Elements

Line Shape Color Type

Principles

Proximity Alignment Contrast Repetition Unity

Process

Process Symbols Audience Logos Identity Research

Software

Adobe Photoshop Adobe Illustrator Adobe InDesign

Design/Type

T ype design is a huge part of the graphic design industry. There are industry professionals who do nothing but design with, and create typefaces. In order to fully understand type and it's implications for design you need to have some knowledge of type history.
What Is A Font?
Afont (also called a typeface ) is a set of letters, numbers, and other special symbols that share a particular appearance. A specific symbol in a font set is called a character .

One of the simplest advantages a word processor has over a typewriter is the ability to use several different fonts. In fact, many beginning computer users seem to go a bit nutso, trying to see how many different fonts they can cram into a single document.

This completely understandable -- it's part of the joy of learning a word processor. Most people eventually settle on using just a handful of fonts. Other continue to use many fonts, but learn to choose fonts which work well together on the page. Still others, of course, never learn and end up producing documents that look like ads from the Yellow Pages.

Name That Font
Each font has a name, which might be a city (New York, Monaco, Geneva), a description of the font's appearance (Futura, Optima), or something seemingly totally unrelated (Zapf Dingbats, MT Extra). While you won't employ a font simply because of its name (well, at least not often), the name is the only way to select a font within most applications. After using a computer for only a short time, you'll be surprised how many different fonts you will be able to identify by name. When you find yourself admiring the fonts during the credits at a movie, you'll know you've taken things just a bit too far

Anatomy of a letter .

Serif Or Sans-Serif?
A serifed font is one in which some (not necessarily all) of the characters have serifs -- small lines which decorate the main strokes of a letter. Consider this pair of Es, set in a popular serifed font named Palatino. The uppercase E has two horizontal serifs (at the upper and lower left) and three vertical serifs (along the right hand side). The lowercase e, even though it is of the same font as the uppercase E, contains no serifs simply because the strokes are round -- we don't have to "cap" any of our strokes with a serif.

A sans-serif font doesn't contain any serifs ("sans" is actually French for "without"). The pair of Es should here are in Helvetica, a common sans-serif font. Sans-serif fonts typically appear less formal than serifed fonts, but can be used for striking effect in headlines, chapter names, and advertisements. In addition, sans-serif fonts are typically used when large print is called for, where serifs become a distraction.

One thing to keep in mind when choosing to serif or not to serif: studies have shown that serifed fonts are generally easier to read than sans-serif fonts. The effect is most pronounced at smaller font sizes, so body text is typically in a serifed font. Notice the difference in the following two paragraphs:

This text uses a font called Times, based on the font used in newspapers (such as the London Times ). Notice how your eyes tend to flow naturally across the page, following the lines created by the serifs. All newspapers use serifed fonts (we challenge you to find a counter-example -- good luck!) to make them easy to read even when the print is small (or when the printing is smudged).

This text uses a font called Helvetica. Notice that without serifs, a font has a strong vertical appearance which draws your eyes upward and away from the invisible line the text is resting on. Helvetica isn't as easy to read as Times for this reason, but it does offer other nice properties. Which of these two paragraphs do your eyes first go to when you look at this page? If you were an advertiser, which font would you select for your ad?

Monospace Or Proportional?
In a monospace font, all of the characters are given an equal amount of horizontal space. In a proportional font, each character is given only as much horizontal space as it needs, so a lowercase "l" doesn't take up as much room as a capital "W".

This is much easier to see than it is to describe...
Monospace: abcedefhigklmnopqrstuvwxyz
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog
bill and jimminy cricket
Proportional : abcedefhigklmnopqrstuvwxyz

The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog

bill and jimminy cricket

It's easy to see why proportional fonts are generally considered easier to read; each word has a particular "shape" which we've all learned to recognize over the years. Unless you have a compelling reason to use a monospaced font, like emulating the ugly text seen on a computer screen, you should always use a proportional font

Font Sizes
Fonts are usually measured in units called points. Apoint is about 1/72 of an inch. A font's size is measured from the bottom of the font's lowest descender (e.g. the tail of a "y") to the top of the tallest ascender (like the top of a "T").

Typically, 12-point type is used for body text. You can use smaller fonts sporadically, but you should generally spare your readers the eyestrain caused by reading fonts much smaller than 10- point. Text becomes virtually unreadable at six points or smaller. Likewise, you shouldn't annoy your reader with long blocks of large text.

