punchcutting in the vast quantities required to print multiple copies of texts.

Scope In contemporary use, the practice and study of typography is very broad, covering all aspects of letter design and application. These include:

Since digitization typography's range of applications has become more eclectic, appearing on web pages, Liquid crystal display mobile phone screens, and hand-held video games. The Omnipresence of type has led typographers to coin the phrase "Type is everywhere".

Typography generally follows four principles, using repetition, contrast (vision), proximity, and Typographic alignment.

Text typography on 1.4 x leading, with 0.2 points extra tracking (typography). Extract of an essay by Oscar Wilde The English Renaissance of Art ca. 1882. digital typesetting software

In traditional typography, text is composed to create a readable, coherent, and visually satisfying whole that works invisibly, without the awareness of the reader. Even distribution with a minimum of distractions and anomalies are aimed at producing clarity and transparency.

Choice of font(s) is perhaps the primary aspect of text typography—prose fiction, non-fiction, editorial, educational, religious, scientific, spiritual and commercial writing all have differing characteristics and requirements. For historic material, established text typefaces are frequently chosen according to a scheme of historical genre acquired by a long process of accretion, with considerable overlap between historical periods.

Contemporary books are more likely to be set with state-of-the-art seriffed "text romans" or "book romans" with design values echoing present-day design arts, which are closely based on traditional models such as those of Nicolas Jenson, Francesco Griffo (a punchcutter who created the model for Aldine typefaces), and Claude Garamond. With their more specialized requirements, newspapers and magazines rely on compact, tightly-fitted text romans specially designed for the task, which offer maximum flexibility, readability and efficient use of page space. Sans serif text fonts are often used for introductory paragraphs, incidental text and whole short articles. A current fashion is to pair sans serif type for headings with a high-performance seriffed font of matching style for the text of an article.

The text layout, tone or color of set matter, and the interplay of text with White space (visual arts of the page and other graphic elements combine to impart a "feel" or "resonance" to the subject matter. With Printing pressed media typographers are also concerned with binding margins, paper selection and printing methods.

Typography is modulated by Orthography and linguistics, word structures, word frequencies, Morphology (linguistics), Phonetics constructs and linguistic syntax. Typography also is subject to specific cultural conventions. For example, in French it is customary to insert a non-breaking space before a colon (:) or semicolon (;) in a sentence, while in English it is not.

Readability and legibility Readability and legibility are often confused. Readability is most often and more properly used to describe the ease with which written language is read and understood – it concerns the difficulty of the language itself, not its appearance. Factors that affect readability include sentence and word length, and the frequency of uncommon words.

In contrast, legibility describes how easily or comfortably a typeset text can be read. It is not connected with content or language, but rather with the size and appearance of the printed or displayed text.

Studies of legibility have examined a wide range of factors including type size, type design. For example, comparing serif vs sans serif type, italic type vs roman type), line length, line spacing, colour contrast, the design of right-hand edge (for example, Justification (typesetting) (straight right hand edge) vs ranged left, and whether hyphenated. Legibility research was published from the late nineteenth century on, but the overall finding has been that the reading process is remarkably robust, and that significant differences are hard to find. So comparative studies of seriffed vs sans serif type, or justified vs unjustified type, have failed to settle the argument over which is best. (Serifs are the small cross-strokes at the end of letters in fonts such as Times; sans serif fonts, such as Arial, lack these cross strokes). Unfortunately, the fashion for legibility research was over by the time that revolutionary changes in printing and display technology (ie, laser printing and PC display screens) made it actually of potential interest.

Legibility is usually measured through speed of reading, with comprehension scores used to check for effectiveness (ie, not a rushed or careless read). For example, Miles Tinker, who published numerous studies from the 1930s to the 1960s, used a speed of reading test that required participants to spot incongruous words as an effectiveness filter.

These days, legibility research tends to be limited to critical issues, or the testing of specific design solutions (for example, when new typefaces are developed). Examples of critical issues include typefaces (also called fonts) for people with visual impairment, and typefaces for highway signs, or for other conditions where legibility may make a key difference.

