Words pack so much meaning in and of themselves. Words that are designed pack even more meaning. There come a point when we stop looking at words as individual letters and start looking at them as images. So, to put it simply, how the word(s)/image(s) looks will tell us just as much, if not more, than the word by itself. This is called typography.
TYPEFACES vs. FONTS
There are many elements to effective typography, but probably the most noticeable element is typeface and font. Typeface refers to the actual design of a letter. For example "Helvetica" is a typeface. Font is how a typeface is portrayed. For example, Helvetica Bold 12 pt. is a font. Helvetica Bold 10 pt. is another font. Helvetica Italic 14 pt. is yet another. Both essentially refer to the design of a font and pretty much all typefaces fall into a few different categories:
- Serif: a slight projection finishing off a stroke of a letter in certain typefaces.
- Sans Serif: lacking or without serifs
- Script: mimics handwriting styles that look as if written with different styles of writing instruments from calligraphy pens to ballpoint pens.
- Decorative: has exaggerated features. Ideal for headlines or titles; shouldn't be used for body copy.
TYPE PROPERTIES
Now that we've talked about typefaces and fonts, lets take a look at how we can manipulate how they look. We can alter how letters and words look on a document using type properties. Three of the most basic properties are listed below:
- Tracking: the space between all letters.
- Kerning: the space between two characters.
- Leading: the space between lines of text.
Another property that can be manipulated is alignment. You're probably used to adjusting alignment on text documents such as reports and essays.
WHERE TO GET FONTS
There are many place to find great fonts online. While many sites allow you free use of their fonts, others do require you to pay a premium. Below are some of the more popular sites: