Typography A to Z - Foundation and Designs the Practical Way

Typography A to Z:

It is the art and method of arranging and utilizing type to make the text content readable and appealing to the reader. There are many elements that make the type aesthetically beautiful and manageable to the audience, some of them are

• Typeface you choose – which involves many types of hand written, printed and computer related fonts that speak and suits for various conditions, moods, and formats.

• Point Size: Fonts are technically measured in points and the size of the points you choose to show and highlight your text plays an important role in the look and feel of your text.

• Line-Length: The length of the line you implement in the requirement is vital to avoid the eye strain and this process is further divided into creating or breaking a large chunk of text block into columns.

• Line-Spacing: Line spacing gives your text a free and relaxing look by maintaining the gaps between each line in your text document. This technique is also called as leading

Many people misinterpret typography with type design which is not exactly typography. Type design is the art of designing the text fonts, whereas typography is the art of using these text fonts to achieve an appealing look and adds value to the purpose.
This course Typography A to Z will give you a comprehensive advantage by introducing you to various facets of Typography. You will come to know what typography is and how it should be used in various conditions. However, we dive deep into the Type anatomy by discussing the names of typography and how to mention various parts of an alphabet. In few brief lectures, you will learn the history of typography and the core subject circles around the units of measurements in type, designing with type, using fonts for web and print and taking you through the common problems that young typographers and designers face while working with text.

Who can learn this course?

Typography is a subject which is implemented in a diverse range of Industries using an ocean of software and hardware tools. From the printing industry to graphic designing, desktop publishing, publications to every office in every corner uses typography for one or another purpose. This subject is universal, hence, it can be learned by anyone or everyone. However, for your help, we chose some of the professions in the modern age that will use typography to stimulate the user experience.

• Graphic designers and professionals from advertising background who work on a lot of text content

• Content writers will gain advantage by enhancing the look of their content during submission

• Desktop Publishers has maximum advantage through this course as they spent majority of their professional time working with unending blocks of type

• Publishers, Printing Personal can know about the type and various factors through which they can enhance the look of the publishing.

• HTML & CSS developers and designers will gain from understanding detailed information about the measurements which will help them to improve the look of the websites

About Typography A to Z

Section 1: Introduction

In this very first lecture about Typography, we will take you through the importance of Typography in designing and discuss various factors that add value and bring beauty to the text. Before getting into technically advanced lectures we start from the basic level, where you will learn about the design and construction of the typography. You will come to know the various level of terminology associated with typography and learn the parts of a font. We also show you information-rich online resources where you can find a complete list of terminology and font parts.

Later in this section, you will know about one of the important information that will make you a master in technical assessment of text. The last lecture of the section talks about the measurement units of Type. We cover both printing and designing units which are PICAS and Points. You will know the conversion units from one unit to another relative to the inches. Besides that, measurement section includes a brief lecture about conversion of text.

Section 2: Classic Font types

Your attempt to become a good typographer can never be fruitful without a proper understanding of the classic font types and how they evolved over the years. During this lecture about the classic type fonts, we will take you through five fonts that are developed in various periods of time and tested tough for centuries. The five fonts you will come to know in this lecture are 1. Garamond 2. Baskerville 3. Bodoni 4. Century Expanded and 5. Serif fonts. You will know the differences between these fonts while we explain you the history of them

Section 3: Designing with Text Type

At this point of this course, we will take you through the major elements that makes typography important and define the beauty of the text. We will start the section by discussing in detail about the Letter Spacing or Leading. You will know many methods how Leading can be controlled through Hot keys, manual methods, technical methods and all the features a software can give you to control the leading or line space. We will teach you about the minimum sizes and what are the minimum values and maximum values of leading. We will show you how to convert the points and achieve the results in inches based on the 72 point measurements.

Once the Line spacing is finished you will see the Word spacing which actually deals with every word of the text block. It is also called Tracking. We will take you through the features of the tracking by introducing you to the subject. Here you will know all the ways to control the tracking manually and technically. Later you will see how minus values in tracking can help you achieve better looking text while justifying the content.

Later we will deal with the Line spacing in the next lecture of the section. You will see how lengthy lines don’t fit your eyes for reading and how text is divided into tall columns to avoid the stress to your eyes. We will show you some classic examples of handling the lengthy texts through some news articles published in the daily papers. You will also learn the standard line length and number of words with spaces that will look better on both paper and websites.

Alignment is the lecture where you will come to see the various methods of alignment. The topics covered during this section are about the left alignment, right alignment, center alignment, justification, light alignment in justification, right alignment in justification and center alignment during justification. Though these are the concepts you will find everywhere in every software application. In this section, you will understand how computing treats alignment and why are the gaps happened on the left and right side of the text blocks which eventually make them left and right alignments. You will come to know what happens to the gaps between the words during justification and you can gain control over every part of the text.

Section 4: Fonts for The Web

During this section, we will discuss how to use typography and fonts in the websites. You will come to know about the Font sizes that should be used in various parts of web designing fonts like Headings, Sub-Headings, text content, footer and all. You will know the common fonts that are used for the headings. At the end of the lecture, we will take you through a quick practical exercise where you will know how to arrange fonts in a website. We discuss the size of a heading, sub heading, and text in the HTML and CSS standards.

Once we are finished with dealing with the fonts for web designing, we will step into using fonts in Printing Industry. Compared with the web designing size, the printing industry is vast with a multitude of printing collaterals that has various styles, font sizes, methods, and creatives. We will look into every aspect of print design discussing the sizes of fonts you should use in various conditions. At the end of the section, we will work on two printing documents by creating a fresh business card and a letter head from scratch.

Section 5: Fixing common problems

Typography is a subject put to use in many conditions. Hence, in many verticals, you deal with problems in every phase of work. We have chosen few such common problems and brought them to the course, so you will not be puzzled anymore. First, we shall start dealing with the common problem which is not just a trouble for beginners but to many professionals on various grounds. The gaps many designers hardly control during justification and many other alignment processes are clearly distinguished during this lecture. You will see how to control the gaps through using the methods as Leading, Kerning, Tracking. Practical sessions through exercises are used to explain to you how justification should be controlled.

The final lecture of the session deals with the important element that helps you make certain parts of the text to standout from the entire blocks of text in the document. We deal with managing the hierarchy in Typography. The lecture deals with emphasizing a portion of a document as heading and how to take the message to the audience quickly and effectively. You will know how to create a heading, sub heading and emphasize them effectively. We give an example of Type Hierarchy by taking a project and dealing with every level of text giving an Industry oriented training in emphasizing Headings.

The course comprises and accommodates every bit of information you need to know about Typography and make you an expert typographer after completing it.

Frequently Asked Questions:

• I am already working on Adobe Photoshop, InDesign, Corel Draw software from a couple of years. Is it necessary for me to take this course to become a professional typographer?

Many people, including designing professionals, believe Typography is a part of the software. But what you see is a feature and tool that software extends to beautify and use your typographic ability. As you know that a Desktop Publisher, a graphic designer, an advertising expert everybody uses a software such as Adobe InDesign or Corel Draw. We may profoundly observe the difference between a work done by every professional in this matter. Every individual apply their idea of typography in the design document as they like it. But very few people learn and know the reasoning behind the typography which stimulates their ability to use typography to achieve intended results.

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