typography one : project one, ii

1. weight - the overall thickness of strokes in relation to their height. standard weights within a family often include light, medium (regular), bold, and black or heavy weights.

2. width - how wide the letterforms in a typeface are in relation to their height. a typeface in which the letterforms are narrower than regular is referred to as condensed or compressed; a face that is wider than regular is referred to as extended or expanded.

3. style - a broad term referring to several aspects of a typeface. first, style can be divided into serif or sans serif. second, style can be historically classified based on the visual idiosyncrasies related to its historical context. third, style refers to the specific form variations that a designer has imposed on the letters, like neutral or stylized.

4. the point system is used to measure type. one point equals 1/72 inch or .35 millimeters. twelve points equal one pica, the unit commonly used to measure column widths. type can also be measured inches, millimeters, or pixels. most software applications let the designer choose a preferred unit of measure; picas and points are a standard default.

5. point - measurement equivalent to 1/72 inch or .35 millimeters

6. pica - measurement equivalent to twelve points

7. 1 inch = 72 points

8. If a letter is set in 36 pts it is a 1/2 inch tall

9. 1 inch = 6 picas

10. 1 pica = 12 points

11. x-height - the height of lowercase letters in proportion to the ascenders and descenders.

12. cap height - the height of the capital letter.

13. leading - amount of vertical spacing between lines of type.

typography one : project one, i

1. grid - a series of regularly spaced horizontal and vertical lines used as a means of organization.

2. designers use a grid as a simple way of organizing large amounts of information. the grid can help a designer compare and contrast different forms of information without compromising the quality of each piece. it presents the project/projects in an easily read composition

3. a modular grid is a grid with four rows and four columns. when repeated these grids, or modules, are able to further subdivide or separate various projects.

4. margins - the negative space between the format edge and the page contents.

columns - vertical alignments of type that create horizontal divisions between margins.

grid modules - individual units of space separated by regular intervals that, when repeated across the page format, create columns and rows.

flowlines - alignments that break the space into horizontal bands

gutter - blank space between columns

5. hierarchy - a system of things ranked one above the other. designers can use hierarchy by manipulating the text in a way that is easily navigated by the viewer.

6. typographic color - altering the scale relationships of type. changing the weight, rhythm, value, texture of text achieves a visual darkness and even an illusion of spatial depth.

7. clear hierarchy can be achieved in many ways. It is important to maintain good organization. keeping similar material in close proximity, shifting or maintaining certain alignments, and size contrast (experimentation with stroke weight, distance, scale are all effective ways of achieving hierarchy.