You want to sound smart don’t you? Of course! Everyone wants to sound smart.
Keep reading, because you’ll learn the secrets to wowing your friends with your new-found typography talents.
The Benefits
There are so many great reasons to pay attention to the small details in typography. Being able to identify the style of a terminal or the height of the ascender can greatly increase your chances of finding the perfect font. It’s also fun to explore and learn more about this vast sub-niche of graphic design. Plus, you sound like you know a lot when you’re able to talk about all these typographic details!
Serifs vs. Sans Serifs
Before we jump into the anatomy of type, it is important to mention the two major categories of typefaces, serifs and sans serifs. A serif typeface has a flourish on the end of its letters, while sans serifs do not. Sans serifs generally end abruptly with a squared off terminal (the end of the stroke of a letter), though sometimes it can be rounded. Times New Roman, Georgia and Garamond (pictured) are examples of serif faces. Arial, Helvetica and Verdana (pictured) are sans serif faces.
I Love Typography gives an excellent, in-depth explanation of serifs, including their history and etymology. Check it out!
Baseline and X-height
The baseline of a typeface is the invisible line on which all the letters sit (or perhaps they stand, it has yet to be accurately identified). The x-height, also called the mean or waist line, is how tall the lowercase letters are. You can easily remember what the x-height is because it’s exactly what it sounds like; it is how tall the lowercase x is. The lowercase x is traditionally used because it has flat ends that touch the baseline and the mean line.
The x-height of a typeface plays a big role in determining how tall a typeface appears. A font with a small x-height is going to look smaller than a font with a taller x-height, even when these fonts are at the same point size. Take the example below. All of the fonts are displayed at 16 points, but the x-heights vary greatly.
Wait, There’s More!
In the next few installments at Creative Curio, we’ll be discussing more about the anatomy of type, choosing the perfect typeface, adjusting type and fonts that every good designer should have in his or her arsenal of creativity. Hurry and subscribe to the feed so you don’t miss out on these upcoming articles!
Technorati Tags: Graphic Design, Typography, Serif, X-height, Baseline
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6 responses so far ↓
1 inspirationbit // Aug 28, 2007 at 11:33 am
you’re a very smart talker indeed, Lauren
on a more serious note, I think that in a few months you should start thinking about publishing a book on graphic design based on your blog articles.
2 LaurenMarie // Aug 28, 2007 at 1:56 pm
Hehe, thanks Vivien! Wow you really think I should publish a book?? Maybe I’ll put together a collection of my articles for e-book distribution. Perhaps I’ll do like Chris G. did and offer it as a “free subscriber download” to those subscribed to my RSS feed or email delivery.
3 inspirationbit // Aug 28, 2007 at 2:57 pm
I was quite serious in suggesting you to publish a book.
free e-book to RSS subscribers is good, just keep in mind that some “smart cookies” can download that “hidden” article in the RSS feed without actually subscribing to it.
That’s how I actually downloaded Chris’ e-book :-)
4 LaurenMarie // Aug 28, 2007 at 9:24 pm
Well, I wouldn’t mind if people downloaded it without subscribing, as long as they found it useful and perhaps promoted it and linked back over here. Just a little reciprocity and appreciation! I find that most people in the blogosphere want to be helpful like that.
It’ll be a little while off though, just started a new job and it’s CRAZY!!! I’m extremely busy and I just added 1 1/2 hours to my commute (one way!)
I bet those freelancers are sitting back thinking, “I’m glad I don’t work for the corporate world like that anymore”
5 johno // Aug 29, 2007 at 8:16 pm
Lauren
I enjoyed this. I think that Vivien does have a point about the book thing—and not just a free one; why not a for-print one?
I’m looking forward to reading the other posts in the series.
Good luck with the new job.
6 LaurenMarie // Aug 29, 2007 at 9:12 pm
I’m glad you enjoyed it, John! I hope you can expand on some of these topics over at iLT.
Whaa?? Now it’s turned into a for print book? But there are already so many out there! What would make people want to read mine? It’s not like I can go
You guys are just too nice to me! I appreciate your confidence!
coerceentice friends to read it like I did with my blogLeave a Comment