DO NOW What are some examples of ways that companies use fonts to help sell their products? Copy your homework: Find two examples of creative uses of font in everyday items. You can use the internet, magazines, and other household objects to help you with this assignment. Write a one pager explaining how font has been used effectively to send a message. Be sure to describe each item that you have found.

Typography Liscinsky 4/20/2012

Typography The art or process of setting and arranging types and printing from them. The style and appearance of printed matter.

What is Type? A letterform is "The particular set of shapes seen in each individual letter of our alphabet, every one of them having characteristics that distinguish it from all the others in order to retain legibility." Type is "In typography, a letterform produced electronically or photographically, most often with a computer. Before computers took over this function in the late twentieth century, type was a small block of metal or wood bearing a raised letter or character on the upper end that leaves a printed impression when inked and pressed on paper.”typographycharacterprintedimpressioninkedpaper

Typeface and Fonts A typeface or font is "the design of a full set of letterforms, numerals, punctuations and other characters unified by consistent visual qualities." Typefaces are frequently grouped as of various distinctive kinds: as serif, sans serif, script and decorative.serif, scr Modifications in a typeface can create design variety while retaining the essential visual character of the face. These include variations in weight (light, medium, bold), width (condensed, regular, extended), and angle (roman or upright, and Italic), and other elaborations (outline, shadowed, decorative, etc.)

Serif and Sans Serif

Comparing Typeface The “G” in Helvetica has a spur at the bottom of the stem on the right side and the curve at the bottom of the “G” flows into the stem; in Arial and Grotesque the “G” has no spur and the curve at the bottom meets the stem at an angle. The tail of the “R” in Helvetica flows out from the bowl and curves straight down, ending in a slight curve to the right. In Arial, the tail flows down and to the right from near the center of the horizontal bar and straightens out at an angle to the end. It appears to be a compromise between the Helvetica “R” and the Grotesque “R.” This feature is very unusual for a “grotesque” design, and is more typical of “humanist” sans serifs. It feels out of place here and is one of the more awkward design features of Arial.

Compare the three typefaces below.

Interesting Uses of Type