Phil Hodge

LEGIBLEPRAGMATICTYPOGRAPHYSEMANTICPOWERFULDYNAMICbeautiful

Building a Foundation

TYPOGRAPHY BUILDING A FOUNDATION

PREFACEType is one of those things that is around each one of us everyday that we all take for granted. It is much more than just black letters on white paper, it is the side of design that is less obvious but of significant impor-tance.. Typography II has opened the door to expand ones knoledge on just how beautiful type, and the space surrounding, can be.

CONTENTSBUILDING A FOUNDAION

Classifications.....................................................10Anatomy..............................................................12

THE FOUNDATION

Tracking.............................................................16Kerning...............................................................18ColumnWidth...................................................20Alignment...........................................................22Leading..............................................................24Rags....................................................................26

Hierarchy..........................................................30 Semantics............................................................32

BRINGING IT TOGETHER

THE ESSENTIALS

“ ”...beauty, however defined, is key. The beauty of precision; the beauty of expression; the beauty of how one letter conjoins with others on either side of it and above and below; the beauty of how it looks on the page or screen.

Steven Heller

THE FOUNDATIONSECTION ONE

1 Classifications

2 Anatomy

THE FOUNDATIONSECTION ONE

The Foundation . Classifications

CLA

SS

IFIC

AT

ION

S

HumanistJenson MT Std - BoldOl daja e g T jap{ASDMKBACRPER[slkjgalkalk [pa9r4mp

TransitionalBaskerville - SemiBoldOl ieg dapa Hi{ASDMKBPRMOPE[skpaklk [p9ar4mp

Old StyleGaramond - BoldOl i e g dap HiTrnch{ASDMK{ASDMKBACRPER[slkpgalkalk [pa9r4mp

ModernBodoni - BoldOl ieg dap Hi{ASDMKBACRPER[slkpgalkalk[pa9r4mp

11

Slab SerifBaskerville – RegularOlieg dapa Hi{ASMKBPRMOPE[skpaklk no italic

Humanist SansGill Sans - Regular Olieg dapa Hi{ASMKBPRMOPE[skpaklk italic

Grotesque SansHelvetica Neue – Regular Olieg dapa Hi{ASMKBPRMOPE[skpaklk italic

Geometric SansFutura Extra BoldOlieg dap Hi{ASMKBPRMOPE[skpak no italic

The Foundation . Anatomy

AN

AT

OM

Y

TypefaceStem

Serif

Ascender

Spur

Cap Line

X-Height

13

AnatomyCrossbar

Aperture

Crossbar

Descender

Base Line

1 Tracking

2 Kerning

3 Column Width

4 Alignment

5 Leading

6 Rags

THE ESSENTIALSSECTION TWO

Because kerning removes space between letters, it is often mistak- enly referred to as ‘letterspacing.’ In fact, letterspacing means adding

space between letters, not removing it. For our purposes, the term ‘track- ing,’ used in most computer programs that incorporate typesetting, best describes the addition or removal of space between letters. Keep in mind that even the best tracking table sometimes requires minor adjustments, especially at larger point sizes

The Essentials . Tracking

TR

AC

KIN

G

ImaginationImaginationImaginationImagination

Imagination-40

-20

0

20

40

17

Imagination

To imagine is like flying a kite. The mind, loosely tethered, is free to be blown about. Usually the direction it takes just happens but sometimes by tweaking the string it can arrive at an unlikely destination. Take Einstein who, struck with the thought of riding on a shaft of light in outer space while looking at himself in the mirror, interpreted the imagery to come up with the principles of his Theory of Relativity.

Imagination, an unimaginative person once wrote, is what hap-pens when a drunk loses his watch and has to get drunk again to find it. Although fantasy and make-believe flourish in child-hood they rapidly atrophy as one is moulded to fit the adult’s grey consensus of reality. A child, out on a walk with its mother, suddenly cries out, ‘Look, a purple cow,’ The mother, perhaps rather tired and domestically harassed, snaps, ‘Don’tw be silly.’ And then delivers the crunch line: ‘There’s no such thing as purple cows.’

So the child, a vagabond in the backwoods of rationality, is brought up to see the world in prosaic terms of grown-ups and eventually forgets it ever saw a purple cow. Now purple cows walk around unseen by anyone.

The body of text to the right displays typeface ITC Franklin Gothic Std, size 9.5pt with tracking set to 0.

