Headings and TextWhat makes headings stand out?
Headings & Text• If you want to apply skills in Photoshop and Illustrator, the
software most professionals use in creative IT, you need to be aware of the techniques and terminologies of graphic design
Fonts or typeface• unit of measure is the point (or pt)• 72 point correspond to approximately 1 inch in height of the
lettering• A pica is 12 pt. 6 picas is equivalent to 72pt
• Word document: 10 - 12pt• Email: 10 - 12pt• Web page 12 - 12pt• Business card 6 - 8pt• Easy reading 12 - 18pt
Common type sizes
Convert between units of measurement
Point size Picas Inches mm72 1 25.436 12.71812 1 1/6 4.26 0.5
Convert between units of measurement
Point size Picas Inches mm72 6 1 25.436 3 1/2 12.718 2 1/4 6.412 1 1/6 4.26 0.5 1/12 2.1
Serif or Sans Serif
•
Serif: G
•
Sans serif: Ge.g. Georgia, Times New Roman, Garamond
e.g. Arial, Verdana, Tahoma, Helvetica, Comic Sans
Fonts and typeface are …TypefaceThe typeface is the name or design of a font, e.g. •Times New Roman
•Arial•Comic Sans
FontThe font is a combination of typeface and style, e.g. colour, italic, weight (bold or light), and size, e.g.
•Times New Roman•ARIAL
•Comic Sans
Fonts and typeface are …
However, most people refer to type and font as
the same thing!
Use of font style
Compare using Arial with bold formatting (a font):
Helloand Arial Black (a typeface):
HelloArial Black is a bold typeface but isn’t the same as using Arial then applying bold formatting
Use 2 typefaces for contrast• Do not combine 2 serifs or 2 sans serifs (clash)
Use 2 typefaces for contrast• Often designers combine a serif and a sans serif to contrast
visually• Classically, use sans serif for the heading and serif for the
body text, or the other way around
Don’t use more than 2 fonts• When you use 3 or more typefaces you loose consitency• Think of a “ransom” note:
KEEp th e
c oa hc
Proportional and Non-proportional Type
Letter variation• Circular characters tend to look slightly shorter - font
designers make them bigger:
Z O O
Kerning or Tracking• Kerning is the gap between 2 letters• Tracking is kerning applied to all letters uniformly
Kerning• Kerning is also used to correct the gap between some letter
pairings, e.g. W and A or V and A
White Space• White space is extra space around words which add emphasis
Leading or line-spacing• An example of reduced leading• Also an example of heading and
strapline
Alignment
Left•confident•logical
Right•modern•different
Centre•traditional•formal
The “Golden Rule of alignment”:Stick to one alignment. Do not use more than one alignment on the same page
Contrasts
Size, colour, case, typeface:
a z and two noughtsZOO
Contrasts
Kerning, direction, case
OO
A Z
AN
D T
WO
NO
UG
HTS
Z
Reverse Text
Adding contrast:
ZO
OA
Z A
ND
TW
O N
OU
GH
TS
Vertical text
Normally vertical text is titled not stacked:
ZOOA
Z A
ND
TW
O N
OU
GH
TS
ZO
O
Afterthought
“Know the rules so you can break them”
Fashions change with time