Chapter 3

A letter is a symbol, written (or in speech), representing a sound and constituting an individual letter of an alphabet. Each letter of an alphabet has characteristics that must be preserved to retain the legibility of the symbol.

Arm: A horizontal or diagonal stroke extending from a stem

Ascender: The part of lowercase letters (b, d, f, h, k, l, and t) that rises above the x-height

Axis: The oblique or angle of stress of the round part of a character or glyph

Bar: The horizontal stroke connecting two sides of a letterform, as in an A, H, or e; also called crossbar

Baseline : The bottom of capital and lowercase letters, excluding descenders

Bowl: A curved stroke that encloses a counter

Cap height: The height of a capital letter from the baseline to the top of the cap; also called capline

Character : A letterform, number, punctuation mark, or any single unit in a font

Counter : The space enclosed by the strokes of a letter

Descender: The part of lowercase characters (g, j, p, q, and y) that falls below the baseline

Ear: The projecting small stroke on the bowl of the g

Foot: The bottom portion of a character

Hairline: The thin stroke of a roman character

Head: The top portion of a letter

Italics: A specifically designed style variant of a typeface within a type family. Italics refer to typefaces that suggest a cursive origin, inspired by written forms, letters that slope to the right.

Leg: A lower downward stroke of a letter, such as in a K and R

Ligature: Two or more characters linked together

Link: The connecting stroke between a two-story lowercase g

Loop: The lower portion of the two-story lowercase g; also called lobe

Oblique: A slanting version of a face. Oblique is similar to italic but without the script quality of a true italic. Upright typefaces are usually referred to as roman.

Serif : A small stroke added to the upper or lower end of the main stroke of a character

Shoulder: Curved stroke of the lowercase h, m, or n

Spine: The main curved stroke of the S

Spur: A small projection of the main stroke

Stem: The main upright stroke of a character

Stress: The angle of the major axis of the stroke of a letter

Stroke: A line used to define a major structural portion of a character

Swash: A decorative extension on a letterform, usually a flourish replacing a terminal or serif

Tail: The descender of a Q when it descends below the baseline

Terminal: The end of a stroke not terminated with a serif

Text Type: Narrative content, set smaller than titles, subtitles, headlines, or subheadlines; also called body text or body copy

Thick/thin contrast: The comparative thicknesses of the strokes in a typeface; that is, the amount of difference between the weight of thick and thin strokes

Vertex: The foot of a pointed letter

Weight: Determined by the thickness of the stroke compared to the height—for example, light, medium, and bold weights

x-height : The height of a lowercase letter, excluding ascenders and descenders

Ensuring readability means text is easy to read, thereby making reading enjoyable and free of frustration. How you design with a suitable typeface, with considerations of size, spacing, margins, color, and paper selection, contributes to readability. Legibility has to do with how easily a person can recognize the letters in a typeface—how the characteristics of each individual letterform are distinguished. Here are some pointers:

Typefaces that are too light or too heavy may be difficult to read, especially in smaller sizes. Caution: Thin strokes are very difficult to see on small screens and should be avoided for text.

Typefaces with too much thick–thin contrast may be difficult to read if they are set very small—the thin strokes may seem to disappear.

Condensed or expanded letters are more difficult to read (especially in small sizes). They can appear to merge together when condensed and dissociate when expanded.

Text type set in all capitals is difficult to read. Opinions differ on whether all caps enhance or diminish readability for display type.

Greater value contrast between type and background increases readability.

Highly saturated colors may interfere with readability.

People tend to read darker colors first.

Orchestrating the Flow of Information

There are several ways to achieve emphasis within an entire composition using typography:

Emphasis by isolation

Emphasis by placement

Emphasis through scale (size relationships of title to subtitle to text as well as to images)

Emphasis through contrast

Emphasis through direction (see Figure 3-7)

Emphasis through diagrammatic structures