Much of the legibility research literature is somewhat atheoretical - various factors were tested individually or in combination (inevitably so, as the different factors are interdependent), but many tests were carried out in the absence of a model of reading or visual perception. Some typographers believe that the overall word shape is very important in readability, and that letter by letter recognition (sometimes known as parallel letterwise recognition) is either wrong, less important, or not the entire picture. Studies that distinguish between the two models have favored parallel letterwise recognition, and the latter is widely accepted by cognitive psychologists (citation?).

Some commonly agreed findings of legibility research include:

Legibility is also compromised by letterspacing, word spacing and leading that are too tight or too loose. Generous vertical space separates lines of text, making it easier for the eye to distinguish one line from the next, or previous line. Poorly designed fonts and those that are too tightly or loosely fitted can also result in poor legibility.

use typography heavily.Typography is an element of all printed material. Periodical publications, especially newspapers and magazines, use typographical elements to achieve an attractive, distinctive appearance, to aid readers in navigating the publication, and in some cases for dramatic effect. By formulating a style guide, a periodical standardizes on a relatively small collection of typefaces, each used for specific elements within the publication, and makes consistent use of type sizes, italic, boldface, large and small capital letters, colours, and other typographic features. Some publications, such as The Guardian and The Economist, go so far as to commission a type designer do create bespoke typefaces for their exclusive use.

Different periodical publications design their publications, including their typography, to achieve a particular tone or style. For example, USAToday uses a bold, colourful, and comparatively modern style through their use of a variety of typefaces and colours; type sizes vary widely, and the newspaper's name is placed on a coloured background. In contrast, the New York Times use a more traditional approach, with fewer colours, less typeface variation, and more Column_(typography)s.

Especially on the front page of newspapers and on magazine covers, headlines are often set in larger display typefaces to attract attention, and are placed near the Masthead (publishing).


Display typography

Display typography is a potent element in graphic design, where there is less concern for readability and more potential for using type in an artistic manner. Type is combined with negative space, graphic elements and pictures, forming relationships and dialog between words and images.

Color and size of type elements are much more prevalent than in text typography. Most display typography exploits type at larger sizes, where the details of letter design are magnified. Color is used for its emotional effect in conveying the tone and nature of subject matter.

Display typography encompasses:

The wanted poster for the assassins of Abraham Lincoln was printed with lead and woodcut type, and incorporates photography.

Advertising from a 1913 issue of National GeographicTypography has long been a vital part of promotional material and advertising. Designers often use typography to set a theme and mood in an advertisement; for example using bold, large text to convey a particular message to the reader. Type is often used to draw attention to a particular advertisement, combined with efficient use of color, shapes and images. Today, typography in advertising often reflects a company's brand. Fonts used in advertisements convey different messages to the reader, classical fonts are for a strong personality, while more modern fonts are for a cleaner, neutral look. Bold fonts are used for making statements and attracting attention.

Inscriptional and architectural lettering See also Epigraphy.

The history of inscriptional lettering is intimately tied to the history of writing, the evolution of letterforms, and the craft of the hand. The widespread use of the computer and various etching and sandblasting techniques today has made the hand carved monument a rarity, and the number of lettercarvers left in the States continues to dwindle.

For monumental lettering to be effective it must be considered carefully in its context. Proportions of letters need to be altered as their size and distance from the viewer increases. An expert letterer gains understanding of these nuances through much practice and observation of their craft. Letters drawn by hand and for a specific project have the possibility of being richly specific and profoundly beautiful in the hand of a master. Each can also take up to an hour to carve, so it is no wonder that the automated sandblasting process has become the industry standard.

To create a sandblasted letter, a rubber mat is laser cut from a computer file and glued to the stone. The sand then bites a coarse groove or channel into the exposed surface. Unfortunately, many of the computer applications which create these files and interface with the laser cutter do not have many typefaces available, and often have inferior versions of typefaces that are available. What can now be done in minutes, however, lacks the striking architecture and geometry of the chisel-cut letter which allows light to play across its distinct interior planes.

