Typography

Typography is the art and technique of arranging type to make written language legible, readable and appealing when displayed. The key factors of typography are as follows:

-Typefaces.
-Point size.
-Line length.

-Leading

This is a good example of leading. Leading is the distance between each line of text. There's many reasons as to why this is a good example. One reason is due to the ascenders and descenders not overlapping at all and looking tidy rather than muddled. As well as this, it looks much more clear for the reader to see. Leading can also be used to change the aesthetics when dealing with a typographical design. Also, leading is a good way to avoid creating negative space.

This is a bad example of leading. This is because the text is muddled, making it hard to concentrate on the text as a whole and making it time consuming to be able to read because you have to focus on each individual word. This would not be good for a poster because posters are supposed to be organised and attractive for a reader, so if the poster looked cramped it wouldn't be as eye catching.


-Tracking



Tracking is the space between letters. Tracking can affect the overall density of a text. When a text is spaced out, it can seem as though the person didn't have any apathy whatsoever. Tracking affects the overall character density of the copy. Other than the actual affect it could have on readability of type, tracking would be used to make lines of type even.




-Kerning

Kerning is the space between pairs of letters. Most fonts will have specific default kerning for individual character sets so that the spacing in between the letters in words feels more natural. Kerning, like leading, avoids negative space. It allows the text to look very neat and tidy rather than a mess.

Legibility is ensuring every individual character is distinguishable from all other characters in the font.

This would class as a good example of legibility. This is due to you being able to distinguish each individual character from the rest. Even though there's a  lot happening within this poster you're still able to tell what each character is, non are being overlapped by other characters and so therefore makes it easier to tell which each character is.








Readability is a way in which typeface is presented. Good typography encourages a desire to read a copy without having to give extra effort to be able to understand it, the person reading it should be able to understand it effortlessly.








Serif and Sans Serif


Serif is having the strokes on the end of the letters. It has been credited with increasing both the readability and the reading speed of a long text due to them helping the eye travel across a line, especially is the lines are long or have a relatively open word spacing. They can be considered to be a lot more decorative also, however they are mainly attracting the older generation, used in newspapers such as The Times.  It can be considered more mature due to it looking a lot more sophisticated than sans serif.

Sans serif however is without the strokes on the end of the letters. It was found that sans serif is preferred by the younger generation, and Colin Wheildon (1982-1990) discovered in research that sans serif fonts create various difficulties for the readers. Quit a lot of posters use sans serif, such as "Reveal" or "Kerrang" as they use fonts that are much bolder and outgoing rather than sophisticated and rich.

Font Families.

I like these pictures because the fonts they've chosen meet their criteria. They're incredibly aesthetically pleasing and appeal their intended audience. The fonts match into the colours used also, for example using black and white on the first one shows sophistication, and using a simplistic font on a light pink background shows a feminine touch.