You may not realize this, but typography is all around us. Whether its a website design agency creating content for a website or an online marketer figuring out how to promote a product or service. They all need the right typography that fits the brand.
Without the right tools or automation in place, WordPress maintenance services could become an even greater burden on your business. Remember, you want to move away from time-based services, so this needs to be set up properly if you want to make it work.
Just walk down your street and I bet you’ll be able to see a sign with words on it. It’s crazy to think that something such as this has become something so essential in the way we present anything. Everyone uses this and we tend not to think about it too much. Typography is something that has been overlooked. Typography is actually very important in the way we present information. It’s even better if you’re typography is done correctly.
communicate with your customers
Say you have a business. How will you want to communicate with your customers? Just by speaking to them in person? That would be very time consuming and the number of customers you would encounter would be limited to your time. You can use pictures, but that wouldn’t really be a good way to share information. Customers might not get what you are trying to say through photos. So how would you be able to communicate with the customers then? The most effective way would use typography.
You might be asking yourself, what is typography though? According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, typography is “the style, arrangement, or appearance of typeset matter.” I agree with this definition, however, I feel as though it’s missing something. I believe that if you use typography correctly, you’ll be able to captivate your audience and create a certain feeling.
Typography is an art form
It is the arranging of type. It is very important for people who work with any form of print, design, writing, and marketing professionals. People in these fields of expertise use type as an element in their layout. Typography, among many other elements in a design layout, is one of the important elements. Say typography is just another cog among many others with different sizes and shapes. Without typography, the machine wouldn’t really work would it? If your typography isn’t used properly, then your whole layout wouldn’t really work. It just wouldn’t be appealing to the eyes.
Typeface
There are a lot of people out there that just think that typography is only about the font and the color. There is more to typography than just changing the font and choosing a color! When working with type, people would usually refer to the different styles with the word ‘typeface’.
A typeface is the name of the text style. When we talk about typeface, what comes to your head? Probably the most common ones are Arial and Helvetica. Fonts refer to a specific typeface style, height, and width. The most well-known and most used fonts would probably be Courier, Calibri, Verdana, Tahoma and Times New Roman. Now we’ve all heard of Times New Roman right? The most used font for education papers and essays.
All typefaces are different. They come in different sizes and colors. When you talk about the height of a character, which would refer to as x-height. When designers are pairing different fonts together, they want to make sure that the x-heights are all similar.
The Vertical space between each line of words can be referred to as leading. The leading values refer to space and distance between one line with another line. Most publishers would pick a leading value that is a bit bigger than the font size. It would probably be about 1.25 to 1.5 times bigger than the font size.
space between each text
The space between each text character can be referred to as tracking, or letter spacing. Kerning is almost similar to track but only refers to space in between each letter and characters. The line length refers to the length of the text that goes from left to right. This would be adjustable through the margin of the page you are working on.
Why is this important you may ask? Using the right kind of typeface has a lot of benefits. The first benefit is that it is attractive. It has the ability to attract and hold the reader’s attention. If used correctly, typography would be able to convey a certain feeling and a certain mood. The audience must be able to understand what kind of message you are trying to send to the readers. You also have to think about keeping them interested. Having the right typeface would be able to use the tone of your work before you even have to explain it. Having a good typeface would create a situation where the reader would influence the reader’s attention. It would also cause the reader to be interested and willing to continue reading your work.
Typography is able to create or carry a mood or emotion. Say you are advertising for a game company. Since we’re talking about a game, you have to think about ways to create fun and excitement through your typography. Another example would be a more formal business setting. You would just keep your fonts simple and clean. A simple font would make your information seem like it’s very serious and professional.
Another reason as to why typography is important is to make sure your work is visually appealing to the readers. By having a visually appealing typeface, it would make communicating with the audience much easier. You also have to make sure that the font itself is clean and is to read. It’s all about the visual. I mean, if your work is amazing and very informative, but your typeface is distracting, do you think that your information would be able to reach your reader. Would you be able to keep them interested in your paper? You have to make sure to make it easy for your readers to be able to comprehend what you are trying to present.
By using the same typeface throughout your work or presentation, you would help create harmony. It would unify all of your work. By using a single font, it creates continuity and simplicity. You also have to make sure you pay attention to font sizes and font alignment.
Strategies
There are a lot of tips and strategies that you can use when it comes to Typography. Like the font size for example, by using different font sizes, you would be able to create an information hierarchy. What does that mean? Say you have a title. You want the title to be different from the other words so what would you do? You could increase the font size and that would make the reader be attracted to the title first. Then you would have section titles. The font for section titles would be smaller than the title but bigger than the rest of the other information in your work. By using different font sizes, you would be creating an information hierarchy. Readers tend to look at the bigger words first. It’s a way to lead the readers through your work and help them navigate.
There are a lot of elements when you talk about typography. I mentioned a few of these above but I wanted to go more in detail. I want to talk about kerning, tracking, word spacing, font choice, and typography errors. Kerning refers to the way specific letter pair fit together. It is the process of sizing the space between the characters proportional. Designers usually do this to achieve visually appealing results. Tracking refers to adjusting the space between each character text. You would adjust the tracking if you’re information is limited to a certain size. An example would be in news design. Word spacing adjustment of the space between each word. This would be adjusted to help aid the reader’s readability and copy fit. Font choice is also a big one. When you trying to pick a good font, make sure to think about what kind of information you are presenting. You want it to be fun, exciting, formal, serious, etc. There’s always a good font for each occasion.
I’ve been writing about good typography in the world and forgot to mention that this world is plagued with typography nightmares. This is one of the things I hate after I learned about typography. I love walking around and exploring different places throughout my town. During this time, I would enjoy reading all the signs and looking at the different ways people use typography. I was looking for inspirations and new ways to us typography. Instead of remembering the good, all I could remember is the bad ones.
Here’s an example of what bad typography could look like.
This sign is supposed to read “Kids Exchange”. It’s crazy how a letter-spacing error could change the way people read this store name…
The next example shows how kerning looks like. Remember that kerning refers to the way a specific letter pair’s fir together or the spacing between specific letters. This sign is supposed to be for a massage therapist. The space between the “e” and the “R” is way too big. This creates a big error that would lead to a lot of misunderstandings.
Take Away on Typography
You can see why Typography is very important when you are presenting information to your audience. When dealing with typography you have to think about what kind of content you are working with and who the audience is. From there, you would pick an appropriate typeface. Then you would make sure the kerning, tracking and word spacing are correct. All of these elements go together to create a captivating form of communication. Remember Typography can be a way to captivate your audience.
