Typography

On Web Typography

"We've been spoiled. Until now, chances are that if you dropped some text onto a webpage in a system font at a reasonable size, it was legible. What's more, we know the ins and outs of the faces we've been forced to use. But many faces to which we'll soon have access were never meant for screen use, either because they're aesthetically unsuitable or because they're just plain illegible." (Jason Santa Maria - A List Apart) - courtesy of lucraak

Posted on November 17, 2009 | Permalink

Web Design is 95% Typography

"Information design is not about the use of good typefaces, it is about the use of good typography. Which is a huge difference. Anyone can use typefaces, some can choose good typefaces, but only few master typography." (Oliver Reichenstein - Information Architects Japan)

Posted on July 14, 2009 | Permalink

History of Graphic Design

"This site was first launched in 1999 to accompany my lectures on the History of Graphic Design. I devised this unique format of presenting the information by topics because I saw that students were overwhelmed by the scope of the topic or most texts I also saw that they learned more when the discussions included direct links to what is happening in design today. It seems to work well for visual artists who are not interested in a degree in art history." (Nancy Stock-Allen) - courtesy of AP

Posted on July 10, 2009 | Permalink

In Defense of Readers

"Despite the ubiquity of reading on the web, readers remain a neglected audience. Much of our talk about web design revolves around a sense of movement: users are thought to be finding, searching, skimming, looking. We measure how frequently they click but not how long they stay on the page. We concern ourselves with their travel and participation - how they move from page to page, who they talk to when they get there—but forget the needs of those whose purpose is to be still. Readers flourish when they have space - some distance from the hubbub of the crowds - and as web designers, there is yet much we can do to help them carve out that space." - (Mandy Brown - A List Apart)

Posted on February 18, 2009 | Permalink

Text Treatment and the User Interface

"Before graphic user interfaces, text was the primary means of both input and output defining human-computer interactions. Even today, much of the information user interfaces present is textual. Therefore, we should not underestimate how the right text treatment can measurably improve user productivity and increase user satisfaction. As new technologies become available—for example, larger monitors with higher resolutions—a good foundation of knowledge about effective text treatment can help designers create usable user interfaces for them more quickly." (Tobias Komischke - UXmatters)

Posted on January 23, 2009 | Permalink

Web Typography Sucks

"It's all our fault!" (Richard Rutter and Mark Boulton)

Posted on March 14, 2007 | Permalink

The Elements of Typographical Style Applied to the Web

"For too long typographic style and its accompanying attention to detail have been overlooked by website designers, particularly in body copy. In years gone by this could have been put down to the technology, but now the web has caught up. The advent of much improved browsers, text rendering and high resolution screens, combine to negate technology as an excuse." (Richard Rutter)

Posted on February 27, 2007 | Permalink

Fine Typography for the Web

"Typography is the craft of endowing human language with a durable visual form, and thus with an independent existence. Its heartwood is calligraphy - the dance, on a tiny stage, of the living, speaking hand - and its roots reach into living soil, though its branches may be hung each year with new machines." (Dave Shea)

Posted on June 21, 2006 | Permalink

Typography and the Aging Eye: Typeface Legibility for Older Viewers with Vision Problems

"The population is rapidly aging and becoming a larger share of the marketplace. 13 percent of the population is currently over 65 years old. In 30 years that group will double to 66 million people. People change as they age. Sensory, cognitive and motor abilities decline. The built environment is not typically created with the needs of the aging population in mind. How does the choice of typeface in signage systems, for example, impact the older viewer who is experiencing vision problems typical to that age group? Are certain typefaces more suitable to the aging eye?" (Paul Nini - AIGA Clear)

Posted on February 13, 2006 | Permalink

Semantic Typography: Bridging the XHTML gap

"In the Web Standards community we hear the words 'Semantic Markup' thrown around a lot as a concept—the right thing to do— but I know a lot of designers who are trying to learn this stuff are being confused by the whole 'semantic thing'. It's a difficult task for a designer, who primarily thinks very visually, to relate to a concept like semantics in a document when all they want to do is create something. After doing a ton of research over the past couple of weeks I've begun to notice links and patterns between typographic theory and Web Standards." (Mark Boulton) - courtesy of webgraphics

Posted on January 02, 2006 | Permalink

Underground Typography

"There are few more obviously functional forms of environmental typography than the signage in a subway or other transit system." (John D. Berry - Creative Pro) - courtesy of kottke

Posted on July 14, 2005 | Permalink

Reading Online Text with a Poor Layout: Is Performance Worse?

