Sunday, February 16, 2014

The Elements of Typographic Style (25-60) Reading Questions due Feb. 17, 2014


  1.     Explain what typographic color is, and the four things that determine it.

            When looking at typographic color, it is not about the reds, greens, and blue inks, but typographic color “refers only to the darkness or blackness of the letterforms in mass” (Bringhurst 25).  The typographers main goal when looking at color is the evenness, and this is achieved through the demands of legibility and the logical order are satisfied. The four things that determine typographic color are; “the design of the type, the spacing between the letters, the spacing between the words, and the spacing between the lines” (Bringhust 250).

   2.     When is ok to use justified type? When should you use ragged type?

            Looking at word space and character line settings, justified text is acceptable with a minimum of a fifth of an em (M/5) and a maximum of a half of an em (M/2). The character line setting that is acceptable for justified text is about 40 characters. The typical word space for text that is set ragged is about a fourth of an em (M/4), and the character line setting is 45-75 characters when looking at a regular one-column page. When there are short lines the text should also be ragged, as well as with narrow columns.

   3.     How should you choose your leading setting?

            The leading setting that the typographer chooses should be based on multiple factors of the text. The leading should always be at least two points larger than the size of the text. Longer measures need more leading than shorter measures, dark typefaces need more than light, faces that are larger on body text need more leading than smaller, and unserifed faces usually need more leading than serifed faces. All leading should be positive, it is very rare that a negative leading will be used.  

   4.     List at least three of the hyphenation rules that you think are most useful/surprising to you.

·      “At hyphenated line-ends, leave at least two characters behind and take at least three forward” (Bringhurst 42).
·      “Avoid leaving the stub-end of a hyphenated word, or any word shorter than four letters, as the last line of a paragraph” (Bringhurst 42).
·      “Avoid more than three consecutive hyphenated lines” (Bringhurst 43).
·      “Hyphenate proper names only as a last resort unless they occur with the frequency of common nouns” (Bringhurst 43).

   5.     What are some things you can do to create contrast? What should you NOT do?

Contrast within text can be created in many different ways, even just by
working with one font, given the different aspects that it carries given that it has a large family. Contrast can be created using small caps, italics, or bolding the letters. Working with the same font, but just different characteristics, helps to create contrast that may be needed in a type setting. When looking at what not to do when trying to create contrast, don’t use a font that is not needed. It is also important to keep in mind to only change on aspect of the text at a time; this meaning if you want something for a heading that is larger and bold, just start by increasing the size, and follow by the bold later. It is important to experiment with the text. When creating contrast with the text, it is important to keep the punctuation in mind as well, if the text is changed to bold, be sure to keep the punctuations normal or else there would be too much going on. If the text is italic, the punctuations are okay to be kept the same, they are not taking away from the type, and the same goes for if the text is in small caps, the punctuations can stay the same without creating too much contrast on the page. 

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