10 rules of type - so we can break them/utilise them
Knowing the effect it has on communication
Quark Xpress - Similar to indesign
- Very popular
- very similar. Sometimes a lot simpler, especially for print based type. Big difference between working for screen + print.
Solid platform for printing, half the industry still uses it for this reason. Has the core elements to do everything you need to print.
-You'll be employable if you can use both.
Paper/to half an A size, half the length side. For example A4 (210x297) to A5 (297/2 = 148.5/210) to A6 (210/2 = 105x148.5)
A sizes? Why do we need it//.
It's a universal code, anyone can understand it pretty much everywhere you are.
COSTING. Nowadays most of the printing in the world is done in the far east, cheap labour and materials. Used to be South Asia, but now Far East. COSTING IS A MAJOR PART WHEN PRINTING AND DEALING WITH STOCK
You tend not to use your own sizes for huge print jobs or ones a little less than say A4, as you'll have paper you trim off, which wastes money. But then again you can be creative with your dimensions.
For example an A5 which splits an A4 lengthways is still an A5 piece of paper, it still uses the same amount of paper, it's just proportioned differently.
You could even use an A4 piece of paper and split it in thirds and have no waste at all and just cut out the pieces.
Bigger paper e.g. 4 A4 on a A2 page / 4 times less runs than 4 separate A4s.
Old paper sizes such as Buffalo, Paper, Swan.
"These sizes were used by the United Kingdom and its territories up until their adoption of the ISO standard in 1959. Traditionally, a number of different sizes were defined for large sheets of paper, and paper sizes were defined by the sheet name and the number of times it had been folded. Thus a full sheet of “royal” paper was 20 x 25 inches, and “royal octavo” was this size folded three times, so as to make eight sheets, and was thus 6¼ x 10 inches. Although when translated the names of some of these sheets are the same as the old French and Belgian paper sizes, they are not all the same size. Some of these sizes are still in use in the USA."
Old Imperial English Sizes
Renting machines also can cost £x/hour you have to consider this too. Big aspect of the industry is being economical and communicating professionally.
Grafix tip: One keyboard shortcut a week, 50 shortcuts in a year. try and learn just keyboard shortcuts. You can use it to a point when you don't even need a mouse anymore.
CMD+0 > Zoom to fit.
Not learning anything new. Just about thinking in a different way.
My chosen font is Motor Oil 1937 M54 for the weeks task to look at the construction and formatting of the letterforms and 3 distinct characteristics that make the font recognisable.
The voice of fonts.
Bold + large = Loud?
Small/thing/fragile = quiet?
UPPERCASE - Name for capital letters, used to be placed in the upper case when it was the era of setting type.
SERIF/SANS SERIF. Backwards way of describing something. Like saying suit without the trousers. To say jacket.
Light/serif/lowercase = we automatically think it's quieter.
Smartest? We picked serif. Our minds associate it with literature and more academic works - CULTURAL CONTEXT of a FONT
- Serifs, were a way to lead in for the days when type was carved into a stone. Nowadays it's maybe more for aesthetic and readability, but nowadays we're hundreds of years away from needing to carve into stone by hand, so it's weird how we still use carving fonts for digital or print in todays digital age?
GUTENBERG PRESS
When the Guttenberg was released it allowed books to be printed freely, or well by the rich atleast. The sharing of information was now widespread. In the 1450 - 1500 many revolutions took place.
In the same way 2012, has had a new stream of infrmation being shared. And technology has again led to a further revolution in printing with even more people, pretty much everyone having the ability to publish a book.
Up until 1450 and the intro of the Gutenberg press, all books were handwritten. This is why many old typefaces were pretty thick in weight, and had a handwritten aesthetic flow - to accompany the transition phase from people being used to reading handwriting, to print type.
Only religious books really got published before the 1400's. Handwritten.
Social media is prevalent nowadays. Revolutions.
Most novels = most people think 12pt, because again software interferes and 12 is the first one we see! Books, especially novels are mostly 9pt.
Pretty much every novel you'd see is in serif font.
A book in less pt size is cheaper/ Also the longest period of time spent reading a book, it's usually pretty close to our face.
Unlike with a magazine, which is usually read on our laps is 14pt
If something can be read for 15 hours in a novel, we can assume it can be pretty good at large copy, even though we can obviously use whatever pt size we want.
i inch = 72 points (roughly)
Even though some fonts can be different sizes at 72 point. This is because letters used to be carved into a metal block - so sometimes the actual letter on top of the metal can be a slightly different size
As long as it's on a 72 point block, roughly 1 inch. it's a 72 point font.
1 point = 0.35mm
Everyone's good at colour, but using colour to highlight a font is kind of lazy sometimes, use same pt size but exagerrate weight? You can shout without needing to be red. Think of font as a spoken voice inside your head.
Ghay
Ascenders / descenders
Both ascenders and descenders have to be included on the block.
Be as eloquent with type as you are when you speak. If it's needless language, just get rid.
You could read a book from 500 years ago and just from the type you hear the writers voice in your head. Type can be timeless. You cant ring someone on the phone from 500 years ago.
Problems I have with fonts? I always be a little unsure when for example I might have a logo on a layout or on a letterhead, I may have 2 different fonts or letterforms in the logo and don't know what font to use in the copy. Should it relate? If I use 3 different fonts is that acceptable, and not using the same font as in the logo and in a way demeaning.
Picking fonts has always been an issue of mine, particularly for copy. So this workshop was eye opening and I'll definitely be more analytical of the communication and cultural side of fonts.
Typefaces were originally designed for print. Nowadays this traditional phase is gone. People will start designing specifically for screen. Very easy to adjust and resize!
Why not design a pt size that has a different communication and effect when at different sizes, maybe different aspects which become clearer when zoomed out or in.
Someone's going to realise that print style fonts aren't useful anymore and develop new forms of type and fonts.
Classifications
Old Face
Transitional
Modern Face
Slab Serif
Sans Serif
Decorative
Script
Blackletter and Broken
Blackletter was the first font to be applied on by the Gutenberg press. A transitional phase from the handwriting days where it's handwritten sort of form.
Black is also known as the heaviest weight, usually pretty unrecognisable by this point.
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