What's Your Typeface?

WHAT'S YOUR TYPE(FACE)? A DUMMY'S | Have you ever wondered how popular typefaces, such as Times New Roman and Arial, came to be? The invention of the typeface can be dated all the way back to GUIDE TO TYPEFACES the 1450s, when they casted fonts in lead alloys. Let's dive into some intriguing facts about typefaces. TYPEFACES Vs. FONTS For starters, it's easy to mix up the terms "typeface" and "font," and no one wants to get into a heated debate about nomenclature. Garamond Garamond B Garamond Italic Garamond Bold A typeface is a specific design of an alphabet, and it usually A font refers to the actual files that permit the typeface refers to an entire typeface family, such as Arial or Garamond. to be set to an individual height, width, or style. ROLLING THROUGH THE YEARS Today, we have access to numerous typefaces in word processors-a dramatic advancement from the days of lead alloys. 1450 LEAD Fonts are cast in lead alloys by type foundries (companies that design and distribute typefaces). WOOD 1827 Wood type is invented and created with a special drill that cuts letters into wood blocks. 1884 LINOTYPE Linotype typesetting is created, which allows for automated casting of fonts (also known as line casting). PHOTO 1950 Phototypesetting is born, which projects light through a film negative of an individual character. This projection magnifies or reduces the size of the 1970 STREAMLINE PRINTING character onto film, which Several inventions came into the market to help is then collected on a spool in a light-tight canister. streamline printing: letterpresses, continuous casting machines, phototypositors, and computer-controlled DIGITAL 1985 photo typesetters. The American spelling font (a computer file containing scalable outline letter forms; also known as digital font) was the latest technological advancement in typeface. THE ANATOMY OF A TYPEFACE Typeface anatomy includes 24 parts-almost as many parts as the English alphabet! These varying parts distinguish one typeface from another. SOME TYPEFACE PARTS INCLUDE: Arm Bowl Terminal Ascender Diagonal Stroke An upward vertical stroke on the part of An upward or The curved part The end of a stroke horizontal stroke of a character that lacks a serif. An angled stroke. not connected that encloses the lowercase letters that on one or both ends. circular counter. extends above the typeface's x-height. Typography Serif Stem Shoulder- Descender x-height The horizontal or The main A curved stroke A downward vertical The height of diagonal strokes ('feet') at the end of some strokes. vertical stroke. at the beginning stem found on lowercase letters of a stem. lowercase letters minus their ascenders that extends below and descenders. the baseline. TOP 5 OVERUSED AND ABUSED With over 50,000 different typefaces that exist today, we can't help but wonder which ones are commonly used or even abused. Often, the selection of typeface depends on the industry. THE NEWS ACT NOW." Graphic Design: Journalism: Academia: 1. Helvetica 1. Poynter 1. Times 2. TRAJAN 2. Franklin Gothic 2. Times New Roman 3. Garamond 3. Helvetica 3. Arial 4. Futura 4. Utopia 4. Courier 5. Bodoni 5. Times |5. Garamond SOURCES: TYPOPHILE, DESIGNHISTORY, JUSTCREATIVEDESIGN.COM, RASMUSSEN ASCENDER CORP, 37 SIGNALS, RUTGERS.EDU, TYPOGRAPHYDECONSTRUCTED.COM COLLEGE