Chris Matusek
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TYPography

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Or scroll down to learn more about type.

Type is Everywhere!

Every typeface you see has been painstakingly designed to have its own personality or voice.
​
​Where did all these typefaces come from and why? 

Evolution of Type

Type evolves, it is influenced by technological advances and culture (political, social, academic, artistic, etc):
  • Evolved from one-of-a-kind handwritten scripts (pre-1400) to printed technologies - this changed the nature of written communication so much that the term "typography" was coined to describe it.
  • Current digital typographic innovations continue to push the boundaries of type use in design.
  • Typographic quality is based on reproducibility.
Learn more about the History of Typeface.

Basics of Type

Download the Adobe Typography Primer to learn more about the type topics below:
  • Typographic Measurements
  • Classifications of Type
  • Variations on a Theme
  • Type Specifications
  • Spacing, Copyfitting
  • Designing with Type
  • Choosing and Using Typefaces
  • And more...

Explore

Artists

  • Christopher Wool
  • Marian Bantjes
  • Paul Rand - Type Talk Interview
  • Stefan Sagmeister, Happiness by Design Ted Talk

Reading List

  • Thinking with Type: A Critical Guide for Designers, Writer, Editors, & Students by Ellen Lupton available | Amazon
  • The Elements of Typographic Style by Robert Bringhurst | Amazon​
  • Incredible Histories of Your Favorite Fonts | HuffPost
  • Letter | Thinking with Type

Tutorials

  • Anatomy of Type | Thinking with Type
  • Arabesque: Graphic Design from the Arab World and Persia by Ben Wittner |  Amazon
  • Kern Me | Kern Type, a kerning game - for other typographic games visit Mashable's article - 18 Insanely Addictive Font Games 
  • Fonts in Use | Web resource

Terminology

  • Font - a complete set of letterforms, numerals, and signs
  • Letterform - the particular style and form of each individual letter of our alphabet. 
  • Italics - letterforms that slope to the right
  • Sans serif - a typeface with no serifs
  • Serif - a small element added to the upper or lower end of the main stroke of a letterform.
  • Stroke - a straight or curved line forming a letter.
  • Typeface - the design of a single set of letterforms, numerals, and signs unified by consistent visual properties created by a type designer the design you see: the style, look, feel of a specific font
  • Type family - several font designs contributing a range of style variations based upon a single typeface design (light, medium, and bold weights including italics.)
  • Type style - modifications in a typeface that create design variety while retaining the essential visual character of the face. Include variations in weight, width, angle, and elaborations on the basic forms (outline, shaded, decorated).
  • Typography - Traditionally defined as the study, use, and design of sets of letterforms
Note: Typeface is the family, while font is each individual member of the family.
For more terms visit Adobe Typographic Terms List [PDF]
​or view An Illustrated Glossary of Typographic Terms on Canvas Learn
Educator | Visually Clear Studio