Typography Rules
The six golden rules that thou shall never brake.
1.Never use Windows Typefaces
2.Never use Faux Bold
3.Never use Faux Italic
4.Never stretch a font horizontally or vertically
5.Always use Anti Alias
6.Never use all caps on a script font
Text Fonts vs Display Fonts
There are two primary categories of type: text and display.
In general, text type is designed to be legible and readable at small sizes. This usually implies fairly clean, consistent, uncomplicated design features; more open spacing than a display face; and thin strokes that hold up at smaller sizes.
Display type, on the other hand, can forgo the extreme legibility and readability needed for long blocks of text at small sizes for a stronger personality, elaborate and more expressive shapes, and a more stylish look.
Most text types can also be used as display types, though most display types can't be used as text types.
[attachment=12197:text_display.jpg]
So how do you tell the difference? Well, there are no clear definition for which fonts belongs in which category. The best way to find out is to try and find out how the font looks at various sizes. Sometimes (not that often though) a font is listed as a text font or a display font. One example is Din by Parachute.
[attachment=12198:din_comp.jpg]
Opticals ( Caption, Regular, Subhead, Display)
With certain typefaces you might see various fonts for the same size, these are called opticals. For more information one the purpose of these here's a quote from Adobe article on the Opentype format
QUOTE
â€Historically, some of the highest quality typefaces have included different designs for different print sizes. Several of Adobe's OpenType fonts include four optical size variations: caption, regular, subhead and display. Called "Opticals," these variations have been optimized for use at specific point sizes. Although the exact intended sizes vary by family, the general size ranges include: caption (6-8 point), regular (9-13 point), subhead (14-24 point) and display (25-72 point).†[/quote]
[attachment=12199:Minion_P...Opticals.jpg]
Font Formats
The most common font formats these days are: Type 1, Postscript and Opentype.
Type 1 is a standard made in the early 80ies by Adobe and uses the extensions .pfb and pfm (pfm and afm on Mac).
Due to high licensing fees from Adobe, Apple made the Truetype standard in the late 80ies and subsequently licensed to Microsoft Corporation. Truetype use the extension .ttf.
Opentype is the newest standard and was created by Adobe and Microsoft to superseed the previous formats, and Opentype does have several advantages over the rest. Opentype supports up to 65.000 glyphs which that features such as small caps, old style figures, alternate characters and ligatures can be contained in one font instead of having separate fonts. Not all fonts have these features embed, many fonts have been converted from previous formats to Opentype to take advantage of the extra features (and the cross platform support). Sometimes a font is labeled as a Pro font which indicates that they do support the extra Opentype features, but this hasn't been standardized.
Font vs Typeface
So what's the difference between a typeface and a font? Is there any? Is Typeface just a prettier word and font the lazy version? Actually there is a difference between the two in more then one sense.
A Typeface is a set of fonts in the same style, or you can call it a family.
A Font is a specific type inside a typeface.
So if Helvetica Neue is the typeface, then Helvetica 75 Bold is a font
[attachment=12199:Minion_P...Opticals.jpg]
Font Formats
The most common font formats these days are: Type 1, Postscript and Opentype.
Type 1 is a standard made in the early 80ies by Adobe and uses the extensions .pfb and pfm (pfm and afm on Mac).
Due to high licensing fees from Adobe, Apple made the Truetype standard in the late 80ies and subsequently licensed to Microsoft Corporation. Truetype use the extension .ttf.
Opentype is the newest standard and was created by Adobe and Microsoft to superseed the previous formats, and Opentype does have several advantages over the rest. Opentype supports up to 65.000 glyphs which that features such as small caps, old style figures, alternate characters and ligatures can be contained in one font instead of having separate fonts. Not all fonts have these features embed, many fonts have been converted from previous formats to Opentype to take advantage of the extra features (and the cross platform support). Sometimes a font is labeled as a Pro font which indicates that they do support the extra Opentype features, but this hasn't been standardized.
Font vs Typeface
So what's the difference between a typeface and a font? Is there any? Is Typeface just a prettier word and font the lazy version? Actually there is a difference between the two in more then one sense.
A Typeface is a set of fonts in the same style, or you can call it a family.
A Font is a specific type inside a typeface.
So if Helvetica Neue is the typeface, then Helvetica 75 Bold is a font
QUOTE
“The way I relate the difference between typeface and font to my students is by comparing them to songs and MP3s, respectively (or songs and CDs, if you prefer a physical metaphor).†- Nick Sherman[/quote]
A Typeface (the song) is a creative output of a musician, the font (mp3) is a digital reproduction of the typeface.