Originally, the term ‘kern’ described the portion of a letterform that extended beyond the body of the type slug. As the example shows,

this adaptation was required in letterforms with angled slopes, so that spacing between letters within a word would remain optically consistent. Today the term ‘kerning’ describes the automatic adjustment of space between letters as prescribed by a table embedded within the digital font.

KE

RN

ING

The Essentials . Kerning

ke

19

kerning

kerning

The example to the left shows text with kerning adjusted.

The example to the left shows text without kerning adjusted.

The area separating fields from each other. The height of a hori-zontal gutter is typically based on the lead- ing of the text type. The

width of a vertical gutter is a distance sufficiently larger than an em space (the width of an uppercase M in the text type) to distinguish columns of text from each other.

The Essentials . Column Width

CO

LU

MN

WID

TH

21

20 pica

Imagination

To imagine is like flying a kite. The mind, loosely tethered, is free to be blown about. Usually the direction it takes just happens but sometimes by tweaking the string it can arrive at an unlikely destina-tion. Take Einstein who, struck with the thought of riding on a shaft of light in outer space while looking at himself in the mirror, inter-preted the imagery to come up with the principles of his Theory of Relativity.

Imagination, an unimaginative person once wrote, is what happens when a drunk loses his watch and has to get drunk again to find it. Although fantasy and make-believe flourish in childhood they rapidly atrophy as one is moulded to fit the adult’s grey consensus of real-ity. A child, out on a walk with its mother, suddenly cries out, ‘Look, a purple cow,’ The mother, perhaps rather tired and domestically harassed, snaps, ‘Don’t be silly.’ And then delivers the crunch line: ‘There’s no such thing as purple cows.’

So the child, a vagabond in the backwoods of rationality, is brought up to see the world in prosaic terms of grown-ups and eventually forgets it ever saw a purple cow. Now purple cows walk around unseen by anyone.

24 pica

Imagination

To imagine is like flying a kite. The mind, loosely tethered, is free to be blown about. Usually the direction it takes just happens but sometimes by tweaking the string it can arrive at an unlikely destination. Take Einstein who, struck with the thought of riding on a shaft of light in outer space while looking at himself in the mirror, inter-preted the imagery to come up with the principles of his Theory of Relativity.

Imagination, an unimaginative person once wrote, is what happens when a drunk loses his watch and has to get drunk again to find it. Although fantasy and make-believe flourish in childhood they rapidly atrophy as one is moulded to fit the adult’s grey consensus of reality. A child, out on a walk with its mother, suddenly cries out, ‘Look, a purple cow,’ The mother, perhaps rather tired and domestically harassed, snaps, ‘Don’t be silly.’ And then delivers the crunch line: ‘There’s no such thing as purple cows.’

So the child, a vagabond in the backwoods of rationality, is brought up to see the world in prosaic terms of grown-ups and eventually forgets it ever saw a purple cow. Now purple cows walk around unseen by anyone.

The four modes of alignment (centered, justified, flush left, and flush right) form the basic grammar of typographic composition. Each

one has traditional uses that make intuitive sense to readers

The Essentials . Alignment

ALIG

NM

EN

T

Imagination

To imagine is like flying a kite. The mind, loosely tethered, is free to be blown about. Usually the direction it takes just happens but some-times by tweaking the string it can arrive at an unlikely destination.

Take Einstein who, struck with the thought of riding on a shaft of light in outer space while looking at himself in the mirror, interpreted the imagery to come up with the principles of his Theory of Relativity.

Imagination, an unimaginative person once wrote, is what happens when a drunk loses his watch and has to get drunk again to find it. Although fantasy and make-believe flourish in childhood they rapidly atrophy as one is moulded to fit the adult’s grey consensus of real-ity. A child, out on a walk with its mother, suddenly cries out, ‘Look, a purple cow,’ The mother, perhaps rather tired and domestically

harassed, snaps, ‘Don’t be silly.’ And then delivers the crunch line: ‘There’s no such thing as purple cows.’

So the child, a vagabond in the backwoods of rationality, is brought up to see the world in prosaic terms of grown-ups and eventually forgets it ever saw a purple cow. Now purple cows walk around

unseen by anyone.

