Though the word “Typography” is an old term, the use of it has been changed to a great extent. In the past, people used typography for book, magazine and newspaper design. But we, in the digital world, cannot think of our life even for a single moment without typography. However, even though typography is a part and parcel of our life, many of us don’t know the answer to the question: what is typography in graphic design? Well, if you are one of those people, let’s learn about it:
What Is Typography?
Typography is basically the art of arranging type in a particular design. To define it another way, it is the way of creating a visual picture using words. The words are used in the visual picture in order to give a specific message to a target group of people. However, a designer has to deal with a combination of font, color, spacing, and size while using typography in a design.
People use typography in different things for various purposes. The main purposes of typography, however, are optimum readability, artistic statement, and impact of a particular message. All these factors play a significant role to ensure quality design. And quality design makes a great impact on communications. It is because a quality design can easily affect the way the readers feels and sees.
Whether you are a content writer or a marketing professional, you cannot neglect the importance of typography. The typeface, along with the layout and color scheme, plays a significant role to make a difference between poor design and a good design indeed. That is why typography is considered greatly important in the industry of Graphics Design.
What Are the Basic Elements of Typography?
If you think that typography is all about font and color, then you are wrong. Typography, in fact, has to deal with many other things in the world of Graphics Design. The first and foremost element of typography is typeface, which refers to the name of the style of the text. To give you an idea, Arial and Helvetica are two of the most common typefaces.
Secondly, fonts allude to the style, height, and width of a specific typeface. Times New Roman, Courier, Verdana, Calibri, and Tahoma are the most common fonts available out there. Consider using fonts with the same x-height in order to avoid potential issues.
Set Width, which is another significant but a basic thing of typography, alludes to the area of the body of letters along with the buffering space. Lastly, Point System is one of the most well-known ways to measure type. To give you a basic idea about Point System, 1 point equals to 1/72 of an inch.
What Are the Advanced Elements of Typography?
The first advanced element of typography is “Leading”. For your kind information, Leading refers to the vertical space between two lines in a paragraph. The vertical space is, however, measured by Leading Value. In order to allow your text to breathe freely, you have to increase the Leading Value. Increasing the Leading Value, in addition, makes your text more attractive.
Tracking, which refers to the space between text characters, the second important element of typography. The element Tracking is also called as Letter Spacing. However, the third important element of typography is Kerning, which works the same way as Tracking. Kerning basically refers to space in between characters and letters.
The fourth advanced element is Hierarchy Values, which deals with headers, sub-headings, and body types. And finally, Size is the last advanced elements in typography. Hierarchy Value is basically defined by Size. The accomplishment of Size goes through spacing, color, and dimensions.
What Are the Basic Rules of Typography?
Everything in the world has some rules and restrictions. Typography is not different from this characteristic. As a professional graphics designer, you must keep some rules in your mind. Let’s learn about the top 3 basic rules about typography:
Read the Given Text: While doing typography in your design, reading the given text carefully is the first and foremost task for you. Though it is a crucial task, there are some graphic designers across the world do not pay any attention to reading the text. Many of them step forward by copying the text in order to paste it into the design.
If you want to get a stunning piece of typography in your design, you should not follow the way of those lazy graphic designers. Rather, you should follow a different way, which will help you make fabulous typography. For this purpose, try to understand the text by reading it attentively. It will enable you to generate innovative ideas for the specific design.
Show a Hierarchy: Showing a hierarchy is one of the most influential tasks for a graphic designer. Through a proper hierarchy, one can easily understand where to begin, what to read, and when to stop. That is to say, a perfect hierarchy plays the key part to direct the attention of readers.
Remember, you are making a hierarchy in order to make your readers understand your message. So, never use such a hierarchy that is not clearly defined. As you can use different typefaces, fonts, and sizes, you must utilize these resources to create a stupendous hierarchy, which will successfully cease the readers’ thirst for knowing something specific.
Choose the Perfect Color: Color is the most effective thing to draw people’s attention. Since you are going to use your typography to convey a particular message, you must attract people’s attention at the very first attempt. As a consequence, it is essential to choose the most perfect color for your typography.
Make sure your readers will find the color comfortable while reading your message. Besides, you should consider the readability and matching of the typography used in your design. Never use a color that will put an effect on on your background.
To conclude, typography is a vital thing to consider while making an innovative design to convey a particular message. For its great importance, you have come to this place to learn about typography. And we hope that you have now a crystal-clear idea about it. So, you don’t need to ask the question again: what is typography in graphic design?