If there’s one topic that all designers should be curious about right now, it’s typography design.
Now, you may have heard that curiosity killed the cat, but did you know that satisfaction brought them back?
Well, now you know! wink
So come on, all you cool, creative cats! It’s time to satisfy your typography curiosity with the answers to the most frequently asked questions we get.
What is typography?
In a literal sense, typography is the appearance and style of text.
The typeface, style, color, and size of the font you’re reading right now, the shapes of the paragraphs on this page, the background colors and contrasts… all of these are basic parts of typography design.
Figuratively though? Typography is so much more than that. It is text and visual working together in harmony to enhance and elevate the message being communicated.
Why is typography important?
From ensuring basic readability to building brand credibility, typography goes a long way. Imagine a webpage full of pixelated, overly stylized, and faint text on a busy background.
At best, it would be annoying and give the reader negative feelings about the brand. At worst, it might be disorienting or headache-inducing enough to make them give up on reading the content, click away, and find another “better” brand.
Having legible text isn’t enough, though. Good typography is also vital to capture attention, establish a brand voice, and ultimately influence a reader.
How does typography influence people?
There are so many small changes that we make in design, which result in big differences in mood and message. You might favor “cooler” colors to evoke a “refreshing” or “calm” vibe.
It’s the same with typography. The colors, shapes, contrasts, weights, spacing, and pretty much everything about text can shift the way we interact with it and interpret it. Let’s consider the 2021 rebrand of Burger King:
JKR Global, the creative agency behind the rebrand, had a lot to say about BK’s first rebrand in over 20 years:
“We set out to make the brand feel less synthetic and artificial, more real, crave-able and tasty.”
They also mentioned that the new font, Flame Sans “...evokes the natural, organic shapes of food.” All of that sounds like a lot to expect from typography, but it’s completely reasonable to expect that influence, aaaand now we’re hungry!
What letter anatomy terms do I need to know?
If you’re on the hunt for a unique font style that is tailored to your client’s needs and/or you have to design a whole new typeface from scratch, you’re gonna need to know the lingo.
From ascenders to gadzooks(!), we’ve got you covered.
What is the difference between a letter, a character, and a glyph?
Ooh, great question! It can feel a little bit like a logic puzzle trying to work this out, but once you get it, you’ll really get it!
Character - a broad term that covers letters, numbers, punctuation, accent marks, and other symbols.
Letter - covered under “character,” a letter is… a letter! Not a number, punctuation, or any other symbol; the letter is strictly A-Z.
Glyph - the visual representation of a character – each shape and design is a different glyph, even if it’s the same character.
Below are several different glyphs representing the same character. In this example, the character happens to be a letter.
Where can you find alternate glyphs that some fonts have?
If you’re looking at new fonts, font foundries and resellers do tend to list that there are alternate glyphs available with the download and may even display them alongside the other examples or include an additional .pdf.
How do you access and use alternate glyphs?
You should be able to do this easily with most professional software.
Open up the glyphs panel within the software that you’re using and review the glyphs available by type, either for every font, or a specific selection that you’ve made.
You can apply these changes individually by inserting the glyph where you need it, or you can select however much of your text you want and apply the changes globally.
What is the difference between a typeface and a font?
These terms are often used interchangeably, but font and typeface are actually different. If you’re going to be talkin’ type as a designer, you’re going to need to understand the difference and use these terms correctly.
It’s really not all that complex– time for a little show-and-tell! Here’s your visual guide:
And here’s what we have to say about it:
A typeface is a style of lettering.A font is a variation of a typeface.
Bada bing (and we cannot stress this enough) BADA BOOM! You’re practically an expert!
What are the most common ‘types’ of typefaces?
The short answer:
If you want the longer answer and have absolutely no idea what a serif is or what we’re talking about here, make sure you check out our short guide to essential typography terminology.
