Noun: A single distinct meaningful element of speech or writing, used with others (or sometimes alone) to form a sentence and typically shown... Verb: Choose and use particular words in order to say or write (something). Exclamation: Used to express agreement: "“That Jay is one dangerous character.” “Word.”". Synonyms: noun. speech - vocable - prom-iseverb. phrase - formulate - couch - verbalize

Word

Impact

The choice of words is one of the key com-ponenets of persuasive commnication. However, in written language, words have the greatest impact when they are readable and legible. This is achieved by a number of techniques, some of which shall be shown on the following pages.

One of the key considerations in the impact of a word is CONTRAST.

Contrast can be created using size, colour, direction and font type. It is created when a specific voice is placed next to an oppos-ing voice, often a directly opposing voice. High contrast can be used to create, among other things, a sense of urgency, strength, obviousness or irony.

The voice of a piece is affected by font size. Larger font sizes will seem louder, smaller will seem quieter. Larger size will convey boldness, confidence, surety and, in the right context, attitude. Smaller will seem subtle, an afterthought, or in the right context, even smarmy. Much of the power font size has over the voice of a piece is in context with other elements on the page.

This same concept is often seen in advertising. The disparity between large and small text is used to differentiate important information from the less important.

Size

The illustration from the jiong.com home page you can see how your eye is immediately drawn to the “super sized” G. In fact the word “ Jiong” is the first thing you pay attention to on the page. The key point here is that the font used for the lettering is the same.

The weight of words can be used to emphasise or to make things stand out in contrast.

The image to the right ‘Titler’ home page combines bold and ultra bold versions of the type face with the Roman , the eye is immediately drawn to the words “have”, “a” and “you”. The contrast principal of size is also at play here.

In the example below, Carl Dair uses this idea to great effect, where the contrast of weight is immediately eviednt in a brouchre produces by Carl Dair in the early 1950s.

Weight

Texture is derived from the letterforms and how they are arranged on the page. Dair’s description of this is both succinct and artistic :”Like threads in a cloth types form the fabric of our daily communication.”

The image below, from the Getty Research Library was designed by Cirus Studios of Los Angeles is a great example of typographic contrast from the Getty Research Institute.

Texture

This is purely an aesthetic aspect of typography.

Typesetting is used to affect the spaces between individual words, between individual letters, and the vertical spacing between lines.

Generally speaking, the tighter the spacing the better, insofar as readability is not negatively effected. Tighter spacing will make your text look more professional and thought out. Bolder and larger fonts can take much tighter spacing and still remain readable than can skinny or small fonts. The vertical space between the individual lines of a block of copy can be manipulated to give the writing a specific meeter that can accentuate a piece well.

Typesetting

Kerning refers to the space between two letters where as tracking refers to a group of characters. Some pairs of letters need more spacing between them so kerning is a way to rectify this.

Kerning

Adjusting the overall spacing of a group of letters is called tracking.

By expanding the tracking across a word, line, or entire block of text, the designer can create a more airy, open field. In blocks of text, tracking is usually applied in small increments, creating a subtle effect not noticeable to the casual reader. Occasionally, a single word or phrase is tracked for emphasis, especially when CAPS or small caps are used within a line. Negative tracking, rarely desirable in text sizes, can be used sparingly to help bring up a short line of text.

White type on a black background is considered more legible when it is tracked.

Tracking

EVEN WORD SPACINGIf word spaces are too large, they break the lines up into separate elements and disrupt reading. This is especially true if justified type is used on a short line length. If the word spaces are too small, it becomes dif-ficult to distinguish each separate word. A good trick to use to check word spacing is to turn the page upside down and squint at it. Excessively large word spaces will stand out. Be especially careful with condensed and expanded fonts, reversed type, and vertical, narrow typefaces (like Bodoni).

EVEN LETTER SPACINGWhen letters are correctly spaced, a para-graph of type takes on an even color. From a distance it should look like a screened gray block. The shade of gray will depend on the heaviness of the typeface. Any inter-ference with normal letter spacing is very hard to read. If the letter spacing is uneven, darker spots stand out in places against the gray color. Often, tight tracking will create uneven letter spacing.

Word spacing

A ligature is a single sort in which two or more letters are joined, usually to improve the space between them. There are a few ligatures that are still seen today, such as the connected fi, fl, the triple play ffl, and sometimes even the stylish ct ligature. A typographic diphthong is a glyph of two vowels spliced together, and it symbolizes a phonemic diphthong, two linked vowel sounds. Ligatures and diphthongs are also known as tied characters, tied letters, and sometimes quaints.

Ligatures

Some of the other special characters for legibility or for added interest include:

SWASHESSwashes are fancy characters that are used in small quantities to add interest to type. They are not usually included in the stand-ard font set, but often appear as Expert Sets.

OLD STYLE FIGURES (NUMBERS)The numbers in a regular font are usually larger and sit on the baselines. When these regular numbers appear in text they seem out of place. Oldstyle figures (available in Expert Sets) fit in better with lowercase let-ters because they also have ascenders and descenders.

Other special characters

Punctuation is important to consider as a typographer, as text can be difficult to understand or it can be misleading if used incorrectly.

There is more to punctuation than just periods, of course. As every type designer soon realizes, a complete font set will also need an apostrophe (’), colon (:), semicolon (;), comma (,), hyphen (-), an en-dash (–), an em-dash (—), ellipsis

Punctuation

Dashes, Rules and Dot LeadersThe smallest typographic line is the hy-phen, the short dash used to link hyphen-ated words and for wordbreaks at the end of a line. Ems and ens return to help de-scribe the other line dashes: the en dash, the width of an en space, and the em dash, a popular line the width of an em space.

Accent marks, which rest over and under the letters of foreign expressions, are also known as diacritical marks or diacritics. Some common diacritics are the acute or aigu (é), the cedille (ç), the caret, circum-flex or circonflexe (ê), the grave (à), the tilde or swung dash (ñ), and the umlaut, a feature in many German words (ü), is identical to the diaeresis or trema (ö) that is rare and not mandatory in English (don’t be naïve), but is a regular feature of Dutch, French and Spanish.

Punctuation...