Serif Fonts

The first half of 20th century is the end of the Modern era, the moment when revived typefaces were flooding the typography mainstream. But it was also the time when a completely different font design was booming, called sans serif (which is French for "without serifs"). It wasn't an absolutely new idea at that time, since first sans serif faces had appeared in the beginning of 19th century; but never before this seemingly peripheral and exotic trend claimed so much importance as in 1920s and 30s. more...

Sans Serif Fonts

Modern era, the moment when revived typefaces were flooding the typography mainstream. But it was also the time when a completely different font design was booming, called sans serif (which is French for "without serifs"). It wasn't an absolutely new idea at that time, since first sans serif faces had appeared in the beginning of 19th century; but never before this seemingly peripheral and exotic trend claimed so much importance as in 1920s and 30s. more...

You will create a business card. Your card can be for a fictitional business or a real business. Your card must contain a name, address, phone number, email address, business name, job title, and a logo. Get the template here. Use the tutorial here for the specifics of how to save the file.

5 Minute Read

You will save 3 copies of your business card.
1. Save the first in Illustrator format (ai). This is your working copy that you can use to make changes if needed. You do not turn this one in.

2. The second copy will be in eps format. Before you save it make sure you create outlines on all your font faces. To do this select your type, then go to the menubar and click on type>create outlines. Next to to file>document setup and make the output resolution 300. Save this file into the images folder of your website. Use text on your Illustrator page to link to the file.
3. The third copy is a 72 ppi jpeg version. Place this one on your portfolio website on the illustrator page.

You will create a postcard advertising CAL's Graphic Design Program. Your program will use only type. No pictures or images of any kind. You will be experimental with type and try to use it in inventive and graphically interesting ways.

Examples:
Example1, Example 2

Steps to create the cutout effect on example 2:

Open the layers palette. Create a new layer. You should have 2 layers.
On the first layer, use the rectangle drawing tool to draw a rectangle the size of your document and fill it with a color for your background.
Click on to the second layer. This is the layer you will use for your type.
Add some type to the page. Use type, type on a path, type within a shape, or vertical type.
Select the type with the selection tool.
Go to Type>Create Outlines.
Create some more type and drag it so that it overlaps the first.
With the type selected, go to Type>Create Outlines.
Use the selection tool to drag a box that touches both sets of type so that they are both selected at the same time, or you can hold down the shift key and click on each set of text. Either way as long as they are both selected.
If the pathfinder palette is not visible, go to Window>Show Pathfinder.
With both sets of type selected, click on the exclude button in the pathfinder palette. The areas where the type overlaps should be erased. If not you either did not have both type selected, or you hit the wrong button. If you are not sure which button is the exclude button, move your cursor over a button and wait. Illustrator will tell you the name of the button.
Select both sets of type again and Ungroup the type.
Go back to step 5 and repeat until you are satisfied with your design.

Project Specs:

Get the tepmplate here (vertical) or here (horizontal) .
Output resolution 300 ppi
File Type PDF. Save each side as a PDF document from Illustrator. You will use Adobe Acrobat to make a PDF file that joins the 2 files into one.
Must be 2 sided. You will have 2 files. One for the front and one for the back. Back side has CAL's return address, a place for recipient's address, and a box for the stamp. Get the guidelines for the back of the card here.

Place 2 72 ppi web optomized versions (front and back) on your website under type. Link to the full size version (PDF) from the same place.

5 Minute Read

You need to create the front and back of your card. Use the templates above .There is a template for the front and a separate template for the back. After you complete the front and back do the following:

1.Save the front of the card in illustrator nativge format. This is your working document and will not be turned in.

2. Save a copy of the front in PDF format.

3. Save a copy of the back in Illustrator native formatt.

4. Save a copy of the back in PDF format .

5. Save a copy of the front in Jpeg format. Save it to the images folder of your website. Open Dreamweaver and put the jpeg on the Illustrator page.

6. Open Adobe Acrobat and go to file> CreatePDF>from multiple files. Choose your 2 PDF documents and create the new PDF. Save it to the images folder of your website. Create a text link to it on the illustrator page below your postcard.

