TYPE - Session 1

'Type is the essence of someone speaking to you through written form.'

ANATOMY OF TYPE
- baseline
- cap line
- foot serif
- cross bar
- x height
- head serif
- bracket - stem of the thick/thin part of letter
- descender
- depth of descender
- ascender
- ascender head
- counter
- bowl
- tail

NAMES OF TYPE
- upper & lower case
- small caps
- Lining figures (numbers)
- Non - lining figures

CLASSIFICATION  & DESCRIBING TYPEFACES
- Linotype
- old face
- transitional
- modern face
- slab serif
- san serif
- decorative and display
- script and bush
- black letter and broken


Source

• decorated / pictorial
• handwritten
• roman
• 19th century veracular
• additional

formal attributes

• construction
• continuous
• broken or interrupted
• other
• reference to tool
• character set
• shape
• variants to traditional forms
• treatment of curves
• aspect of curves
• detail of the curves
• upright stems
• other details
• proportions
• width
• relative proportions capitals
• relative internal proportions
• modelling
• contrast
• axis of contrast
• transition
• weight
• colour
• weights within families
• terminations
• baseline terminals
• ascenders terminals
• specific characters
• key characters
• individual characters
• decoration
• attribute of existing letterform

patterns


QUARK EXPRESS

EXERCISE for next week. 

Produce an a4 landscape page which is going to be an analysis of a typeface. Select a typeface. Save as a PDF page in Quark Express. Looks at the key characteristics of that typeface. What is the one thing about a letter of a font that you can immediately tell what it is.

- Name of Font

- Describe construction

- Description of key characteristics

- Key letter for identification

SANS SERIF FONT - compare to Helvetica - Century Gothic