Imagination

To imagine is like flying a kite. The mind, loosely tethered, is free to be blown about. Usually the direction it takes just happens but some-times by tweaking the string it can arrive at an unlikely destination.

Take Einstein who, struck with the thought of riding on a shaft of light in outer space while looking at himself in the mirror, interpreted the

imagery to come up with the principles of his Theory of Relativity.

Imagination, an unimaginative person once wrote, is what happens when a drunk loses his watch and has to get drunk again to find it.

Although fantasy and make-believe flourish in childhood they rapidly atrophy as one is moulded to fit the adult’s grey consensus of real-ity. A child, out on a walk with its mother, suddenly cries out, ‘Look,

a purple cow,’ The mother, perhaps rather tired and domestically harassed, snaps, ‘Don’t be silly.’ And then delivers the crunch line:

‘There’s no such thing as purple cows.’

So the child, a vagabond in the backwoods of rationality, is brought up to see the world in prosaic terms of grown-ups and eventually forgets it ever saw a purple cow. Now purple cows walk around

unseen by anyone.

Center Right

23

Imagination

To imagine is like flying a kite. The mind, loosely tethered, is free to be blown about. Usually the direction it takes just happens but sometimes by tweaking the string it can arrive at an unlikely destina-tion. Take Einstein who, struck with the thought of riding on a shaft of light in outer space while looking at himself in the mirror, interpreted the imagery to come up with the principles of his Theory of Relativity.

Imagination, an unimaginative person once wrote, is what happens when a drunk loses his watch and has to get drunk again to find it. Although fantasy and make-be-lieve flourish in childhood they rapidly atrophy as one is moulded to fit the adult’s grey consensus of reality. A child, out on a walk with its mother, suddenly cries out,

‘Look, a purple cow,’ The mother, perhaps rather tired and domestically harassed, snaps, ‘Don’t be silly.’ And then de-

livers the crunch line: ‘There’s no such thing as purple cows.’

So the child, a vagabond in the backwoods of rationality, is brought up to see the world in prosaic terms of grown-ups and eventually forgets it ever saw a purple cow. Now purple cows walk around unseen by anyone.

Imagination

To imagine is like flying a kite. The mind, loosely tethered, is free to be blown about. Usually the direction it takes just happens but sometimes by tweaking the string it can arrive at an unlikely destina-tion. Take Einstein who, struck with the thought of riding on a shaft of light in outer space while looking at himself in the mirror, interpreted the imagery to come up with the principles of his Theory of Relativity.

Imagination, an unimaginative person once wrote, is what happens when a drunk loses his watch and has to get drunk again to find it. Although fantasy and make-be-lieve flourish in childhood they rapidly atrophy as one is moulded to fit the adult’s grey consensus of reality. A child, out on a walk with its mother, suddenly cries out, ‘Look, a purple cow,’ The mother, perhaps rather tired and domestically harassed, snaps, ‘Don’t be silly.’ And then de-livers the crunch line: ‘There’s no such thing as purple cows.’

So the child, a vagabond in the backwoods of rationality, is brought up to see the world in prosaic terms of grown-ups and eventually forgets it ever saw a purple cow. Now purple cows walk around unseen by anyone.

The example above is similar to what one would find in news print or magazines achieving an equal colum look with justified body text

Appropriate leading for text is as much a function of line length as it is a question of type size and leading. Shorter lines require less

leading; longer lines, more.

The Essentials . Leading

LE

AD

ING

ImaginationImagination

25

18 pt

Imagination

To imagine is like flying a kite. The mind, loosely tethered, is free

to be blown about. Usually the direction it takes just happens

but sometimes by tweaking the string it can arrive at an unlikely

destination. Take Einstein who, struck with the thought of riding

on a shaft of light in outer space while looking at himself in the

mirror, interpreted the imagery to come up with the principles of his

Theory of Relativity.

Imagination, an unimaginative person once wrote, is what happens

when a drunk loses his watch and has to get drunk again to find it.

Although fantasy and make-believe flourish in childhood they rapidly

atrophy as one is moulded to fit the adult’s grey consensus of real-

ity. A child, out on a walk with its mother, suddenly cries out, ‘Look,

a purple cow,’ The mother, perhaps rather tired and domestically

harassed, snaps, ‘Don’t be silly.’ And then delivers the crunch line:

‘There’s no such thing as purple cows.’