Recently, there has been some rumbling in typographic circles over the proposed 9/11 memorial in New Jersey. Frederic Schwartz, the project architect, has chosen to render the names of the victims in "a familiar and easy-to-read typeface": Times New Roman. This democratic choice (the families of victims were closely involved with the design plan) could perhaps be echoing the controversial Emigre adage "People read best what they read most" in that Times is the default for many applications, but it seems to many that the choice is really a non-choice, or poor choice at best. These letterforms, originally designed for small print in newspaper setting, will be blown up to nearly four inches high.

See also For a comprehensive list of related Wikipedia articles, see :Category:Typography.

References











Supporting organizations

External links

Typography is the art and techniques of type design, modifying type glyphs, and typesetting. Type glyphs (Character (computing)) are created and modified using a variety of illustration techniques. The arrangement of type is the selection of typefaces, Point (typography), line length, leading (line spacing) and Tracking (typography).

Typography is performed by typesetters, compositors, typographers, graphic artists, art directors, and clerical workers. Until the Digital Age, typography was a specialized occupation. Digitization opened up typography to new generations of visual designers and lay users.

History For the origins and evolution of typography, see the main articles History of western typography, History of typography in East Asia, and Moveable type.

Etymology: Typography (from the Greek language words type = "to strike" "That by which something is symbolized or figured..." and graphia = to write).

Typography traces its origins to the first Punch (numismatics)es and Die (manufacturing)s used to make Seal (device)s and currency in ancient history. The first known movable type printing artifact is the Phaistos Disc, dating between 1850 BC and 1600 BC. The item dates back to Minoan civilization age and is now on display at the archaeological museum of Herakleion in Crete, Greece.

Typography with moveable type continued in 11th-century China, and Moveable type began in 13th-century China and Korea, was developed again in mid-15th century Europe with the development of specialized techniques for casting and combining cheap copies of Punchcutting in the vast quantities required to print multiple copies of texts.

Scope In contemporary use, the practice and study of typography is very broad, covering all aspects of letter design and application. These include:

Since digitization typography's range of applications has become more eclectic, appearing on web pages, Liquid crystal display mobile phone screens, and hand-held video games. The Omnipresence of type has led typographers to coin the phrase "Type is everywhere".

Typography generally follows four principles, using repetition, contrast (vision), proximity, and Typographic alignment.

Text typography on 1.4 x leading, with 0.2 points extra tracking (typography). Extract of an essay by Oscar Wilde The English Renaissance of Art ca. 1882. digital typesetting software

In traditional typography, text is composed to create a readable, coherent, and visually satisfying whole that works invisibly, without the awareness of the reader. Even distribution with a minimum of distractions and anomalies are aimed at producing clarity and transparency.

Choice of font(s) is perhaps the primary aspect of text typography—prose fiction, non-fiction, editorial, educational, religious, scientific, spiritual and commercial writing all have differing characteristics and requirements. For historic material, established text typefaces are frequently chosen according to a scheme of historical genre acquired by a long process of accretion, with considerable overlap between historical periods.

Contemporary books are more likely to be set with state-of-the-art seriffed "text romans" or "book romans" with design values echoing present-day design arts, which are closely based on traditional models such as those of Nicolas Jenson, Francesco Griffo (a punchcutter who created the model for Aldine typefaces), and Claude Garamond. With their more specialized requirements, newspapers and magazines rely on compact, tightly-fitted text romans specially designed for the task, which offer maximum flexibility, readability and efficient use of page space. Sans serif text fonts are often used for introductory paragraphs, incidental text and whole short articles. A current fashion is to pair sans serif type for headings with a high-performance seriffed font of matching style for the text of an article.

The text layout, tone or color of set matter, and the interplay of text with White space (visual arts of the page and other graphic elements combine to impart a "feel" or "resonance" to the subject matter. With Printing pressed media typographers are also concerned with binding margins, paper selection and printing methods.