A glossary of typographic terms

This section provides a small glossary of terms frequently used in the type world.
alignment
The positioning of text within the page margins. Alignment can be flush left, flush right, justified, or centered. Flush left and flush right are sometimes referred to as left justified and right justified.
ascender
The part of lowercase letters (such as k, b, and d) that ascends above the x-height of the other lowercase letters in a face.
baseline
The imaginary line on which the majority of the characters in a typeface rest .
body text
The paragraphs in a document that make up the bulk of its content. The body text should be set in an appropriate and easy-to-read face, typically at 10- or 12-point size.
boldface
A typeface that has been enhanced by rendering it in darker, thicker strokes so that it will stand out on the page. Headlines that need emphasis should be boldface. Italics are preferable for emphasis in body text.
bullet
A dot or other special character placed at the left of items in a list to show that they are individual, but related, points.
cap height
The height from the baseline to the top of the uppercase letters in a font. This may or may not be the same as the height of ascenders. Cap height is used in some systems to measure the type size.
centered
Text placed at an equal distance from the left and right margins. Headlines are often centered. It is generally not good to mix centered text with flush left or flush right text.
character, character code
The word character is used differently in different contexts. In the context of modern computer operating systems, it is often defined as a code with a meaning attached to it. For example, the decimal character code 97 represents the letter a. In most operating systems today, character codes are represented by an 8-bit unit of data known as a byte.

Also see character encoding ,glyph ,keyboard layout .
character mapping
See character encoding .
character encoding
Character encoding is a table in a font or a computer operating system that maps character codes to glyphs in a font. Most operating systems today represent character codes with an 8-bit unit of data known as a byte. Thus, character encoding tables today are restricted to at most 256 character codes.

Not all operating system manufacturers use the same character encoding. For example, the Macintosh platform uses the standard Macintosh character set as defined by Apple Computer, Inc., while the Windows operating system uses another encoding entirely, as defined by Microsoft. Fortunately, standard Type 1 fonts contain all the glyphs needed for both these encodings, so they work correctly not only with these two systems, but others as well.

Also see character ,glyph ,keyboard layout .
color
See typographic color .
condensed
A narrower version of a font, used to get a maximum of characters into a given space.
contrast
A subjective feeling that graphic elements (such as fonts) are different but work together well. This gives a feeling of variety without losing harmony. Within a particular font, contrast also refers to the variety of stroke thicknesses that make up the characters. Helvetica has low contrast and Bodoni has high contrast.
copyfitting
The process of adjusting the size and spacing of type to make it fit within a defined area of the page.
descender
The part of lowercase letters (such as y, p, and q) that descends below the baseline of the other lowercase letters in a font face. In some typefaces, the uppercase J and Q also descend below the baseline.
dingbats
Typefaces that consist of symbol characters such as decorations, arrows and bullets.
dpi
An abbreviation for dots per inch . Refers to the resolution at which a device, such as a monitor or printer, can display text and graphics. Monitors are usually 100 dpi or less, and laser printers are 300 dpi or higher. An image printed on a laser printer looks sharper than the same image on a monitor.
drop cap
A design style in which the first capital letter of a paragraph is set in a larger point size and aligned with the top of the first line. This method is used to indicate the start of a new section of text, such as a chapter.
ellipsis
A punctuation character consisting of three dots, or periods, in a row. It indicates that a word or phrase has been omitted.
em, em space, em quad
A common unit of measurement in typography. Em is traditionally defined as the width of the uppercase Min the current face and point size. It is more properly defined as simply the current point size. For example, in 12-point type, em is a distance of 12 points.
em dash
A dash the length of an em is used to indicate a break in a sentence.
en, en space, en quad
A common unit of measurement in typography. En is traditionally defined as the width of the uppercase Nin the current face and the current point size. It is more properly defined as half the width of an em.
en dash
A dash the length of an en is used to indicate a range of values.
encoding
See character encoding .
face
One of the styles of a family of faces. For example, the italic style of the Garamond family is a face.
family
Also known as a font family . A collection of faces that were designed and intended to be used together. For example, the Garamond family consists of roman and italic styles, as well as regular, semi-bold, and bold weights. Each of the style and weight combinations is called a face.
flush left
Text that is aligned on the left margin is said to be set flush left. If the same text is not aligned on the right margin, it is said to be set flush left, ragged right. The term ragged right is sometimes used alone to mean the same thing.
flush right
Text which is aligned on the right margin is said to be set flush right. If the same text is not aligned on the left margin, it is said to be set flush right, ragged left. The term ragged left is sometimes used alone to mean the same thing.
font
One weight, width, and style of a typeface. Before scalable type, there was little distinction between the terms font, face, and family. Font and face still tend to be used interchangeably, although the term face is usually more correct.
font family
Also known as family . The collection of faces that were designed together and intended to be used together. For example, the Garamond font family consists of roman and italic styles, as well as regular, semi-bold, and bold weights. Each of the style and weight combinations is called a face.
glyph
The word glyph is used differently in different contexts. In the context of modern computer operating systems, it is often defined as a shape in a font that is used to represent a character code on screen or paper. The most common example of a glyph is a letter, but the symbols and shapes in a font like ITC Zapf Dingbats are also glyphs.

