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.
#32578
Finessing Typographic Details: Positioning Punctuation
Are your characters depressed? When punctuation marks are positioned next to ALL CAPS, it can leave them looking a little low. Even making small adjustments in a character’s position will create greater visual balance and give your layout a “lift,” especially in display sizes.
Strizver, Ilene. Upper and lowercase Magazine (2007). Articles>Document Design>Typography
#32594
How to Design a Logo of Letters 
Are you known by your initials? Turn those letters into a terrific signature!
#32719
Vintage and Retro Typography Showcase
In this article, we go retro, finding beautiful examples of vintage typography and the modern work they’ve inspired. Looking back, it’s easy to see why some of this type has stood the test of time and is still lingering in the design community today.
Smashing (2008). Design>Graphic Design>Typography
#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
#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
#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
#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
#33231
What can we conclude when users are reading prose text from monitors? Users tend to read faster if the line lengths are longer (up to 10 inches). If the line lengths are too short (2.5 inches or less) it may impede rapid reading. Finally, users tend to prefer lines that are moderately long (4 to 5 inches).
Bailey, Robert. Human Factors International (2002). Articles>Web Design>Typography
#34047
Get creative. Expand your font choice. Mix fonts. Use weights, font-styles, small-caps. Mind variations in size and legibility.
Schoors, Lennart. SlideShare (2009). Presentations>Web Design>Typography>Fonts
#34048
Increase Your Font Stacks With Font Matrix
I have put together a matrix of (western) fonts showing which are installed with Mac and Windows operating systems, which are installed with various versions of Microsoft Office, and which are installed with Adobe Creative Suite. The idea of the matrix is that use can use it to help construct your font stack.
Rutter, Richard. Twenty-Four Ways to Impress Your Friends (2007). Articles>Web Design>Typography>Fonts
#34146
Linux Font Equivalents to Popular Web Typefaces
While the list of Web safe fonts we have come to know and love is relied heavily upon, it can be very beneficial to include similar default Linux fonts in your font-family as well.
Monday By Noon (2007). Articles>Web Design>Typography>Linux
#34302
Five Simple Ways to Improve Web Typography
Type is one of the most-used elements of the web. Think about it. Unless you are YouTube or Flickr, chances are your site visitors are coming for your text content - not the fancy packaging that surrounds it. So why are web designers still treating text like a secondary element?
Wagner, Mindy. Webdesigner Depot (2009). Design>Web Design>Typography
