Typography is the study and process of typefaces; how to select, size, arrange, and use them in general. Traditionally, typography was the use of metal types with raised letterforms that were inked and then pressed onto paper. In modern terms, typography today also includes computer display and output.
#32725
What are Web safe fonts? Practically every personal computer has a set of fonts installed. These fonts are usually put there by the computer manufacturer or are the default sets of fonts for the operating system that computer is using. It's possible to install additional fonts on your own. However, not all font sets are created equal. Different computers can have very different sets of fonts installed, and most casual computer users never know the difference.
Rodriguez, David. Web Page Design for Designers (2008). Design>Web Design>Typography
#32727
Don't Be Afraid of Serif Fonts
As the practice of Web design ages, some common rules and "best practices" inevitably embed themselves in the craft. Among these are the processes for using specific types of semantics when coding your site, like using divs as hooks in your X/HTML for your CSS, and making your page beautiful and functional that way. Another is to ensure readability of your site by choosing a proper number of fonts (generally, no more than three or four, and for the minimalist, one or two).
Rodriguez, David. Web Page Design for Designers (2008). Design>Web Design>Typography>Fonts
#32728
Simple CSS: Creating More Readable Text
Typography is an important part of Web design. Just like in the print world, your content needs to be readable to your viewers for it to be of any use. As a general rule, you want to make sure your Web site provides as little resistance as possible to the user, and the easier your site is to read, the better. CSS provides three very useful properties to enhance the readability of your site: font , line-height , and letter-spacing.
Rodriguez, David. Web Page Design for Designers (2008). Design>Web Design>Typography>CSS
#32745
One of the easiest, yet most interactive, elements you can add to your Web site is dynamic link text—links that change their appearance once the user puts their cursor over them.
Jason, Chris. ChrisJason.com (2006). Articles>Web Design>CSS>Typography
#32801
Does the Typeface of a Resume Impact Our Perception of the Applicant?
Resumes play an important role when applying for a job. Unfortunately, many applicants focus only on the content of the resume and not the appearance. The typeface chosen to display the resume not only influences the physical appearance, but also influences how an employer may view the applicant. In this study, resumes displayed in a high appropriate typeface (Corbel), resulted in the applicant being perceived as more knowledgeable, mature, experienced, professional, believable, and trustworthy than when displayed in a neutral typeface (Tempus Sans) or low appropriate typeface (Vivaldi). Moreover, the applicant was more likely to be called for an interview when their resume was displayed in a high appropriate typeface than a neutral or low appropriate typeface.
Shaikh, A. Dawn and Doug Fox. Usability News (2008). Careers>Resumes>Typography>User Centered Design
#32804
Examining the Legibility of the Number '1' and the '÷' Symbol
This article continues the investigation of the legibility of onscreen typefaces and the influence of individual character features on correct identification. Specific attributes of alphanumeric characters and symbols shown to be the least legible were measured and analyzed using a statistical method called classification tree analysis. Results from this analysis for the number "1" and the "÷" symbol are discussed.
Fox, Doug, Barbara S. Chaparro and Ed Merkle. Usability News (2008). Articles>Typography>Usability
#32828
sIFR 2.0: Rich Accessible Typography for the Masses
Over the last several months, a small group of web developers and designers have been hard at work perfecting a method to insert rich typography into web pages without sacrificing accessibility, search engine friendliness, or markup semantics. The method, dubbed sIFR (or Scalable Inman Flash Replacement), is the result of many hundreds of hours of designing, scripting, testing, and debugging.
Davidson, Mike. Mike Industries (2008). Articles>Web Design>Typography>Standards
#32878
The default setting in browsers is to align text to the left. Text can also be aligned to the right, in the center, or justified (aligned on both the left and the right sides). Although some people like the look of justified text, studies have routinely shown that left-aligned text is the easiest to read. Some Asian and Middle Eastern languages are notable exceptions to this rule, since the normal text direction in these languages may be vertical from top to bottom or horizontal from right to left. For English and other left-top-right languages, the best practice is to align text on the left.
