The 16 Typography Vocab Words Most Likely to be WrongFor Document DesignBy Dr. Jennifer L. Bowie

Family, Face, and Font

• Type Family: all related faces with the same name and design characteristics. Example: Bodoni MT which includes Bodoni MT and Bodoni MT Black

• Typeface or face: a category of type that includes all variations (such as italics, bold, all caps,…) of the same specific name. Example: Bodoni MT is a face.

• Font: a specific application of a face, such as style and size. Example: Bodoni MT size 28 in italics

See Williams Type and slides

Legibility, Readability, and Usability

• Legibility: the ability to make out/recognize small amounts of text such as a word or letters

• Readability: the ease of reading a long body of text, such as paragraphs

• Usability: how well users can use a document for the given task, includes both legibility and readability

See Williams Type and Kimball & Hawkins

Type Categories

See both Williams books

Category Larger Category

Structure Readability

Legibility

Voice-over

Oldstyle Serif •Mod think/thin transitions•Diagonal stress•Slanted [bracketed] serifs

Very good Good Traditional, calm, formal

Modern Serif •Radical think/thin transitions•Vertical stress•Serifs thin and horizontal

Poor Good/fair Cold, elegant, dazzling

Slab Serif Serif •Little/no think/thin transitions•Vertical stress•Horizontal and think slab serifs

Very good Good Straight-forward, plain, clean, athletic

Sans Serif Sans Serif

•No/little thick/thin transitions (monoweight)•No stress & no serifs

Good Very Good

Modern, technical, clean

Script Script • looks like handwriting• Letters may connect or not

Often poor Often poor to fair

Varies

Decorative Decorative

•Structure varies greatly•Fun, distinctive, strong faces

Often poor Often poor to fair

Varies

Grunge or Distressed

Decorative

•Structure varies greatly•Distorted, trashed, schizophrenic, ugly, distinctive

Often poor Often poor to fair

Varies

Contrasts of Type• Size: One of William’s six type contrasts, should

involve big differences in type size, but can apply contrast in other ways (such as a small font on a big page).

• Weight: Another of William’s six type contrasts. Refers to the thickness of the strokes.

• Structure: Yet another of William’s six type contrasts. Refers to how the face is built including thick/thin transitions.

• Form: The shape of a letter. Letters can have the same structure but different shapes/forms. One of William’s six type contrasts. Example: g and G have different shapes but are the same structure.

See Williams Design

Conflict, Contrast and Concord

• Conflicting: Two typefaces (or other elements) that are so similar they are disturbing (they “conflict”) and not contrasting, thus creating a weak design. Example: Times New Roman & Garamond.

• Contrasting: Clearly distinct faces that contrast and create a strong design. Example: Georgia and Verdana

• Concordant: Fonts from one family without much difference and thus little contrast. Creates a calm, formal design that is not as strong and distinct as a contrast.

See Williams Design

Good Luck and Have Fun!