Week 3 Grid Systems and Typrahic Hierachy

Letter Spacing

The spacing of letters relative to one another 

Aim to keep spaces between letters balanced with the spaces within letters. 

Tracking

 Adding or subtracting space between letters in a word, sentence or paragra

Kerning

adjusting the spacing between two particular letters 

leading

space between lines of type in a paragraph (between one baseline and the next) 

Big x-heights need more leading 

Setting of type

combination of type sizes and leading 

Type set 9/12

Type setting combination for text books is nine point type with 12 points of leading 

Line Length

measured by The average number of letter that fit on a line.

Recommended Line Length

• 66 characters per line is often seen as a sweet spot 

• Up to 80 still works

• Down to 40 for narrow columns 

Indent rules

First paragraph of a body of text should not be indented

Depth is often set to one em

Margin

 define the borders of the main printed area of the page 

Hangline

Point on the page where for instance, a new chapter might begin

Gutter

Space between two columns

Rules for Hyphens

roughly 1.618 

• broken between syllables, should never be broken into a chunk smaller than three letters long 

• One or two letter words should not be left hanging at the end of a line 

• Single words or parts of words should not be left on their own at the bottom of a paragraph. 

• Single lines of a paragraph should not be left stranded on their own 

Orphan

• first line of a paragraph alone at the bottom of the page

Widow

•  last line of a paragraph alone at the top of a page. 

Em Dashes

• Used like commas, to set a phrase apart

• Also used to attribute a quote to a speaker 

en dashes

• longer than hyphens, used to signal a range, anywhere you might use the word “to”

Lining Figures

• start at the baseline and end at the cap height 

• Used whenever uppercase letters are used 

Old Style Figures

•  have ascenders and descenders 

• used where lowercase letters are used 

Proportional figure

• spaced like any other character but some characters taking up more space and others less

Figure

number

Tabular Figure

• monospaced- each figure takes up the same horizontal figure as the next

• Useful in charts and mathematical equations where you need the figures to line up vertically

Ligature

 two letter forms that are linked together as one character