So the child, a vagabond in the backwoods of rationality, is brought

up to see the world in prosaic terms of grown-ups and eventually

forgets it ever saw a purple cow. Now purple cows walk around

unseen by anyone.

13 pt

Imagination

To imagine is like flying a kite. The mind, loosely tethered, is free to be blown about. Usually the direction it takes just happens but sometimes by tweaking the string it can arrive at an unlikely destination. Take Einstein who, struck with the thought of riding on a shaft of light in outer space while looking at himself in the mirror, interpreted the imagery to come up with the principles of his Theory of Relativity.

Imagination, an unimaginative person once wrote, is what happens when a drunk loses his watch and has to get drunk again to find it. Although fantasy and make-believe flourish in childhood they rapidly atrophy as one is moulded to fit the adult’s grey consensus of real-ity. A child, out on a walk with its mother, suddenly cries out, ‘Look, a purple cow,’ The mother, perhaps rather tired and domestically harassed, snaps, ‘Don’t be silly.’ And then delivers the crunch line: ‘There’s no such thing as purple cows.’

So the child, a vagabond in the backwoods of rationality, is brought up to see the world in prosaic terms of grown-ups and eventually forgets it ever saw a purple cow. Now purple cows walk around unseen by anyone.

The Essentials . Rags

RA

GS Imagination

To imagine is like flying a kite. The mind, loosely tethered, is free to be blown about. Usually the direction it takes just happens but sometimes by tweaking the string it can arrive at an unlikely destination. Take Einstein who, struck with the thought of riding on a shaft of light in outer space while looking at himself in the mirror, interpreted the imagery to come up with the principles of his Theory of Relativity.

Imagination, an unimaginative person once wrote, is what happens when a drunk loses his watch and has to get drunk again to find it. Although fantasy and make-believe flourish in childhood they rapidly atrophy as one is moulded to fit the adult’s grey consensus of reality. A child, out on a walk with its mother, suddenly cries out, ‘Look, a purple cow,’ The mother, perhaps rather tired and domestically harassed, snaps, ‘Don’t be silly.’ And then delivers the crunch line: ‘There’s no such thing as purple cows.’

So the child, a vagabond in the backwoods of rationality, is brought up to see the world in prosaic terms of grown-ups and eventually forgets it ever saw a purple cow. Now purple cows walk around unseen by anyone.

Hard

27

Imagination

To imagine is like flying a kite. The mind, loosely tethered, is free to be blown about. Usually the direction it takes just happens but sometimes by tweaking the string it can arrive at an unlikely destina-tion. Take Einstein who, struck with the thought of riding on a shaft of light in outer space while looking at himself in the mirror, interpreted the imagery to come up with the principles of his Theory of Relativity.

Imagination, an unimaginative person once wrote, is what happens when a drunk loses his watch and has to get drunk again to find it. Although fantasy and make-believe flourish in childhood they rapidly atrophy as one is moulded to fit the adult’s grey consensus of real-ity. A child, out on a walk with its mother, suddenly cries out, ‘Look, a purple cow,’ The mother, perhaps rather tired and domestically harassed, snaps, ‘Don’t be silly.’ And then delivers the crunch line: ‘There’s no such thing as purple cows.’

So the child, a vagabond in the backwoods of rationality, is brought up to see the world in prosaic terms of grown-ups and eventu-ally forgets it ever saw a purple cow. Now purple cows walk around unseen by anyone.

Soft

1 Hierarchy

3 Semantics

BRINGING IT TOGETHERSECTION THREE

Bringing it Together . Hierarchy

HIE

RA

RC

HY

Crea

tivity

is a

com

pulsive

hum

an u

rge

which

dem

ands

mor

e th

an

ritua

l act

ions

or r

outin

e re

spon

ses, a

nd is

only v

alid w

hen

one

is tr

ad-

ing

expe

rienc

e.Crea

tivi

tyTh

e wo

rd ‘c

reat

ivity’

is fr

eque

ntly

appr

opria

ted

to e

nhan

ce th

e m

ediocr

e or

just

ify th

e m

un-

dane

. Tha

t cea

seless

and

fren

etic

activ

ity -

easy

to m

ista

ke fo

r pur

pose

ful a

ction

- which

with

out a

nyth

ing

new

to s

ay o

nly p

rodu

ces

noise

and

aggr

egat

e. N

o ne

w th

ough

ts, n

o m

agic

mom

ents

, jus

t mor

e pa

tchw

ork

and

finge

rpaint

ing.

