Typography Explained

Choosing the correct font, typeface and size is vital for your document. Different purposes require different styles and sizes of script, and getting it right can really make your product perform its required function, from standing out and appealing to the reader, to looking neat and professional. This guide should help you to make those choices for your handout, leaflet or corporate brochure design.

Fonts

The word ‘font' traditionally referred to an entire set of characters of a certain size and style of typeface, for example 10-point Arial bold would be a different font to 12-point Arial bold. However with the advent of computers, font is no longer size specific, but simply refers to a specific style of typeface for example Arial Regular, Arial Italic, and Arial Bold are all different fonts. The word font is now often used to refer to the typeface.

Different fonts can be used for regular text, to emphasise something, or to make something stand out.

Typeface

A typeface is a set of characters with stylistic unity and a consistent visual appearance. These can be broken down further into different styles. For example a serif typeface refers to one with semi structural details on the ends of some of the characters. For example ‘Century' is a serif typeface whereas ‘Century Gothic' is a sans serif typeface. A serif typeface can add a subtle decorative and calligraphic element.

Other common typefaces include:-

• Times New Roman which was commissioned by The Times newspaper in 1931. It is widely used in the typography of books and is the default font on many Microsoft packages. It is a serif typeface and is suitable for long passages of text, making it look neat and professional.


• Courier which is designed to resemble the look of an old-fashioned typewriter. It is the industry standard for all screenplays to be written in 12-point Courier. It was used by the US State Department on all documents until 2004 and is often used in computer programming. It is simple and easy to read.


• Verdana is a sans serif typeface which was designed specifically for computers so that text is easily readable at very small sizes


• Vivaldi is a script typeface that is designed to simulate handwriting. It is highly decorative, and would be most suitable for stylised logos or invitations.

Size

Choosing the right size, or combination of sizes for your font is extremely important as it adds emphasis and makes certain parts of the text stand out more.

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