WebAIM (2005). Articles>Web Design>Typography>CSS
#32897
When Legibility, Readability and Usability Intersect, Then We Reach Our Target Audience
If we want to reach our target audiences when presenting text-based information, we as content specialists (designers, programmers, writers, and project managers) need to constantly consider usability. We must move crucial concepts of legibility, readability, and usability to the forefront of our design practices else we will unquestionably lose our audience.
Webb, Suzanne. Content Matters (2006). Articles>Web Design>Typography>Usability
#32911
In order to provide scalable text, make textual information text (rather than images), and use relative text sizes (rather than absolute). Scalable text is important for people with low vision. The basics of providing scalable text are very simple. However, strict design requests can pose challenges.
Henry, Shawn Lawton. UI Access (2002). Articles>Web Design>Accessibility>Typography
#33116
How to Match Type Size to Readership
The appropriate type size for a publication depends on many factors but there are some general type size guidelines to follow to insure readability for the main audience of your publication. These are not hard-and-fast rules. The more you know about your readership, the better type size choices you will make.
Bear, Jacci Howard. About.com. Articles>Document Design>Typography
#33117
Why Readability Testing is not Enough
he recent press coverage of the Bath University research paper "Readability Assessment of British Internet Information Resources on Diabetes Mellitus Targeting Laypersons" has raised interesting questions about some of the methodologies used to measure users' experience on the web. On the face of it, the conclusion and the methodology used is fine, but due to the indiscriminate nature of automated testing tools, it doesn’t present the entire picture and, at worst, can give the impression that the users of these websites can’t understand the content at all, which may not be the case.
Goddard, Matthew. Usability News (2004). Articles>Web Design>Typography>Usability
#33118
Comparison of Two Computer Fonts: Serif vs. Ornate Sans Serif
This study compares reading performance between an ornate sans serif font (Gigi) and Times New Roman. The traditional measures of reading speed, comprehensibility, and subjective preference were employed.
Morrison, Sarah and Jan Noyes. Usability News (2003). Articles>Typography>Online
#33120
Typography and the User Interface
While processing speed and computational flexibility have grown at incredible rates, our displays, the most human-facing elements of our digital lives, lag behind.
Kuo, Daniel. Cooper Journal (2005). Articles>User Interface>Typography
#33121
The Effects of Line Length on Reading Online News
This study examined the effects of line length on reading speed, comprehension, and user satisfaction of online news articles. Twenty college-age students read news articles displayed in 35, 55, 75, or 95 characters per line (cpl) from a computer monitor. Results showed that passages formatted with 95 cpl resulted in faster reading speed. No effects of line length were found for comprehension or satisfaction, however, users indicated a strong preference for either the short or long line lengths.
Shaikh, A. Dawn. Usability News (2005). Articles>Typography>Online>Usability
#33122
People rarely read web pages word by word; instead, they scan the page, picking out individual words and sentences. In a study John Morkes and Jakob Nielsen found that 79 percent of test users always scanned any new page they came across; only 16 percent read word-by-word.
Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (1997). Articles>Web Design>Typography>Usability
#33148
Five Simple Steps to Better Typography: Measure the Measure
There is an optimum width for a Measure and that is defined by the amount of characters are in the line. A general good rule of thumb is 2-3 alphabets in length, or 52-78 characters (including spaces). This is for legibility purposes. Keep your Measure within these guidelines and you should have no problem with legibility. Please note that this figure will vary widely with research, this is just the figure I use and it seems to work well as a generally rule of thumb.
Boulton, Mark. Mark Boulton (2007). Articles>Document Design>Typography
#33149
Five Simple Steps to Better Typography: Hanging Punctuation
Hanging punctuation is an area of typographic design which has suffered at the hands of certain software products. It's a term which refers to glyph positioning to create the illusion of a uniform edge of text. It's most commonly used for pull-quotes, but I feel the most neglected is that of bulleted lists.
