In first part of this course on typography, we’ve talked about history, difference between typeface and font and styles of typefaces. Today, I want to continue with mood, weight, style and anatomy of typefaces. If you missed first part, here is a link. Now let’s continue.
Proportional and monospaced typefaces
At first, we have to know how to recognize proportional and monospaced types. Characters in proportional typefaces takes up as much of space as is needed for the natural width of that character. For example, an “j” will take up less space than “w”. One example of proportional typeface is Times New Roman. As you might guess, in monospace, every character takes exactly the same space. When you have a narrower character, it will simply get a bit more spacing around. One example of monospace typeface is Courier New.
Mood
Mood of a typeface that tell us how individual typeface should be used. This means that different typefaces have different moods, sometimes very different. Most used moods are formal or informal, modern or classic (also traditional) and light or dramatic. Some typefaces have very significant moods. Some fonts like Times New Roman will always be a traditional. This also makes them very useful for some kind of work like, in case of traditional fonts, correspondence (mostly business). As an example of modern mood font take Verdana.
Some typefaces are more transcendent then others and their mood is dependent on the content and typefaces you used them with. Great example can be Helvetica.
Weights and styles
Within the majority of typefaces, you’ll find more than one style and/or weight. We can differentiate weights as light, thin, regular, medium, bold, heavy or black. These values refers to the thickness of the strokes of every character.
To simplify it, we have three main styles which you can find: italic, oblique, and small caps. Small caps are often used for headings or subheadings to add variety to your typography if you are using a single typeface.
Italic and oblique are often confused. These two are distinct styles. Oblique type is simply a slanted version of the regular characters. On the other hand, italics are slanted like obliques, but are actually a separate set of characters, with their own unique letterforms.
The anatomy of a typeface
Now, let’s take a look at anatomy. The different letterforms within a typeface share a some common characteristics. These characteristics can help you to determine whether two or more examples of typefaces will work together. What are the basic parts of a typeface?
Baseline
The baseline is the invisible line that all the characters stand on. Rounded letters sometimes sit just a tiny bit under the baseline, and descenders always drop below this line. A given typeface will have a consistent baseline.
Meanline
The meanline is the height of most of the lowercase characters within a typeface, and is generally based on the lowercase “x” if there are varying heights among the lowercase characters. This is also where the term “x-height” comes from. The cap height is the distance between the baseline and the top of uppercase letters like “A”.
Stem
The stem is the main upright of any letter, including the primary diagonal. It’s could be considered the anchor of the character.
Bar
This is any horizontal part, which are sometimes also called arms.
Bowl
The bowl is curved part of a character that creates an interior empty space. The inside of a bowl is a counter.
Ascender
The ascender of a lowercase character is any part that rises above the meanline, such as the uprights on the letters “d”, “h”, and “b”. Descenders are the parts of a lowercase character that drop below the baseline, such as in a “p”, “q” or “g”.
Serifs are the extra flourish at the end of a stroke on serif typefaces. Some typefaces have very pronounced serifs, while others are barely distinguishable.
Aperture
The aperture of a character refers to the opening at the bottom of some characters, such as the uppercase “A” or lowercase “m”.
Ear
An ear is a decorative extension on a letter, as highlighted on the “g” above.
Hairline
Hairlines are the thinnest part of a serif typeface.
Crossbar
Crossbars are horizontal strokes, as found on the uppercase “A” and “H”.
Terminal
Terminals are only found on serif characters, and are the end of any line that doesn’t have a serif.
Loop
Loops are found on some lowercase “g” characters, and can be fully closed or partially closed.
Spur
Spurs are tiny projections from curved strokes, such as on some uppercase “G” characters.
Link
Links connect the top and bottom bowls of a double-stacked lowercase “g”.
Spine
The spine is the curved stroke found on the letter “s”.
Tail
Tails are sometimes-decorative descending strokes, as seen on an uppercase “R”.
Finials
Finials are the tapered endings of some strokes.
Shoulders
Shoulders are any curved stroke that originate from a stem.
Sources:
http://typedia.com/learn/only/anatomy-of-a-typeface/
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