I like type. I think it’s a beautiful art form worthy of close observation and study. I take this position not just from an aesthetic sensibility but from a practical marketing outlook. Type, if well chosen, can convey meaning or elicit emotion. It can inspire and persuade.
In this light, I recently paged through the Design Basics Index by Jim Krause (which I have shared before in PIE Blog posts) for a few useful type terms and descriptions. I will also note why I think they will improve your understanding of the functionality and aesthetics of type, and at the same time improve your design for custom printing.
X-Height and the Baseline
Picture a lowercase “x” in a line of type. Unlike a lowercase “q,” for instance, the “x” sits squarely on top of the “baseline.” The baseline is the imaginary line on which the letters rest: their support, if you will.
The lowercase “q” drops below this line. The portion of the letter that drops below the baseline is called a “descender.”
An important term to consider at this point is the “x-height” of a particular typeface. This is the height of a lowercase (not uppercase) “x.” If you look closely, you will see that the body of all lowercase letters in a particular font rests on the baseline and aligns with the top of other lowercase characters along the “x-height.”
That is, in the word “Design,” which Krause uses in his discussion of typefaces, the tops of the lowercase “e,” “s,” “i,” “g,” and “n” all align (except for the dot above the “i”). The “g” drops below the baseline, and if the word “design” were written with a lowerdase “d” rather than an uppercase “D,” you would say that the top of the “d” rising above the imaginary line across the top of all the other letters is an “ascender” because it ascends above their x-height.
How Is This Relevant to Design?
Beyond the aesthetics of a typeface, the “x-height” is very important in determining whether a typeface (set in a particular size) will be readable.
If you can’t read the words set in a particular typeface at a particular point size, your message will be lost. The type may be beautiful, but it will not communicate with your reader.
Look closely at type sample books or online samples of type, and you’ll see that every typeface has an “x-height” and that this varies from typeface to typeface. Some have higher x-heights; some have lower x-heights. The higher ones are much easier to read. Keep this in mind as you design your commercial printing projects.
Ascenders and Descenders
Going further, the concept of the “ascender” and “descender” described above also pertains to readability.
A word set in all capital letters has a “shape” if you look at it from a slight distance. Imagine a line tracing the outside boundary of all the letters in a word. The word’s shape is a rectangle when it is set in all uppercase letters. Unfortunately, no matter what the word set in all capital letters is, the shape will always be a rectangle.
Scientists who have studied reading patterns have noted that as people read, they don’t look at all the letters in a word. Instead, they look for the shape of the word, a shape they have seen before and have committed to memory.
The word “DESIGN,” for instance, has the shape of a rectangle, as noted above. If, however, you set the word in lowercase letters, “design,” the ascender (the top of the “d”) and the descender (the bottom of the “g” that drops below the baseline) give the word a unique shape, a shape that is not quite a rectangle. (It has a bulge at the top left and bottom right.) This unique shape allows the reader to immediately recognize the word without needing to read all the letters.
In contrast, the uppercase “DESIGN” actually slows down the reader, since he or she will have to look more closely (i.e., not skim the word to recognize it).
How Is This Relevant to Design?
If you want to use uppercase-only type, keep it to only a few words, or you’ll lose your reader. If you run the type over several lines, make the lines very short, and put a lot of extra horizontal space between them (i.e., add extra leading).
Serif and Sans Serif Type
Design Basics Index by Jim Krause includes a few magnified images of serifs (the little tails on letterforms that help draw your eye from one letter to the next as you read a line of text).
Old-Style serifs are curved. They taper gradually from the vertical and horizontal strokes of the letters. Krause uses Goudy as an example of an Old-Style typeface.
Modern serifs are thin and abrupt. They change direction instantly from the horizontal and vertical strokes of a letterform (there are no gradual curves in the serifs). Moreover, there is a more dramatic contrast between the thin and thick strokes of a letter in a Modern typeface than in an Old-Style typeface. Krause uses Bodoni as an example of a Modern typeface.
Slab Serif type has fat, chunky serifs. This category of type is also called “Egyptian type,” and you may be reminded of Old Wild West signs and posters when you see these typefaces. Krause has chosen Clarendon to illustrate Slab Serif typefaces.
In contrast, Sans Serif typefaces have no serifs. However, you will find that some are narrow and tall while others are wide and chunky. You will also find that some, like Optima, actually have letterforms that are thinner or thicker in different places (most sans serif faces are of equal weight in all strokes of the letterforms).
How Is This Relevant to Design?
Look closely at different serif and sans serif type samples (maybe a paragraph of each), and you’ll see that some are more legible than others. You’ll also find that each of these type samples has a slightly different mood or tone. An Old-Style typeface may seem more stately and serious, and a Modern typeface may seem more avant garde. For a poster, a slab serif typeface may be more dramatic and persuasive.
So the bottom line is that you should observe type closely, set your message in a number of different typefaces, and then think about which choice is most readable and also most congruent with the tone and content of the message you wish to convey. The more you know about type, the better able you will be to select the best typeface for a particular custom printing project.
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