Typography is modulated by Orthography and linguistics, word structures, word frequencies, Morphology (linguistics), Phonetics constructs and linguistic syntax. Typography also is subject to specific cultural conventions. For example, in French it is customary to insert a non-breaking space before a colon (:) or semicolon (;) in a sentence, while in English it is not.

Readability and legibility Readability and legibility are often confused. Readability is most often and more properly used to describe the ease with which written language is read and understood – it concerns the difficulty of the language itself, not its appearance. Factors that affect readability include sentence and word length, and the frequency of uncommon words.

In contrast, legibility describes how easily or comfortably a typeset text can be read. It is not connected with content or language, but rather with the size and appearance of the printed or displayed text.

Studies of legibility have examined a wide range of factors including type size, type design. For example, comparing serif vs sans serif type, italic type vs roman type), line length, line spacing, colour contrast, the design of right-hand edge (for example, Justification (typesetting) (straight right hand edge) vs ranged left, and whether hyphenated. Legibility research was published from the late nineteenth century on, but the overall finding has been that the reading process is remarkably robust, and that significant differences are hard to find. So comparative studies of seriffed vs sans serif type, or justified vs unjustified type, have failed to settle the argument over which is best. (Serifs are the small cross-strokes at the end of letters in fonts such as Times; sans serif fonts, such as Arial, lack these cross strokes). Unfortunately, the fashion for legibility research was over by the time that revolutionary changes in printing and display technology (ie, laser printing and PC display screens) made it actually of potential interest.

Legibility is usually measured through speed of reading, with comprehension scores used to check for effectiveness (ie, not a rushed or careless read). For example, Miles Tinker, who published numerous studies from the 1930s to the 1960s, used a speed of reading test that required participants to spot incongruous words as an effectiveness filter.

These days, legibility research tends to be limited to critical issues, or the testing of specific design solutions (for example, when new typefaces are developed). Examples of critical issues include typefaces (also called fonts) for people with visual impairment, and typefaces for highway signs, or for other conditions where legibility may make a key difference.

Much of the legibility research literature is somewhat atheoretical - various factors were tested individually or in combination (inevitably so, as the different factors are interdependent), but many tests were carried out in the absence of a model of reading or visual perception. Some typographers believe that the overall word shape is very important in readability, and that letter by letter recognition (sometimes known as parallel letterwise recognition) is either wrong, less important, or not the entire picture. Studies that distinguish between the two models have favored parallel letterwise recognition, and the latter is widely accepted by cognitive psychologists (citation?).

Some commonly agreed findings of legibility research include:

Legibility is also compromised by letterspacing, word spacing and leading that are too tight or too loose. Generous vertical space separates lines of text, making it easier for the eye to distinguish one line from the next, or previous line. Poorly designed fonts and those that are too tightly or loosely fitted can also result in poor legibility.

use typography heavily.Typography is an element of all printed material. Periodical publications, especially newspapers and magazines, use typographical elements to achieve an attractive, distinctive appearance, to aid readers in navigating the publication, and in some cases for dramatic effect. By formulating a style guide, a periodical standardizes on a relatively small collection of typefaces, each used for specific elements within the publication, and makes consistent use of type sizes, italic, boldface, large and small capital letters, colours, and other typographic features. Some publications, such as The Guardian and The Economist, go so far as to commission a type designer do create bespoke typefaces for their exclusive use.

Different periodical publications design their publications, including their typography, to achieve a particular tone or style. For example, USAToday uses a bold, colourful, and comparatively modern style through their use of a variety of typefaces and colours; type sizes vary widely, and the newspaper's name is placed on a coloured background. In contrast, the New York Times use a more traditional approach, with fewer colours, less typeface variation, and more Column_(typography)s.

Especially on the front page of newspapers and on magazine covers, headlines are often set in larger display typefaces to attract attention, and are placed near the Masthead (publishing).


