SM2222: Information Design and Visualization Session 3: Typography 23 September 2005

the Greek words - typos = “form”, grapho = “write” the art and technique of selecting and arranging type styles, point sizes, line lengths, line leading, character spacing, and word spacing for typeset applications. the presentation of text in a manner that is not only easy to read but also visually engaging what is typography?

German metal-worker inventor of movable type Johannes Gutenberg (1398 –1468)

Gutenberg Bibles. February 23, 1455

Black Letter Roman Old Style Transitional Modern Egyptian Sans Serif classifications of type

classifications of type – black letter

classifications of type - roman

classifications of Type – old style a style of Roman letter less thick and thin contrast typefaces: Garamond (1530), Caslon (1734), Palatino (1948)

classifications of Type – transitional new letterform was developed in 1702 – 1737 intermediate between Old Style and Modern greater contrast between capital and lowercase letters typefaces: Baskerville, Century Schoolbook

classifications of Type – modern it was introduced in France in 1784 extreme thick and thin contrast, no bracketed serifs typefaces: Bondoni (1787)

classifications of Type – egyptian/slab serif squared-off serifs were introduced reflected the rigidness of ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics typefaces: Rockwell (1933), Geometric Slabserif

classifications of Type – sans serif without the thick and thin line variations without ornamentation extreme thick and thin contrast, no bracketed serifs typefaces: Futura (1927), Helvetica (1957), Univers

Timeline

a period of bauhaus (1919 – 1933) established in German in 1919 WWI founded by Walter Gropius form follows function to unify art, craft, and technology architecture, furniture design, typography, graphic design

Laszlo Moholy-Nagy (1895 – 1946) “Typography is a tool of communication. It must be communication in its most intense form. The emphasis must be on absolute clarity...Legibility – communication must never be impaired by an a priori esthetics. Letters must never be forced into a preconceived framework…We want to create a new language of typography whose elasticity, variability and freshness of typographical composition”

Herbert Bayer ( ) omitted capital letters in 1925 experimented with flush-left, ragged-right design universal type to maximize legibility extreme contrasts of type size and weight bars, rules, points and squares were used

Jan Tschichold (1902–1974) issued 24-page of “elementare typographie” in 1925 demonstrated asymmetrical typography the aim of typographic work delivers a message in the shortest and most efficient manner type should be placed in motion rather than at rest type should be elementary in pure form w/o ornament (such as Sans Serif)

Eric Gill (1882–1940) Gill Sans designer inspired by Edward Johnston’s alphabet typefaces designed in

Paul Renner ( ) Futura designer inspired by Bayer’s universal alphabet typefaces designed in 1927

Union Pacific Railroad

Herb Lubalin ( ) space and surface characters as both visual form and message communication letterforms became images, images became letterforms making type talk phototypography

the anatomy of type

Upper & Lower case Numbers : 0 – 9 Punctuation marks Special Characters: $,…

Ascender Descender X – height Baseline Serif Stem Counter

Point and Pica 6 picas = 1 inch 12 points = 1 pica 72 points = 1 inch

leading

kerning

alignment

emphasis: a block of text

hierarchy

horizontal & vertical scaling

type and visual

david carson