Type Fundamentals for Nondesigners
By Molly E. Holzschlag
You know all about the <font> tag. You've tried CSS on for style. And naturally, you can create a good-looking, well-optimized Web graphic. But how much do you know about the fundamentals of typography?
Good type design can breathe more life into your sites. Although many graphic artists understand the importance of type, and have studied it extensively, many technologists have never been exposed to typographic concepts.
Fully understanding typography requires careful study of terminology and techniques. This month, I'm tossing Web-specific issues out the window and focusing on the primary typographic concepts from a designer's perspective.
Type Categories, Families, and Faces
There are so many different kinds of type that they've been grouped into sensible containers so that we can keep track of them. The following are the three main typographic groupings:
Category. A type category is the master group or family. Think of this as a typeface's ethnic heritage. For example, I'm of Slavic descent, which genetically predisposes me to certain physical traits such as body type and skin color. Every typeface has a heritage, too. The master family from which a typeface descends influences its physical attributes—its shape, line, and form (see
Table 1).
Family. Within my ethnic group, I'm identified by a specific family identifier found in my last name, Holzschlag.