"This study examined the effects of enhanced layout (headers, indentation, and figure placement) on reading performance, comprehension, and satisfaction. Participants read text passages with and without enhanced layout. Results showed that reading speed and comprehension were not affected by layout, however, participants were more satisfied with the enhanced layout and reported it to be less fatiguing to read." (Barbara S. Chaparro et al. - SURL 7.1)

Posted on February 16, 2005 | Permalink

The Science of Word Recognition

"Evidence from the last 20 years of work in cognitive psychology indicate that we use the letters within a word to recognize a word. Many typographers and other text enthusiasts I've met insist that words are recognized by the outline made around the word shape. Some have used the term bouma as a synonym for word shape (...). This paper is written from the perspective of a reading psychologist." (Kevin Larson - Advanced Reading Technology, Microsoft Corporation) - courtesy of karel van der waarde

Posted on January 19, 2005 | Permalink

Usable Type: Typography for the World Wide Web

"(...) font sizing is probably the most complicated and controversial aspect of web typography." (Andrew Hume)

Posted on December 17, 2004 | Permalink

Microsoft Typography

From Lewis Blackwell's 20th-Century Type: "Microsoft has arguably the largest, most expert typographic unit in the world. With repsonsibility for the functionality and output of the great majority of type-generating devices, it is no surprise that they should have that, but it is not a fact that is celebrated or much investigated. That the Apple Macintosh platform is more celebrated and widely supported by creative designers obscures the prevelance of Microsoft technology in generating the typography that the world sees -- even if many of its smartest ideas came from elsewhere." (...) "Microsoft's Typography group researches and develops fonts and font technologies, and supports the development of TrueType and OpenType fonts by independent type vendors." (Microsoft) - courtesy of jamie divine

Posted on October 21, 2004 | Permalink

Apple Fonts

"As a company that arguably did more to jump-start the desktop publishing industry than any other in the mid-1980s, Apple Computer has always paid great attention to the typefaces used in its marketing, operating systems and industrial design. It has also been a leading player in font technology development, and controls several patents important to the implementation of high-quality typeface rendering on computers." - (Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

Posted on October 21, 2004 | Permalink

Lorem Ipsum Generator

"116 words of the original 16th century Lipsum plus 384 additional words, carefully chosen from Cicero's very own 'De Finibus', bonded by superior scripting and utmost linguistic accuracy guarantee for the web's most random ... ah, randomness - 500 times sheer bliss for the typographically inclined. Ipso facto." (Lorem Ipsum) - courtesy of marek moehling

Posted on May 19, 2004 | Permalink

SVG and Typography: Characters

"(...) we explore some time-honored practices of typographic excellence." (Fabio Arciniegas A. - XML.com)

Posted on May 13, 2004 | Permalink

Measuring the User Response to ClearType

"We are investigating the user response to Microsoft's ClearType™ font enhacement technology. ClearType is a setting that is manipulated through the operating system of devices using Liquid Crystal Display screens. ClearType works by altering the vertical color stripe within a pixel, allowing for changes in how the text looks at fractional levels. These changes are intended to enhance the resolution of the screen text and improve readability." (Andrew Dillon et al.)

Posted on April 28, 2004 | Permalink

Accessible Web Typography: An introduction for web designers

"This short(ish) book contains all the important 'stuff' I ever wanted to know about creating accessible text on my own web pages; and now that I have figured it out myself, I am happy to pass it on." (Jim Byrne - ScotConnect) - courtesy of deswozhere

Posted on February 12, 2004 | Permalink

The typographic contribution to language: Towards a model of typographic genres and their underlying structures

"This thesis presents a model which accounts for variations in typographic form in terms of four underlying sources of structure. The first three relate to the three parts of the writer-text-reader relationship: topic structure, representing the expressive intentions of the writer; artefact structure, resulting from the physical constraints of the medium; and access structure, anticipating the needs of the self-organized reader. Few texts exhibit such structures in pure form. Instead, they are evidenced in typographic genres—ordinary language categories such as 'leaflet', 'magazine', 'manual', and so on - which may be defined in terms of their normal (or historical) combination of topic, access and artefact structure." (Rob Waller PhD. Thesis 1987) - courtesy of karel van der waarde

Posted on January 30, 2004 | Permalink

Typographica: A journal of typography

"Typographica is a daily journal of typography featuring news, observations, and open commentary on fonts and typographic design." (Stephen Coles and Joshua Lurie-Terrell )

Posted on December 18, 2003 | Permalink

Understanding Web Typography

"In this article, I attempt to cut a swathe through the complexities of Web typography; explain the possible pitfalls; and provide some guidelines for creating accessible and easy to read web pages." (Jim Byrne)

Posted on December 01, 2002 | Permalink

The Typography of News

"The online newspaper, despite the seemingly limitless possibilities of type on the Internet, slavishly apes the appearance of its printed sibling." (Peter Hall - Font Magazine)

Posted on June 13, 2002 | Permalink

Typographical Signage Project

"The Chicago urban environment is layered with graphic signage that crosses boundaries of time and culture." (Department of Visual Communications - Loyola University Chigago)

Posted on April 09, 2002 | Permalink

A Comparison of Popular Online Fonts: Which is Best and When?

"(...) a majority of sites use 12-point fonts" (Michael Bernard et al. - Usability News Summer 2001 - SURL)

Posted on July 24, 2001 | Permalink