Copyright © 2003/4 Bolton Institute Typography We have looked at signs, colour, shape, images and texture to represent meaning Today we will look at the content its self. Text and how we read it

Copyright © 2003/4 Bolton Institute Use of Text We use text to list, write reports, give directions But text is not simply a way of representing the spoken word We need to consider its readability and legibility as well

Copyright © 2003/4 Bolton Institute Use of Text Most should be familiar with word processing, hopefully!!! Probably the main use up until now has been that ability to create, check and export a document at speed and with a degree of accuracy over and above pen and paper We tend to take this for granted nowadays Writing documents on screen forces us to consider typeface as much as the text as hand writing is important on paper

Copyright © 2003/4 Bolton Institute History of Type Capital letters Derived from Roman letter forms 2000 years old Lowercase letters Mutations of the Roman forms and tended to appear on parchments/scrolls ‘illuminated’ letter forms Numbers Originate from Hindu-Arabic marks only reaching Europe approximately 700 years ago Punctuation Earliest Roman times as pieces of information became indistinguishable from one another During the past 500 years this has not changed a great deal apart from typography

Copyright © 2003/4 Bolton Institute Type Anatomy We apply unique understanding to letter types and forms that can distinguish one typeface from another

Copyright © 2003/4 Bolton Institute Readability/Legibility Legibility The ability to successfully find, identify and absorb content Readability The ease of interpretation and the text’s aestheticism Other elements of character anatomy

Copyright © 2003/4 Bolton Institute Typography It affects the way the text appears It controls shape, space and size Multimedia provides and extra challenge as screen type tends to be fuzzy We need to classify different type styles

Copyright © 2003/4 Bolton Institute Types of Type Ornamentation at the ends of letters or holdovers give a very distinguishable quality They derive from pen strokes and chip marks of old text styles Generally best suited to display larger text as they merge as they get smaller Smaller on printed as representation is better in print and letters are easily identified Quite old fashioned and used predominantly in business situations

Copyright © 2003/4 Bolton Institute Types of Type These are fonts without a serif Characters are less distinctive They work better on screen in both large and small sizes however Tend to be used for more up-beat companies and web based design because of their portability, especially Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica and Veranda etc Lowercase is also popular here to provide consistency and reduce emphasis until needed

Copyright © 2003/4 Bolton Institute Types of Type Mono spaced – courier They can have serifs or can be without The difference is the fact that each letter occupies the same amount of space M and I in other fonts have different letter spacing but mono spaced means that there is uniformity in design Used heavily in technical documentation as the need for accuracy of programming for instance in critical, other letters in other font choices are not so easily recognisable

Copyright © 2003/4 Bolton Institute Types of Type Cursive – Mimic hand writing Highly stylised Reserved for illuminated documentation Not great at a distance Limited use provides good juxtaposition against san-serif types Not good on screen in large chunks of text

Copyright © 2003/4 Bolton Institute Types of Type Fantasy –  Decorative fonts that do not fit into any of the previously described Ornamental use only or graphical – logos, icons They can add to the general look and feel of a screen based interface Provide simple and easily scaleable navigational system identifiers Semiotically useful

Copyright © 2003/4 Bolton Institute Type on screen We could use any font on screen but we have to be aware of strengths and weaknesses in this Html text is limited Consider different platforms Audience Size Graphic text We can use any font and it is represented perfectly but pixilation Not correctable on screen / selectable Increased file size

Copyright © 2003/4 Bolton Institute Browser safe To design for the web particularly we need to consider browser safe Certain text and fonts work better at different sizes and styles in different browsers, platforms and screens Audience!

Copyright © 2003/4 Bolton Institute Logo’s