Typography Principles Communications 320 Desktop Publishing

Principle 1: Select a Type Appropriate to Your Audience Purpose and character of publication Factors affecting legibility –Sans Serif for Display Text Subheads 14, 18, 24 points Heads 30, 36, 48 points (possibly 60) –Serif for Body Copy - 10 or 12 point

Principal 1(continued): Measuring Type Measured from –baseline to baseline –top of ascender to bottom of descender (plus some space) –72 points to the inch

Principal 2: Don’t Use ALL Caps Consider –Word recognition –Economy of space –Reading speed For similar reasons avoid –All italics –All bold

Fonts A font is a complete alphabet of –one size and –one type (bold, italics, normal) of one typeface

Principle 3: Make the Line Length Comfortable to Read For body copy the line length should range from characters Leading - The longer the line the more leading you should use –Range is per cent of type size –Thus range for 10 point type is 1-2 points Typeface

Leading Leading is the spacing between lines and paragraphs Kerning is the spacing between letters

Principle 4: Choose an Appropriate Text Arrangement Justified forces word spacing Flush left, ragged right is easiest to read Flush right, ragged left is more difficult to read Centered is for cutlines and captions Asymmetrical - for effect, wrap around photos