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I am a notable expert on typography, because I read a few pages on the topic last night. Go ahead. Ask me about kerning and ligatures; I can now actually remember what each of those things are.
Basically, different typefaces lend different moods and like that. Otherwise, I guess we'd all be using Arial.
(I know enough about typography to understand that some people that's possibly the most wretched idea in the world.)
Anyway, I'm writing a letter to a big ol' company...mentioned a few posts down...and created a teeny AppleScript (see same post) to have the document cycle through each of several typefaces, automatically.
In a nutshell, seeing the entire document change appearance makes a whole lot more sense than just viewing each typeface in the font menu. I was pleased to see just how different the document feels with every change.
So, that's it. I found out a neat thing. :-)
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Make sure to double check your leading.
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I got my degree in graphic design (SIU called it Visual Communication) in '83, before the Mac changed everything. I'm glad I had a chance to learn typography that way. I could never draw worth a damn so I couldn't rely on illustration in my work; I got good at type. We did some exercises that many would now find silly (we thought so too sometimes), like drawing a large-scale Helvetica lower-case A by hand and inking it in (no tracing from a Xerox!), spending time on calligraphy, etc. I loved what the Swiss designers did with type and we had several assignments along those lines. We used a lot of press type for our comps. We used those broad wedge-tip pencils to indicate type in our thumbnails and roughs which I think was a great way to get a feel for how a block of type works as a graphic element. We (sort of) learned how to spec type for a typesetter. My first job had it's own Compugraphic machine. I never learned how to use it though. But all that did make understanding how to use Quark a lot easier.
I've lost a lot of the technical stuff I knew but I still flinch when I see bad type design. I flinch a lot these days!
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Greg the dogsitter wrote:
I am a notable expert on typography, because I read a few pages on the topic last night. Go ahead. Ask me about kerning and ligatures; I can now actually remember what each of those things are.
Basically, different typefaces lend different moods and like that. Otherwise, I guess we'd all be using Arial.
(I know enough about typography to understand that some people that's possibly the most wretched idea in the world.)
Anyway, I'm writing a letter to a big ol' company...mentioned a few posts down...and created a teeny AppleScript (see same post) to have the document cycle through each of several typefaces, automatically.
In a nutshell, seeing the entire document change appearance makes a whole lot more sense than just viewing each typeface in the font menu. I was pleased to see just how different the document feels with every change.
So, that's it. I found out a neat thing. :-)
Being as you've now become an expert I can let you in on a few tips we use in the Expert Type Club. I suggest you take the list of fonts you chose and assign one to each paragraph in your letter. Those of us in the ETC know that the more fonts you can use in a document, the better it looks. You will also be sending a message to your peers that
You Know Fonts and stuff and are now ready to become the type go-to person at work.
You don't have to thank me, I do what I can to help those in need. Good luck with your project.
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The first rule of the Expert Type Club is you don't talk about the Expert Type Club.
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Only use Papyrus or University Roman.
