Elements of Typographic Style

Elements of Typographic Style, 25-60. (Rhythm & Proportion, Harmony & Counterpoint)

1. Explain what typographic color is, and the four things that determine it.

Typographic color is the darkness or blackness of the letterform. The four things that determine it is the design of the type, the spacing between the letters, the spacing between the words, and the spacing between the lines.

2. When is ok to use justified type? When should you use ragged type?

It is ok to use justified type if it has a minimum of 38 to 40 characters per line. Ragged type should be used if there are big gapes in the justified type that makes it hard to read or makes it look strange.

3. How should you choose your leading setting?

When choosing your leading setting you need to look at different typefaces. Darker typefaces need more lead than lighter typefaces, larger body typefaces need more leading than smaller body typefaces. San serif needs more lead than serif. Superscripts, subscripts, mathematic expressions, full uppercase lettering often needs more leading.

4. List at least three of the hyphenation rules that you think are most useful/surprising to you.

Avoid more than three consecutive hyphenated lines, try not to leave end of hyphenation or any short word as the last line of a paragraph, try not to hyphenate proper nouns unless it is really necessary.

5. What are some things you can do to create contrast? What should you NOT do?

One way to create contrast is using the typefaces within the font family to create contrast. For example if the body text is times regular you could make the header times bold. This shows that the header is the general idea for the rest of the text. Another way to create contrast is making some parts all uppercase and some all lowercase.

One thing not to do to create contrast is using to many fonts. Using too many fonts is confusing and overwhelming for the viewer. It is also harder to pick two fonts that go well together. Another thing not to do to create contrast is when bolding specific words in a paragraph do not bold the punctuation around it. This way the words stand out more and you look at them as individuals and not just the whole thing that is bold.