The line - Reading Process
As you read, your eyes spring jerkily along the lines. These movements are known as saccades, and they alternate with fixed periods lasting 0.2–0.4 seconds. A line is perceived in a series of saccades, followed by a large saccade as the eye jumps back to the left to start the next line. Information is only absorbed during the fixed period. Only 3–4 letters of each word are focused on sharply during the fixed period: the rest is perceived by the eye indistinctly and their context. If the sense of the text is not clear, the eye jumps back to recheck what has already been read.
Typography 3x elements
The letter – design of the individual characters/glyphs and anatomy.
The word – how these glyphs fit together.
The line – combination & arrangement of words in a body or sequence.
History of typesetting:
Typography is not an art form, nor exact science, it is more of a craft
Hierarchy
In every communication, some messages will be more vital than others. Type size, style, weight, colour and treatment can all add emphasis to any elements that require prominence. A hierarchy of different type sizes, styles and weights can be used to denote the degree of importance of each individual line.
Alignment
Left aligned Ranged left with ragged right edges is a common arrangement of text as it allows easy reading and typesetting.
Justified text Justified type can look clean and classic. When it’s carelessly set, the justified type can make your text look distorted and hard to read. Proper justification is a tricky technique to master.
Centred & right aligned Centred and right aligned text is not commonly used as it is difficult to read.
In typography, “rag” refers to the irregular or uneven vertical margin of a block of type, often on the right edge.
In typography, “rag” refers to the irregular or uneven vertical margin of a block of type, often on the right edge.
Paragraphs
A consistent paragraph style will help cement the look and feel of your typography.
Type alignment and paragraph breaks both affect the overall look of your text. Paragraph styles are often set up in digital typesetting for greater control.
Indented the first paragraph does not have an indentation. In successive paragraphs, the first line is indented.
Full line breaks An alternative to indenting is using a full line break to separate paragraphs of text.
Letter spacing
Leading - refers to the distance between the baselines of successive lines of type. The term originates from hand typesetting, in which strips of lead were used to increase vertical distance between lines. Text that is set with bad leading appears cramped with ascenders and descenders almost touching. Lack of white space also impairs reading as the eye struggles to track from one line to another. For body copy, leading should be slightly greater than the font pt size and increased/decreased proportionally.
Tracking - refers to the amount of space between a group of letters to affect density in a line or block of copy. Readability decreases when negative tracking is applied. Wide tracking opens up the type, giving it airier feel with white space. This can also become less legible if used in extremes. As a rule, below -40 and above +40 tracking are not advised.
Kerning and Kerning Pair
Kerning is the process of adjusting the spacing between individual characters/letter forms in a proportional font, to achieve a visually pleasing result. There are some letter pairings, often letter with overhang, that may need particular attention when kerning.
Hidden Characters
These invisible characters such as returns, spaces, tabs, etc, only appear when you have “Show Hidden Characters” turned on. The indicate the structure of your body of text and show how the type is set. This can be incredibly useful for finding double spaces and unintentional line breaks.
Line Length
Efficient reading depends on a comfortable line length. This is between 40 and 75 characters, or 7–12 words. An overly short line length causes a more extreme and ugly rag in a body of text, whilst an overly long line length decreased legibility and the eye finds it difficult to track the next line easily
Widows and Orphans
Windows and orphans are lines or words left hanging or separated from a complete block of text. They can look awkward and should be avoided wherever possible. This includes single (or 2 short) words left art the end of a paragraph, line that appear alone at the top of the next column. There is some disagreement over which of these terms constitutes a window or orphan. Use tracking and line spacing to remove any widows and orphans.
Dashes and Line spaces
Never use a hyphen (-) in place of an en dash (–) or an em dash (—) Hyphens (-) function as the formation of certain compound* terms. The hyphen is also used for word division. * Compound terms are those that consist of more than one word but represent a single item or idea. The en dash (–) is used to indicate range, distance or time. Depending on the context, the en dash is read as “to” or “through.” The em (—) dash can take the place of commas, parentheses, or colons—in each case to slightly different effect*.
Grids Raster Systeme: Josef Muller-Brockmann
Grids are considered by some, the most important and yet most invisible part of design and typography. This is a fundamental part of the classic Swiss style and modernist typography. The Raster Systeme presents a grid in 8–32 grid fields, which can be adaptable according to the design. Type is often set to grids to keep it organised in the design process as well as controlling its appearance.
Rivers
In typography, rivers, or rivers of white, are gaps in typesetting, which appear to run through a paragraph of text, due to a coincidental alignment of spaces. The rivers are most noticeable with wide interword spaces caused by full text justification or monospaced fonts. Typographers can test for rivers by turning a proof sheet upside down to examine the text. From this perspective, the eye is less likely to recognise words and the type can be viewed more readily as an overall pattern. A disadvantage to justified text.
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