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Typography
The basics of type are an important learning area for any graphic artist. Until the mid 1980's this was the domain of a select few and highly-skilled craftsmen. Now the most sophisticated typeographic tools of the last 200 years are built into even a bargain-basement PC.
 Typefaces are divided into three--er--types: Serif, san-serif, and display or decorative. Serif faces have small "flags" at the ends of letterforms while san-serif faces do not. For much of the last century it was assumed that the serifs "connected" the letters more readily for the reader, and thus are easier to read. These days that is up for debate, but nevertheless most "body text," or large blocks of copy, are set in a serif face.
Display or decorative faces include everything from scripts to bizarre to nearly unreadable type. Nearly every typeface will fall into one of these three categories.
Setting type. The term "typesetting" comes from the original trade of typography. Until the age of the laser printer, professional type for printing was cast from molten lead and "set" a line at a time. Nobody really does it this way any more (except high-end engravers) but the term "typesetting" stuck.
Points and styles. Type is measured in units called points. There are 72 points in an inch (expert typographers will argue the nuances of these measurements, but it's a good frame of reference). Typefaces come in different thicknesses, or weights. They also come in different styles, like italic or obique. So a single typeface can have multiple weights and styles. These weights and styles are designed to work together for a consistent look.
Making type look good. Typesetting is really an art--even today, with the use of computers to do most of the complicated work. The proportions of type, spacing and characteristics of how letters interact is crucial to readability. Good typesetters have a talented eye for this kind of work. Any graphic artist dealing with type will be concerned with two things that will either make the type look good or make it look ammeture: selection and spacing.
Selection: Less is more. Selecting the appropriate typeface for a project is important. Type has all kinds of descriptors: narrow, tall, old style, modern, techno, grunge, plain, flourishy. In general, unless you really have an in-depth knowledge and lots of experience with type, it's best to keep it simple: one or two faces in a document, no more. This entire website, for instance, uses only one typeface: Helvetica. There are different weights and styles, but the whole site sticks to one face.
Using more than two faces in any given project is usually a sign you don't know what you're doing. Carefully selecting a single and appropriate typeface brings clarity to a design. Variety in typefaces within a single document often sends a confusing message, making a project look more hodge-podge than designed. This is often subliminal: the reader doesn't realize exactly why something looks "cheap" or "juvenile," they just know that something is unclear.
The quality of a typeface is also important. Selections from "1,000 typefaces in a box" are likely to be oddly proportioned or shaped, leading again to a perception that there is something amiss with the document. Some quality faces can cost hundreds of dollars. But the best faces stand the test of time. In fact, it's estimated that 75% of all documents today are set in Times Roman.
Spacing. Spacing is everything in typography. It separates the men from the boys. There are two areas of spacing to deal with: kerning, which is the space between individual letters (sometimes called tracking, when dealing with multiple letter sets) and leading, or the vertical space between lines of letters. Kerning these days is often controlled by your computer's software. The latest software faces, called OpenType, even control special characters and adjust kerning based on size and perception.
Leading is also often controlled by software, but adjustment can be made. In large blocks of type, increased leading can add to readability. Generally, it is better to use smaller type with wider leading (more space) than to use large type that is sqished together tightly.
Are You Justified? Lines of type are sometimes justified, or spaced so the type fills every line from left to right. These often leads to a neater appearance on the page, though studies show readability suffers slightly. This type is ragged-right. The thought is that the uneven lines allow the eye to more easily navigate a page, using the line lengths as an indicator of what to read next.
Don't Underline. Ever. Underlining is a tool originally developed solely for typewriters, which could only produce one typeface. It is not a type of emphasis used in modern typesetting. Use italics instead. With the internet, underlining has come to symbolize a clickable link. Keep underlining online, where it belongs. Please don't underline in your documents. Ever. We know you're thinking about it--but don't do it. Enough already.
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