Boulton, Mark. Mark Boulton (2007). Articles>Document Design>Typography
#33150
Five Simple Steps to Better Typography: Ligatures
The third installment of this series is dedicated to just one typographic element - Ligatures. Ligatures are combinations of letters - some of them are functional, some are decorative. They are more commonly seen in serif faces, although ligatures in sans-serif faces such as Gill Sans and Scala Sans are important to the typeface and should be used.
Boulton, Mark. Mark Boulton (2005). Articles>Typography
#33151
Five Simple Steps to Better Typography: Hierarchy—Size
Typographic hierarchy is how different faces, weights and sizes of typefaces structure a document. Some of these hierarchical devices are well-established conventions, such as cross heads and folios, so I'm not going to touch on them in this post. To keep it simple I'm going to concentrate on two things - size and weight. The first of which is size.
Boulton, Mark. Mark Boulton (2005). Articles>Typography>Information Design
#33152
Five Simple Steps to Better Typography: Hierarchy—Weight
Typeface weight, and the choice of weight, is perhaps one area of typography that to most designers is simply a matter of choice. That choice is dictated by answering a design problem which is aesthetically, or content, motivated. What many designers do not realise is that there are rules which should govern the choice of weight - a typographic pecking order - which when followed, aids the designer's typesetting and can produce stunning results.
Boulton, Mark. Mark Boulton (2005). Articles>Typography>Information Design
#33178
The (Mostly) True Story of Helvetica and the New York City Subway
There is a commonly held belief that Helvetica is the signage typeface of the New York City subway system, a belief reinforced by Helvetica, Gary Hustwit’s popular 2007 documentary about the typeface. But it is not true—or rather, it is only somewhat true. Helvetica is the official typeface of the MTA today, but it was not the typeface specified by Unimark International when it created a new signage system at the end of the 1960s. Why was Helvetica not chosen originally? What was chosen in its place? Why is Helvetica used now, and when did the changeover occur?
Shaw, Paul. AIGA (2008). Design>Typography>Technical Illustration>Case Studies
#33179
Interface Design and Optimization of Reading of Continuous Text
At present, we do not know how to optimize reading via electronic equipment. In this chapter, some considerations that may help us do this in the future will be raised, and some of the relevant evidence and theory that do exist will be cited and briefly highlighted. The focus of this paper is on reading of continuous text, whether in linear form or hypertext form, and with or without the presence of graphics or other types of information.
Muter, Paul. University of Toronto (1996). Articles>Typography>User Interface>Usability
#33180
Readability of Fonts in the Windows Environment
The readability of twelve different fonts and sizes in the Microsoft Windows environment was studied. The specific fonts were Arial, MS Sans Serif, MS Serif, and Small Fonts. Their sizes ranged from 6.0 to 9.75 points. These were presented using black text on either a white or gray background and either bold or non-bold style. There were significant differences between the various font/size combinations in terms of reading speed, accuracy, and subjective preferences. There were no consistent differences as a result of background color or boldness. The most preferred fonts were Arial and MS Sans Serif at 9.75. Most of the fonts from 8.25 to 9.75 performed well in terms of reading speed and accuracy, with the exception of MS Serif at 8.25. Arial at 7.5 and both of the Small Fonts (6.0 and 6.75) should generally be avoided.
Tullis, Thomas S., Jennifer L. Boynton and Harry Hersh. ACM SIGCHI (1995). Articles>Typography>Usability>Microsoft Windows
#33181
Reading text from electronic displays has now become a routine behavior in the workplace and elsewhere. As the computer replaces paper documents, the problems of reading text from electronic displays becomes increasingly evident. A decline in performance in display reading performance can be as high as 40 percent or more when compared to the same text read from paper. This report provides a review and analysis of recent studies of reading from electronic displays. Factors examined include not only display variables such as flicker, spatial resolution and image quality, but also the effects of autoscrolling, single and multiple word sequential presentation, color, font characteristics, and other factors. Of particular note are the effects of display presentation methods on text legibility and comprehension. Conclusions and recommendations for user interface design are provided.
Lee, A.T. Beta Research (1996). Articles>Typography>Online>Usability