An

activ

ity in

which

pro

cess

bec

omes

prod

uct.

The t

rue cr

eativ

e ac

t is

som

ething

else.

It pr

oduc

es s

omet

hing

whic

h ne

ver e

xiste

d be

fore

.

Whe

ther

of s

mall c

onse

quen

ce o

r am

azing sig

nific

ance

, it’s

usu

ally

gene

rate

d by

a s

pont

ane-

ous

insigh

t. A

glim

pse

of th

e blinding

ly ob

vious

ignite

d by

the

heat

off

the

wire

s ca

used

by

shor

t-circ

uitin

g th

ough

ts. I

nsigh

t is

unre

ason

ing.

Geor

ge N

elso

n pu

t it a

noth

er w

ay: ‘

Wha

t the

cre

ative

act

mea

ns’,

he w

rote

, ‘is th

e...s

udde

n

realiza

tion

that

one

has

take

n a

lot o

f disco

nnec

ted

piec

es a

nd fo

und,

not

don

e, a

way

of

putti

ng th

em to

geth

er.’

It wa

s pu

t in

yet a

noth

er w

ay b

y Ber

nard

Sha

w, w

ho in

his la

te 8

0’s

was

inte

rviewe

d by

a re

porte

r who

rem

arke

d th

at o

ver t

he ye

ars

a gr

eat m

any i

nter

estin

g

things

mus

t hav

e ha

ppen

ed to

him

. ‘No

,’ re

plied

Shaw

, ‘inte

rest

ing

things

nev

er h

appe

n to

me.

I ha

ppen

to th

em.’

Whi

le P

aul K

lee

said

that

he

knew

whe

n a

pict

ure

was

finis

hed,

as th

at w

as w

hen

he s

topp

ed lo

okin

g at

it, a

nd it

sta

rted

look

ing

back

.

31

The goal of visual design is to communicate. How you organize and prioritize your elements conveys valuable information about their relative importance. Visual hierarchy aids com-

prehension, reinforces your message, and guides your visitor through your story.

LOOK HERE FIRST

Bringing it Together . Semantic

SE

MA

NT

ICS

CREATIVITY

Creativity is a compulsive human

urge which demands more than ritual

actions or routine responses, and is

only valid when one is trading experi-

ence. The word ‘creativity’ is frequently

appropriated to enhance the mediocre

or justify the mundane. That cease-

less and frenetic activity - easy to

mistake for purposeful action - which

without anything new to say only

produces noise and aggregate. No

new thoughts, no magic moments,

just more patchwork and fingerpaint-

ing. An activity in which process

becomes product.

The true creative act is something

else. It produces something which

never existed before. Whether of

small consequence or amazing

significance, it’s usually gener-

ated by a spontaneous insight.

A glimpse of the blindingly obvi-

ous ignited by the heat off the

wires caused by short-circuiting

thoughts. Insight is unreason-

ing.George Nelson put it another way:

‘ What the creative act means’, he

wrote, ‘is the...sudden realization that

one has taken a lot of disconnected

pieces and found, not done, a way of

putting them together.’ It was put in

yet another way by Bernard Shaw, who

in his late 80’s was interviewed by a

reporter who remarked that over the

years a great many interesting things

must have happened to him. ‘No,’

replied Shaw, ‘interesting things never

happen to me. I happen to them.’

While Paul Klee said that he knew

when a picture was finished, as that

was when he stopped looking at it,

and it started looking back.

33

The word ‘creativity’ is frequently appropriated to Enhance the mediocre or justify the mundane.

Semantics in a general sence refers to the relationships between symbols and what they represent. Writers often play with seman-tics to create interesting stylistic effects or to create a style suited

to a particular context or audience. The example call out above uses semantics to convay a particular mood to the viewer by changing line weights, point sizes and variations adding meaning to the words.

35

This book was designed by Phil HodgeBody text is displayed in Janson MT Std 10/13 point.Example text is displayed in ITC Franklin Gothic Std 9.5 point. Headings are displayed in Helvetica Neue LT Com 85 Heavy Content was quoted by John Kane and Phil HodgePrograms used in process included Adobe InDesign CS5, Photoshop CS5 and Illustrator CS5.

CO

LO

PH

ON