A Typeface (the song) is a creative output of a musician, the font (mp3) is a digital reproduction of the typeface.
QUOTE
â€Font is what you use. Typeface is what you see†- Norbert Florendo[/quote]
Windows Typefaces (and the other ones you should avoid)
So I told you not to use Windows Typefaces. Why? Because I say so that's why, and because it's really not that imaginative to use them, that's what seperates a designer from a non designer. To top it off, some of them are complete knockoffs, I'm looking at you Arial.
Here's the fonts in mention:
Arial, Comic Sans, Impact, Mv Boli, Tahoma, Times New Roman, Trebuchet, Tunga, Verdana.
There are more but these are the really bad ones.
So which ones should you use? The ones in the Suggested Typefaces would be a good start, but if you want specific alternatives here's what you do.
Instead of Arial use Helvetica. Arial is actually a cheap Microsoft knockoff of Apple's Helvetica.
Impact is based on Haettenschweiler other alternatives are Condensed versions of Helvetica or Akzidenz Grotesk or Compacta.
Instead of Tahoma and Verdana (which are quite similar) any other sans-serif would do.
Instead of Times New Roman any other serif will do.
And for the rest. Don't use them. Especially Comic Sans. Cause I'll kill you if you do.
Microsoft made Comic Sans, but the obviously aren't the only ones who have made crappy typefaces. For every 1 good typeface, there's 10 crappy ones.
Here's a few of the very bad ones:
Algerian, Bradley Hand, Brush Script, Cooper, Curlz, Hobo, Kristen, Mistral, Monotype Corsiva, Papyrus, Snap, Stencil, Tekton, Viner Hand, Vivaldi.
Essential Typefaces
Here's a short list compiled of essential typefaces based on sources such as Joshua Bergers 30 Essential Typefaces for A Lifetime, The German FontShop's 100 Best Typefaces, and my own picks.
Akzidenz Grotesk, Avenir, Adobe Caslon, Adobe Garamond, Avant Garde, Avenir, Baskerville, Bembo, Bickham Script, Bodoni, Clarendon, Didot, Din, Excelsior, Franklin Gothic, Frutiger, Futura, Gill Sans, Gotham, Helvetica, Lubalin Graph, Minion, Mrs Eaves, Perpetua, Optima, Rockwell, Rotis, Sabon, Signa, Swift, Trade Gothic, Univers, Walbaum, Warnock
Windows Typefaces (and the other ones you should avoid)
So I told you not to use Windows Typefaces. Why? Because I say so that's why, and because it's really not that imaginative to use them, that's what seperates a designer from a non designer. To top it off, some of them are complete knockoffs, I'm looking at you Arial.
Here's the fonts in mention:
Arial, Comic Sans, Impact, Mv Boli, Tahoma, Times New Roman, Trebuchet, Tunga, Verdana.
There are more but these are the really bad ones.
So which ones should you use? The ones in the Suggested Typefaces would be a good start, but if you want specific alternatives here's what you do.
Instead of Arial use Helvetica. Arial is actually a cheap Microsoft knockoff of Apple's Helvetica.
Impact is based on Haettenschweiler other alternatives are Condensed versions of Helvetica or Akzidenz Grotesk or Compacta.
Instead of Tahoma and Verdana (which are quite similar) any other sans-serif would do.
Instead of Times New Roman any other serif will do.
And for the rest. Don't use them. Especially Comic Sans. Cause I'll kill you if you do.
Microsoft made Comic Sans, but the obviously aren't the only ones who have made crappy typefaces. For every 1 good typeface, there's 10 crappy ones.
Here's a few of the very bad ones:
Algerian, Bradley Hand, Brush Script, Cooper, Curlz, Hobo, Kristen, Mistral, Monotype Corsiva, Papyrus, Snap, Stencil, Tekton, Viner Hand, Vivaldi.
Essential Typefaces
Here's a short list compiled of essential typefaces based on sources such as Joshua Bergers 30 Essential Typefaces for A Lifetime, The German FontShop's 100 Best Typefaces, and my own picks.
Akzidenz Grotesk, Avenir, Adobe Caslon, Adobe Garamond, Avant Garde, Avenir, Baskerville, Bembo, Bickham Script, Bodoni, Clarendon, Didot, Din, Excelsior, Franklin Gothic, Frutiger, Futura, Gill Sans, Gotham, Helvetica, Lubalin Graph, Minion, Mrs Eaves, Perpetua, Optima, Rockwell, Rotis, Sabon, Signa, Swift, Trade Gothic, Univers, Walbaum, Warnock
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