Crumpet Class: Tell me all about typography!
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FONT OR TYPEFACE?
A typeface by any other name
It seems like ‘Font’ and ‘Typeface’ are used interchangeably, but ‘typefaces’ mean a whole collection of glyphs that share a common design (eg. Helvetica); while ‘fonts’ refer to a specific set of glyphs (eg. 30pt Helvetica Bold Oblique). This distinction was most important historically when physical font pieces were organised so typesetters could quickly find the right glyph to typeset letter by letter.
I SHOT THE SERIF
Serif or Sans Serif
Serifs describe letters that have a little flared foot (or serif) end stroke, and this letterform style is said to date back to Ancient Roman stone carving techniques. Sans serif literally means ‘without serif’ and appeared in printed media around the 1800s due to their clarity at smaller sizes.
A VISUAL GUIDE
Basic anatomy
All letters can be broken down into anatomical features. Let’s take a look!
Did you already know some of these type anatomy terms?
YOU ARE JUST MY TYPE
The Personality of Typography
The fonts on a page convey more than just letters – each have their own personality and style. Font choice can help communicate being trustworthy, or casual, or rebellious, or authoritative! They can be a shorthand to convey the nuance in your message.
GROW A PAIR
Font Pairings
Making a decision about which fonts to use can seem like a dark art, but as with anything it comes with practice! Often brands will have multiple brand fonts, as each have a purpose, whether it is legibility at small sizes, emphasis or impactful headings.
Take ours for example:
HIERARCHY
Size Matters
A really important part of designing with text is the balance and harmony between text size and weight, aka hierarchy. Learning how to work with the rules of hierarchy means you can change the pace and order of how people read content.
OUR FAVE LINKS
Font resources
We have some go-tos when it comes to sourcing fonts. Remember: always be sure to check the licensing and usage rules from each type foundry!
💙 Google Fonts
💙 Adobe Fonts
💙 Open Foundry
💙 MyFonts
💙 Fontspring
💙 Creative Market
💙 Font Squirrel
and p.s. we are not too cool for DaFont 🤌🏼🤌🏼🤌🏼
About the author
Jenny Zhao
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