Also see character ,character encoding ,keyboard layout .
hanging indent
A document style in which the first line of a paragraph is aligned with the left margin, and the remaining lines are all indented an equal amount. This is sometimes referred to as outdenting . This is an effective style for displaying lists of information.
headline
The short lines of emphasized text that introduce detail information in the body text that follows. Also the category of faces that are designed to work best in headline text.
headline font
A font that has been designed to look good at large point sizes for use in headlines. Headline fonts generally do not contain a complete set of characters since they do not require a full set of special symbols and punctuation.
hints
The mathematical instructions added to digital fonts to make them sharp at all sizes and on display devices of different resolutions.
italic
A slanting or script-like version of a face. The upright faces are often referred to as roman.
justified
A block of text that has been spaced so that the text aligns on both the left and right margins. Justified text has a more formal appearance, but may be harder to read.
kerning
The adjustment of horizontal space between individual characters in a line of text. Adjustments in kerning are especially important in large display and headline text lines. Without kerning adjustments, many letter combinations can look awkward. The objective of kerning is to create visually equal spaces between all letters so that the eye can move smoothly along the text.

Kerning may be applied automatically by the desktop publishing program based on tables of values. Some programs also allow manual kerning to make fine adjustments.
keyboard layout, keyboard mapping
Sometimes known as a character mapping, a keyboard layout or mapping is a table used by a computer operating system to govern which character code is generated when a key or key combination is pressed.

Also see character ,character encoding ,glyph .
leading (pronounced: ledding)
The amount of space added between lines of text to make the document legible. The term originally referred to the thin lead spacers that printers used to physically increase space between lines of metal type. Most applications automatically apply standard leading based on the point size of the font. Closer leading fits more text on the page, but decreases legibility. Looser leading spreads text out to fill a page and makes the document easier to read. Leading can also be negative, in which case the lines of text are so close that they overlap or touch.
letterspacing
Adjusting the average distance between letters in a block of text to fit more or less text into the given space or to improve legibility. Kerning allows adjustments between individual letters; letterspacing is applied to a block of text as a whole. Letterspacing is sometimes referred to as tracking or track kerning.
ligature
Two or more letters tied together into a single letter. In some typefaces, character combinations such as fi and fl overlap, resulting in an unsightly shape. The fi and fl ligatures were designed to improve the appearance of these characters. Letter combinations such as ff, ffl and ffi are available in the Adobe Expert Collections.
margin
The white spaces around text blocks. Margins typically need to be created on the edges of a page, since most printers can't print to the very edge. White space also makes a document look better and easier to read.
oblique
A slanting version of a face. Oblique is similar to italic, but without the script quality of a true italic. The upright faces are usually referred to as roman.
paragraph rules
Graphic lines associated with a paragraph that separate blocks of text. Rules are commonly used to separate columns and isolate graphics on a page. Some desktop publishing programs allow paragraph styles to be created that include paragraph rules above and/or below the paragraph.
pica
A unit of measure that is approximately 1/6th of an inch. A pica is equal to 12 points. The traditional British and American pica is 0.166 inches. In PostScript printers, a pica is exactly 1/6th of an inch.
point
A unit of measure in typography. There are approximately 72 points to the inch. A pica is 12 points.
point size
The common method of measuring type. The distance from the top of the highest ascender to the bottom of the lowest descender in points. In Europe, type is often measured by the cap-height in millimeters.
raised cap
A design style in which the first capital letter of a paragraph is set in a large point size and aligned with the baseline of the first line of text. Compare to a drop cap.
reverse
The technique of printing white or light-colored text on a black or dark background for emphasis. This technique greatly reduces legibility, especially with small type.
roman
Commonly refers to the upright version of a face within a font family, as compared to the italic version.
rule
A solid or dashed graphic line in documents used to separate the elements of a page. Rules and other graphic devices should be used sparingly, and only for clarifying the function of other elements on the page.
sans serif
A type face that does not have serifs. Generally a low-contrast design. Sans serif faces lend a clean, simple appearance to documents.
serif
Small decorative strokes that are added to the end of a letter's main strokes. Serifs improve readability by leading the eye along the line of type.
style
One of the variations in appearance, such as italic and bold, that make up the faces in a type family.
symbol
A category of type in which the characters are special symbols rather than alphanumeric characters.
tabular figures
Numerals that all have the same width. This makes it easier to set tabular matter.
tracking
The average space between characters in a block of text. Sometimes also referred to as letterspacing.
TrueType
A scalable type technology built into Windows 3.1 and Apple's System 7.
Type 1
The international type standard for digital type, available on almost every computer platform. Originally invented by Adobe Systems, Type 1 is now the most commonly available digital type format and is used by professional digital graphic designers. More than 30,000 fonts are available in the Type 1 format.
typeface
The letters, numbers, and symbols that make up a design of type. A typeface is often part of a type family of coordinated designs. The individual typefaces are named after the family and are also specified with a designation, such as italic, bold or condensed.
typeface family
Also known as family . The collection of faces that were designed together and intended to be used together. For example, the Garamond font family consists of roman and italic styles, as well as regular, semibold, and bold weights. Each of the style and weight combinations is called a face.
typographic color
The apparent blackness of a block of text. Color is a function of the relative thickness of the strokes that make up the characters in a font, as well as the width, point size, and leading used for setting the text block.
unjustified
Depending on alignment, this term refers to text which is set flush left, flush right, or centered.
weight
The relative darkness of the characters in the various typefaces within a type family. Weight is indicated by relative terms such as thin, light, bold, extra-bold, and black.
white space
The blank areas on a page where text and illustrations are not printed. White space should be considered an important graphic element in page design.
width
One of the possible variations of a typeface within a type family, such as condensed or extended.
word spacing
Adjusting the average distance between words to improve legibility or to fit a block of text into a given amount of space.
WYSIWYG
An acronym for what you see is what you get. The Macintosh provides a WYSIWYG screen display. What you see on the screen is what you will get on printed output, as accurately as the screen can render it.
x-height
Traditionally, x-height is the height of the lowercase letter x. It is also the height of the body of lowercase letters in a font, excluding the ascenders and descenders. Some lower-case letters that do not have ascenders or descenders still extend a little bit above or below the x-height as part of their design. The x-height can vary greatly from typeface to typeface at the same point size.