Display typography

Display typography is a potent element in graphic design, where there is less concern for readability and more potential for using type in an artistic manner. Type is combined with negative space, graphic elements and pictures, forming relationships and dialog between words and images.

Color and size of type elements are much more prevalent than in text typography. Most display typography exploits type at larger sizes, where the details of letter design are magnified. Color is used for its emotional effect in conveying the tone and nature of subject matter.

Display typography encompasses:

The wanted poster for the assassins of Abraham Lincoln was printed with lead and woodcut type, and incorporates photography.

Advertising from a 1913 issue of National GeographicTypography has long been a vital part of promotional material and advertising. Designers often use typography to set a theme and mood in an advertisement; for example using bold, large text to convey a particular message to the reader. Type is often used to draw attention to a particular advertisement, combined with efficient use of color, shapes and images. Today, typography in advertising often reflects a company's brand. Fonts used in advertisements convey different messages to the reader, classical fonts are for a strong personality, while more modern fonts are for a cleaner, neutral look. Bold fonts are used for making statements and attracting attention.

Inscriptional and architectural lettering See also Epigraphy.

The history of inscriptional lettering is intimately tied to the history of writing, the evolution of letterforms, and the craft of the hand. The widespread use of the computer and various etching and sandblasting techniques today has made the hand carved monument a rarity, and the number of lettercarvers left in the States continues to dwindle.

For monumental lettering to be effective it must be considered carefully in its context. Proportions of letters need to be altered as their size and distance from the viewer increases. An expert letterer gains understanding of these nuances through much practice and observation of their craft. Letters drawn by hand and for a specific project have the possibility of being richly specific and profoundly beautiful in the hand of a master. Each can also take up to an hour to carve, so it is no wonder that the automated sandblasting process has become the industry standard.

To create a sandblasted letter, a rubber mat is laser cut from a computer file and glued to the stone. The sand then bites a coarse groove or channel into the exposed surface. Unfortunately, many of the computer applications which create these files and interface with the laser cutter do not have many typefaces available, and often have inferior versions of typefaces that are available. What can now be done in minutes, however, lacks the striking architecture and geometry of the chisel-cut letter which allows light to play across its distinct interior planes.

Recently, there has been some rumbling in typographic circles over the proposed 9/11 memorial in New Jersey. Frederic Schwartz, the project architect, has chosen to render the names of the victims in "a familiar and easy-to-read typeface": Times New Roman. This democratic choice (the families of victims were closely involved with the design plan) could perhaps be echoing the controversial Emigre adage "People read best what they read most" in that Times is the default for many applications, but it seems to many that the choice is really a non-choice, or poor choice at best. These letterforms, originally designed for small print in newspaper setting, will be blown up to nearly four inches high.

See also For a comprehensive list of related Wikipedia articles, see :Category:Typography.

References











Supporting organizations

External links



Department of Typography and Graphic Communication Homepage ...
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Typography - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Typography is the craft, art, and science of type design, modifying type glyphs, and typesetting. Type glyphs (characters) are created and modified using a variety of illustration ...

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Microsoft Typography - Free font information, TrueType, OpenType ...
Typography news headlines, 'link of the day','book recommendations' and a updated database of type and typography related sites.

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Alexis Rendell's musings on design, typography and beyond ... A fantastic short film by award-winning film-maker  Carlos Lascano, who mixes different illustration techniques into ...

The Cavendish Gallery of Print and Typography
Gallery of images and text relating to typography and print through the ages.

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Amazon.co.uk: Type and Typography: Phil Baines, Andrew Haslam: Books
Amazon.co.uk: Type and Typography: Phil Baines, Andrew Haslam: Books ... This item is not eligible for Amazon Prime, but millions of other items are.

Jeremy Tankard Typography Ltd
Corporate and commercial, custom and bespoke font designers.

Five simple steps to better typography : Journal : Mark Boulton
Mark Boulton is a designer based in Cardiff, UK. Specialising in usable, functional and elegant design acquired through rigorous problem solving.

 

Typography



 
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