domain design

Legibility is the acid test.

If a message can't be read, the communicator may as well be throwing money away.

With the caveat of typographer David Carson not to confuse legibility with communication. Form does not trump content.

There are myriad typographic rules to improve legibility that nearly everyone has a smattering of..."Serif Type is Easier to Read...", is typical of this kind of rule. When you make a side-by-side comparison of sans-serif Helvetica and serif Times set in the same point size, it is easy to see which is more legible:

More importantly is how the type is set, regardless of sans serif or serif or decorative or script. Size, x-height, spacing, leading, line length and context determine the optimum typesetting. Dave Webber says typefaces have voices.

Here is an explanation of how type is measured and a smattering of rules of thumb to help my clients desktop publish their documents, like they insist on doing, without making dumb-ass typesetting-apprentice mistakes.

There are no rules.

Ensure there is sufficient contrast between the type and its background.

Mea maxima culpa. But this is the web. This isn't print. You control how things appear on your monitor. Try changing the size of the browser display or scrolling to move the words you are reading onto a contrasting background.

Lines of type should not exceed 52 characters in length, or two alphabets.

If lines are too long, the reader loses their place and is confused where to start reading the next line.

Avoid "widows", "rivers" and "orphans":

When setting paragraphs of text for desktop publishing, avoid having a single word alone on a line, or a widow, allow a sentence from the end of a paragraph to move on to the following column or page, an orphan, and avoid columns of white space running through your typeset copyblocks, or rivers. Avoid means don't.

Blur your vision...

when looking at blocks of type in order to discern the positive and negative shapes out of context of the written word. This helps you evaluate the paragraph setting. In this example I have used a justified setting, flush left and right, which is popular with the general public but mostly anathema to graphic designers due to the propensity of justified type to create more rivers, undesirable letter- and word-spacing and hyphenation. It also does not give a desirable uniform grey tone to the setting.

Use a headliine face for headlines.

Some type is designed for setting paragraphs of text and other typefaces are meant for typesetting a few large, short words in a headline. They are easy to tell apart because headline type is often ornamented and becomes quickly illegible in a block of copy. Most scripts fall into this category. Speaking of scripts, it would seem to go without saying to never run scripts vertically stacked.

When setting headlines, don't set them uniformly tight.

It creates dense spots in the setting and legibility issues,-- turns "GLITTER" into "GUTTER" and "close" into "dose".

A better method is to set the headline normally, evaluate the pair of letters which have the largest space between them, in this example the cap "R" and lowercase "o" in the word "Roman", and set them tight. Use this as the basis for colour of the rest of the setting. Again, the blur your eyes test shows the setting composition in order to evaluate the letterspacing, or "kerning".

Set condensed type close together, expanded type with generous letterspacing.

Don't misuse quote, apostrophe, inch and foot marks.

Type measurements come from metal type.

The point size is based on the physical dimensions of the piece of metal that carried the letterform, from the top of the highest ascender to the bottom of the lowest descender.

Monospace type was created for the typewriting machine.

As was the modern QWERTY keyboard layout. The mechanics of the machine dictated that individual letters must be carried on separate levers all of the exact same dimensions: each lever had to fit into the same space when operating the "typewriter". Therefore, a period "." took as much width as a cap "W". This necessitated the convention of a single space after a word and a double space after a period. This is wrong when typesetting in proportionate fonts. Only a single space is needed after words and periods, period.

Designing With Type is an excellent resource if you are interested in exploring typography further.

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