Typography Font type Font size Font style (e.g., bold, italic) Color Font effects The first 3 of these can be set in the formatting toolbar, and all of them can be set in the Format => Font… dialog box:

Ways to categorize fonts One way: –Monospaced: all characters same width Example: Courier New Reminiscent of typewritten text. Useful for when text must be aligned vertically. –Proportional: character width varies Example: Times New Roman or Arial

Another way: –Serif: Characters have short lines (called serifs) attached to the upper and lower ends of their strokes Example: Times New Roman –Sans Serif: (meaning “without serifs”) Characters have no serifs Example: Arial

What criteria should you use in deciding which font to use? Readability--whether the reader will find it easy or hard to read. Aesthetics--whether it’s an attractive font. Appropriateness of the font to the particular purpose. Connotation of a particular font type.

Font size Font size can affect legibility. It can also be used to emphasize a word or string of words when used in a text of a smaller font size. Headings are usually in a larger font size than regular text.

This is hard to read from far away.[14 pts] This is much [48 pts]easier to read.[32 pts]

How is font size measured? Font size is measured in points. One point is 1/72 inch. The number of points measures the distance from the top of the tallest letter in a character set (e.g., an uppercase T) to the bottom of the lowest letter (e.g., a lowercase y). For example, for 12-point type this distance would be 12/72 = 1/6 inch.

Font styles Regular [Roman] Italic Bold Bold Italic

Use of font styles The use of font styles can be conventional. E.g. italicizing titles of books in an otherwise regular text: –O’Leary, John How I Learned to Love the Internet. Boston, MA: Northeastern University Press. They can also be used for emphasis: –“What did you mean by that?”

Font effects Font effects are mainly used for indicating emphasis or de-emphasis. In addition to underlining, those available in Word, and what they look like, are listed here:

Underlining Underlining is usually used to emphasize text or make it stand out as different from the rest of the text. Here are some of the underlining styles in Word:

One of them, single underline, is available in the formatting toolbar. The others require you to use the Format => Font… dialog box:

20 different underline styles

Color Color can be applied to: –text –drawing elements like lines and arrows –paragraphs [fill] –highlighting –and in Word Art

You can access color via the formatting toolbar as well as the drawing toolbar and via the Format menu.

Fill color Line color Font color Highlighting color

For Format => Font...

Coloring borders Format => Borders and Shading… allows you to color –paragraph borders –page borders, and –shading [fill behind the text of the paragraph]

For coloring paragraph borders

For customizing colors

For coloring page borders

For coloring the backgrounds

Character spacing The spacing between characters can also be changed from the default for some fonts. This is also mainly used for emphasis. You can change the character spacing in the Format => Font… dialog box.

To get a drop cap Format => Drop Cap… Here is an example: