#20427
If the letter spacing and kerning of a font you love is less than perfect, there’s hope: today’s design programs have advanced type manipulation features that allow you to improve the way any font looks 'out of the box.'
Strizver, Ilene. Upper and lowercase Magazine (2001). Design>Typography
#20405
Swash and Alternate Characters
Are you looking for a way to add flair to a typographic treatment? Try using swash characters. These extremely decorative letters have a flourish or extended stroke at the beginning or the end of the character. They are almost always capitals, and you’ll frequently find one used as an eye-catching initial letter at the beginning of a paragraph, chapter or article.
Strizver, Ilene. Upper and lowercase Magazine (2003). Design>Typography
#20412
What’s the point of a point system in which 24 points doesn’t always equal 24 points? It’s not pointless, but it does require some explanation!
Strizver, Ilene. Upper and lowercase Magazine (2003). Design>Typography>Standards
#20424
The more components a brand identity contains, the more onerous it can be. Logo, pictogram, texture, color scheme, wordmark: each must be laboriously created, launched, and cared for, and each of these stages has its own substantial costs. For many companies today, these costs are becoming prohibitive. An increasingly popular alternative is a hard-working, purely typographic wordmark that speaks clearly for the brand, all by itself.
Fishel, Catherine. Upper and lowercase Magazine (2002). Design>Typography>Graphic Design
#20404
U&lc Online is ITC’s international journal of graphic design and digital media.
Upper and lowercase Magazine. Journals>Graphic Design>Typography
#20415
Designers are used to being detail-oriented and mathematically precise, nudging things a point this way and a pixel that way until technical perfection is achieved. However, when it comes to typographic alignment, the mathematical approach to design doesn’t apply: it’s all in the eye of the beholder. Visual alignment (also called optical alignment) means exactly that: using that high-tech tool, the human eye, to line up your text until it looks right.
Strizver, Ilene. Upper and lowercase Magazine (2002). Design>Typography>Graphic Design
#20445
The War Between Text and Links
There are tiny typographic battles being fought on the Web, from page to page and site to site, skirmishes in a larger conflict between text and links. Like many wars, this one has a thin ideological gloss that obscures a deeper economic and territorial conflict.
Gunn, Eileen. Upper and lowercase Magazine (1998). Design>Typography>Web Design
#20446
Typography traditionally thrived on its technical limits. Letterforms reflected material constraints. Typography was part of an ancient, terrific combat with the world’s physical limits.
Sterling, Bruce. Upper and lowercase Magazine (1998). Design>Typography
#20408
When setting type, most of us are very conscious of type style, size, width and line spacing. Many of us also pay attention to letter spacing and kerning, even if we’re not as confident in these areas. But word spacing--the space between words--is probably the most neglected of typographic attributes. This seemingly small detail plays an important role in the color, texture and readability of your type.
Strizver, Ilene. Upper and lowercase Magazine (2003). Design>Typography>Document Design
#20447
It was advertised as a revolution in typesetting, but, when I first saw it, I thought it was wrong, misguided, and verging on the blasphemous. And I’m usually an open-minded sort. What was it about Adobe TouchType, a now defunct typesetting program for the now defunct NeXT machine, that prompted my feelings of outrage and intolerance?
Kvern, Olav Martin. Upper and lowercase Magazine (1999). Design>Typography>Online
#32557
OpenType fonts often contain a treasure trove of typographic options. Discover some easy ways to enhance your typography by taking advantage of discretionary ligatures, swashes or titling alternates – to name just a few.
Strizver, Ilene. Upper and lowercase Magazine (2008). Design>Typography>Fonts
#32558
The history of Helvetica includes a number of twists and turns. There are, in fact, two versions of Helvetica. The first one is the original design, which was created by Max Miedinger and released by Linotype in 1957. And secondly, in 1983, D. Stempel AG, Linotype’s daughter company, released the Neue Helvetica® design, which was a re-working of the 1957 original.
Strizver, Ilene. Upper and lowercase Magazine (2008). Design>Typography>Fonts
#32559
Setting professional-looking typography is all about attention to detail. Hyphenation is one of these critical details: what and where to hyphenate, and, in some cases, what not to hyphenate. There are times you don’t want text to break at the end of a line, such as a proper name, a phone number or a URL. But if you leave the choice up to auto-hyphenation, it can happen without your consent. This is when the nonbreaking hyphen comes in handy. A nonbreaking hyphen is not really a hyphen; rather, it is a command not to hyphenate. When placed in front of a word or a group of characters acting as a word, such as a phone number, web address or email address, that word will not be hyphenated. This is helpful not only in text, but also in headlines that you don’t want breaking onto two lines.
Strizver, Ilene. Upper and lowercase Magazine (2008). Articles>Typography>Grammar
#32560
Small Caps in InDesign CS3 and QuarkXPress 7
We previously discussed small caps and the importance of using true-drawn versions rather than computer-generated, “fake” ones. Many of today’s OpenType fonts include true-drawn small caps, making it easier than ever to take advantage of this typographically sophisticated feature, but the OpenType interface in both Adobe® InDesign® CS3 and QuarkXpress® 7 can be a bit confusing.
Strizver, Ilene. Upper and lowercase Magazine (2008). Articles>Document Design>Typography>Adobe InDesign
#32562
Hung Punctuation and Optical Margin Alignment
Even with all the technology at the disposal of today’s designers, in the end it’s what the human eye sees that counts. That’s why hung punctuation is one of the skills to master when you’re ready to add professional finesse to your typography. Learn what hung punctuation is and how to achieve it in the leading page layout applications.
Strizver, Ilene. Upper and lowercase Magazine (2008). Articles>Document Design>Typography
#32563
Double Spaces Between Sentences…NOT!
Typing two spaces after a period is a relic of the typewriter era that has hung around long past its sell-by date. Here’s how to make sure none of those double-space dinosaurs find their way into your typeset work.
Strizver, Ilene. Upper and lowercase Magazine (2008). Articles>Document Design>Typography
#32564
Automatic, or manual? No, we’re not talking about transmissions - we’re talking about bullet lists, those frequently used tools for organizing lists of information. Your layout application will be happy to format these lists for you, but for true typographic finesse, it’s time to learn to “drive stick” and call your own shots about bullets, alignment and spacing.
Strizver, Ilene. Upper and lowercase Magazine (2008). Articles>Document Design>Typography
#32565
The Halloween season offers a spookily good excuse to explore the world of scary fonts, but the terror needn’t end there. From media packaging to promotional items, whenever horror, mystery, fear and suspense need to be evoked, scary fonts can sneak up behind your audience and say “boo!”
Strizver, Ilene. Upper and lowercase Magazine (2008). Articles>Typography>Fonts
#32568
Breaking up isn’t hard to do – just do it right so you don’t lose face. Learn why making the right line breaks in display type is essential for good looks and good sense.
Strizver, Ilene. Upper and lowercase Magazine (2008). Articles>Document Design>Typography>Usability
#32569
Space matters. Word space, that is. Different letter and word shapes call for subtly different amounts of space. Learn to see and finesse word spacing in both text and display type with these how-tos.
Strizver, Ilene. Upper and lowercase Magazine (2008). Articles>Typography>Usability>Adobe InDesign
#32570
Comic book writers aren’t the only ones who can use silly, wacky and irreverent fonts. You, too, can give your work a fresh and light-hearted look with one of these fine, fun fonts.
Strizver, Ilene. Upper and lowercase Magazine (2008). Articles>Typography>Fonts
#32571
InDesign Shortcuts: Special Characters
The keyboard is rarely the friendliest path to symbols and special characters. Sometimes a bit of menu magic can guide you past the overwhelming Glyph palette. Indeed, the Special Character flyout palette in Adobe InDesign CS3 is a great shortcut to frequently-used characters and will spare your fingers the keyboard contortions.
Strizver, Ilene. Upper and lowercase Magazine (2008). Articles>Document Design>Typography>Adobe InDesign
#32572
Powerful design software makes many choices available to graphic designers, but just because you can do something doesn’t always mean you should. For example, sometimes it’s a good idea to convert your text layouts to outline, but sometimes it isn’t. Learn more about this occasionally necessary, often ill-advised practice before you decide whether or not it’s time to convert.
Strizver, Ilene. Upper and lowercase Magazine (2008). Articles>Document Design>Typography>Graphic Design
#32573
If there were a “Ten Most Wanted” list for typographic crimes, these hardboiled miscreants would be on it. Learn what the ten worst (and most common) type crimes are, and how to avoid them.
Strizver, Ilene. Upper and lowercase Magazine (2008). Articles>Typography
#32574
OpenType Numerals in InDesign and Quark
Today’s OpenType fonts come equipped with a virtual buffet of numeral styles, but all those choices can be a bit much for your design application to swallow. Here’s a practical guide to help you find your way through the maze of oldstyle, lining, proportional, and tabular, in both InDesign and Quark.
Strizver, Ilene. Upper and lowercase Magazine (2007). Articles>Document Design>Typography>Adobe InDesign
