Type 101

What is Typography?

The art and technique of arranging type to make written language most appealing to learning and recognition.

But why is it important?

1.Legibility

Properly using Type Heirarchy, Leading, and Tracking makes text easier to read and increases comprehension.

2.Credibility

Just as the sound of a voice effects our perception of a character, type has personality and tone which effects our perception.

Stanford has some very convincing research on the matter as well.

Using Heiarchy to create order

In its most basic form heirarchy divides content into logical groups. This makes text easy to scan and digest. We can highlight logical groupings in a few ways.

Breathing Room: Leading and Tracking

1. Leading
   • The distance between the baselines of successive lines of type.
2. Tracking
   • A consistent degree of space between letters in a line or block of text.

Quick and dirty font pairing.

1. Use multiple weights from the same family. e.g. Open Sans Condensed for headings and Open Sans for Body Copy.
2. Out source it to the internet:
   • Google "[name of font] font parings"
   • Browse professional type pairings.
   • Select from pre-made groups.