TAEKO KUBO.

The World of

Typography

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T

ypography is the art and technique of arranging type, type meaning letters and characters.

Notice that it’s about more than just the design of letters and characters; the arrangement of those letters and characters is just as big a part of it all. That refers to the selection of point size, line length, and spacing, both on a single line and throughout an entire page or piece of work.

Today, thanks to computers, open source fonts, and scalable computer typography, it’s a lot easier to arrange letters and characters. But that physical piece remains important, even in the digital sphere.

Why Is Typography Important?

Typography is absolutely everywhere. Just look at your phone, a billboard, your coffee cup, or even the different styles used in this blog post. Every font, letter, and character arrangement plays a part in determining how a message is conveyed.

Sure, it might seem trivial at times, but even the smallest of type adjustments can impact the look and feel of your work. For example, back in June, Facebook tested a new font on its users called Geneva. While the new font was only slightly thinner and lighter than the original, Helvetica, it made a noticeable difference to some.

“The overall effect is a lighter, more modern looking block of text,” explained Chris Mills for BGR. Same goes for when Apple changed its default font from the dramatically thin Helvetica Neue to one they developed in-house called San Francisco.

The differences between Helvetica and San Francisco are subtle, even to the trained

eye, but they’re there,” wrote Liz Stinson for WIRED. “While still an austere sans serif, San Francisco is bolder and friendlier than Helvetica Neue. Based on the German typeface DIN, San Francisco gives characters more breathing room, which will make it easier to read on relatively tiny mobile screens. Tall and skinny, San Francisco is space-efficient, like Google’s custom typeface Roboto, which you could consider a close cousin to Apple’s font.”

The takeaway here? The little details do matter.

In fact, one of the only college courses Steve Jobs took was on calligraphy and typography, which he believed played a critical role in the success of Apple. As he once said in a Stanford University commencement speech, “If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts.” Can you imagine a world where Apple products didn’t have a focus on beautiful design? I certainly can’t.

Once you realize how much thought goes into carefully selecting a typeface, it becomes much easier to recognize the differences between typefaces and understand why they might’ve been chosen in the first place. Take a look at some of the examples below to get a better sense of what I mean ...

Typography is the art and technique of arranging type to make written language legible, readable, and appealing when displayed. The arrangement of type involves selecting typefaces, point sizes, line lengths, line-spacing (leading), and letter-spacing (tracking), and adjusting the space between pairs of letters (kerning).

The term typography is also applied to the style, arrangement, and appearance of the letters, numbers, and symbols created by the process.

Type design is a closely related craft, sometimes considered part of typography; most typographers do not design typefaces, and some type designers do not consider themselves typographers.

Typography also may be used as a decorative device, unrelated to communication of information.

Typography is the work of typesetters (also known as compositors), typographers, graphic designers, art directors, manga artists, comic book artists, graffiti artists, and, now, anyone who arranges words, letters, numbers, and symbols for publication, display, or distribution, from clerical workers and newsletter writers to anyone self-publishing materials.

Until the Digital Age, typography was a specialized occupation.

Digitization opened up typography to new generations of previously unrelated designers and lay users. As the capability to create typography has become ubiquitous, the application of principles and best practices developed over generations of skilled workers and professionals has diminished.

So at a time when scientific techniques can support the proven traditions (e.g., greater legibility with the use of serifs, upper and lower case, contrast, etc.) through understanding the limitations of human vision, typography as often encountered may fail to achieve its principal objective: effective communication.

Typography is simply a design of letters. Various elements such as character arrangement and composition, character size, line spacing, font selection, etc. can be involved.

Typography was originally used in letterpress printing. Today, it refers not only to printing technology, but to overall design related to typeface.

In our daily life, can you say "I don't read letters at all" ? By using typography for posters, advertisements, websites, etc., it will be easier to see and you will be able to convey what you want to convey. It is said that "95% of web design is typography", which is an essential element for designers.

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