Courtesy of Adobe Systems Incorporated.

Design/Type

Anatomy of a letter .

The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog

bill and jimminy cricket

Serif Fonts

Sans Serif Fonts

5 Minute Read

You will save 3 copies of your business card.
1. Save the first in Illustrator format (ai). This is your working copy that you can use to make changes if needed. You do not turn this one in.

Examples:
Example1, Example 2

Steps to create the cutout effect on example 2:

Open the layers palette. Create a new layer. You should have 2 layers.
On the first layer, use the rectangle drawing tool to draw a rectangle the size of your document and fill it with a color for your background.
Click on to the second layer. This is the layer you will use for your type.
Add some type to the page. Use type, type on a path, type within a shape, or vertical type.
Select the type with the selection tool.
Go to Type>Create Outlines.
Create some more type and drag it so that it overlaps the first.
With the type selected, go to Type>Create Outlines.
Use the selection tool to drag a box that touches both sets of type so that they are both selected at the same time, or you can hold down the shift key and click on each set of text. Either way as long as they are both selected.
If the pathfinder palette is not visible, go to Window>Show Pathfinder.
With both sets of type selected, click on the exclude button in the pathfinder palette. The areas where the type overlaps should be erased. If not you either did not have both type selected, or you hit the wrong button. If you are not sure which button is the exclude button, move your cursor over a button and wait. Illustrator will tell you the name of the button.
Select both sets of type again and Ungroup the type.
Go back to step 5 and repeat until you are satisfied with your design.

Project Specs:

Get the tepmplate here (vertical) or here (horizontal) .
Output resolution 300 ppi
File Type PDF. Save each side as a PDF document from Illustrator. You will use Adobe Acrobat to make a PDF file that joins the 2 files into one.
Must be 2 sided. You will have 2 files. One for the front and one for the back. Back side has CAL's return address, a place for recipient's address, and a box for the stamp. Get the guidelines for the back of the card here.

Place 2 72 ppi web optomized versions (front and back) on your website under type. Link to the full size version (PDF) from the same place.

A glossary of typographic terms

Courtesy of Adobe Systems Incorporated.