project 4 type definitions

multiple column grids divide the page and are distributed evenly across the page. The more columns give additional flexibility for the arrangement of visual elements. with a multiple column grid you are also able to use different column widths.

type size, leading, and column width all contribute to how many characters are optimal for a line length but as a general standard for continuous text, 45 to 75 characters per line is the ideal length. The 66 character line is widely regarded as ideal. Changing the type size can affect the characters per line. (if its extra long... needs extra leading!)

a baseline grid is an imaginary grid upon which type sits. The baseline of a piece of type can be forced to 'snap' to this grid to maintain continuity across the pages of a design.

typographic river a river is a series of inconsistent word spaces that creates distracting open lines running vertically through the justified paragraph.

flow line a flow line is a horizontal measure that divides the page into spatial divisions and creates additional alignment points for the placement of the visual elements.

incorporating white space into your designs is important because space provides visual contrast and contributes to an effective ordering system. The empty compositional space brings the visual elements alive. Keep your objects grouped and your white space on the outside not the inside

type color/texture the choice of typeface, type size, leading, word spacing, and line measure affects the texture and color (tonal value) of text setting. (ex. Clarendon has strong horizontal emphasis while Helvetica has a monotone texture) the density of typographic elements and their percieved gray value - the overall feeling of lightness and darkness on the page. Basically, the density of text.



the x-height is the height of the lowercase letters without ascenders or descenders. Different typefaces have different x-heights which give them different textures, the x-height effects type color making a typeface can look darker or lighter etc. the larger the x-height the darker the color (smaller x-height has more white space inbetween appearing lighter)

justification uses three values for type setting; minimum, optimum, and maximum. justification settings allow the designer to specify the minimum, optimum and maximum spaces between words. Justification settings also allow for additional spacing to be introduced between letters where necessary.

some ways to indicate a new paragraph include changing the type size (first sentence or statement), indent, extent, color, weight, scale, first letter big, first sentence large, flush, track out, spacing, color field, baseline shift, short rule, symbol under, number, cross-out, justify, all small caps. the only thing you should not do when indicating a new paragraph is hitting the space bar for indent (space is relevant; indent should be same as leading) and if you do indent you do not need a space between.


when hyphenating text make sure there are not more than two hyphenations in a row, too many hyphenations in any paragraph, and never hyphenate a heading.

CMYK stands for cyan, magenta, yellow, and key (or black). These are the four colors of ink used in the traditional method of printing hardcopies of images (offset printing). The three colors, plus black correspond to the primary colors, from which can be mixed colors across the visible spectrum. CMYK is a color mixing system that depends on chemical pigments to achieve desired hues

RGB stands for the three primary colors of light - Red, Green, and Blue. All colors are perceived as a combination of these three colors. It is an additive mixing color model and red, green, and blue, are combined in several methods to reproduce all other colors

hanging punctuation must be adjusted so the text will appear aligned and not distract the eye. This applys to asterisks, apostrophes, commas, en dashes, hyphens, periods, and quotation marks.

difference between a foot mark and an apostrophe?

inch mark are used to denote feet and inches while quote marks (smart quotes) are angled or curved and open or closed while the inch marks are straight up and down. You need to use quote marks not inch marks when quoting someone!!!

hyphen is strictly for hyphenating words or breaking words in paragraph settings

en dash is a punctuation mark used in compound words and to separate items such as dates , locations, times, and phone numbers. (can also be used to separate thoughts within a text) when an en dash is used like this, spaces are added before and after the dash.

an em dash is a punctuation mark used to separate thoughts within a text. There are no spaces needed before and after, but kerning may be required.

a ligature is a specially designed character produced by combining tow or three letters into one unified form. It is one form used when two or more letters would normally touch or overlap. Common ligatures are fi or fl. Sometimes ligatures are not required because the typeface letterforms have be designed to minimize the problems that make ligatures necessary.