Typography

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= = =Typography is the art of designing with words. A typographer may design the type faces and the space in and around the type to be set for a page. One could argue that typography has been around as long as we've been using letters or symbols to convey our words and thoughts. The one of the first print-based typographic items is the [|Gutenberg bible] from the early 1500s. It coincided with the invention of the printing press and changed the way books and other printed materials were created. Prior to the printing press books and words were hand designed and drawn. These [|illuminated manuscripts] were often created by monks and usually involved many years of designing. It was a tedious slow process and meant that books were expensive and rare. Only the wealthy could afford to read and be educated, owning books. With the printing press it became much cheaper to print books and so the average citizen could afford them. = = = =Typography is used in all forms of design that contain words including posters, books, letter head, business cards, web design and more. In Graphic Design artists use typography to get their point across. They think about the shapes of the letters and the message or mood of the typeface they've chosen. They also think about the placement, size and color of the type. Remember that colors can express moods and help convey the idea. Designers view the words and letters of the words as shapes and they play with the shapes to design the space. Remember how you learned to design space with shapes and color in our Shape project. Now imagine if you were using only words to design. How would you use the space? What fonts might you use? Would you emphasize or repeat elements? How would you create balance? How would you express a mood or feelings with your choices? Understanding the relationship of all the elements that make up a design is the job of the graphic designer. = = = =It's important that you understand some of the terminology associated with typography. Here are a few vocabulary words to know. =



Kerning: the space between letters inside of words.
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==Leading: the space between lines of text. Typesetters used to manually set up this spacing using pieces of metal made with lead, that's why it's called leading. == 

==Typeface: A family of letters including the bold, italic and other styles of it; usually named for the designer who created it like Bodoni or Garamond. Specifically for printing industry. Kind of like the whole record or cd. ==

Typeface vs Fonts
==Typefaces are designs, fonts are their digital representation. Typographers, or Type designers create Typefaces and Graphic or Web Designers choose certain typefaces for their projects. In order to actually use those typefaces in our digital works we need to have the corresponding fonts installed on our computers and printers to send the designs for print. == ==Font is the variation of type in styles (bold, italic) and sizes (12pt, 1in). Typeface describes the shape of characters, created by typographers. ==

==Serif: the little swoop or tail that some typefaces have. general serif fonts are easier to read when they are in large groups of words like for an article. Examples include Palatino, Garamond ==

==Point Size: This is the unit of measure that measures the height of typefaces; there are 72 points in an inch. So next time you choose a 12 point font see if you can count the 12 dots/points of height. It should be about 1/6th of an inch high. ==

Watch this brief history of typography.
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=A typographer is a special designer who actually designs the letters used in design. There is a rich history of these types of designers. For the first part of this assignment you will be researching Typographers.= = = =For more details see the links and directions here.= = =