Chapter 2 Summary

Chapter two is all about the anatomy of typography.  It starts out talking about the properties of brush, reed pen, and a chisel’s influence on the early forms of typography.  Capital letterforms are consisted of the basic shapes: square, triangle, and circle.  It then goes on to talk about how lowercase letterforms came about: curve strokes could be written quickly and efficiently.  Chapter two gives us a list of vocabulary words that all add to the anatomy of typography.  Letterforms in typography all share simple common parts including curves and serifs.  Old style, Italic, Transitional, Modern, Egyptian, and Sans serif are just some of the various type styles that are available today.  Metal type measurement is also discussed.  With measuring type, there are two basic units, the point and the pica.  The depth of the type is measured in point.  All metal type must be the same height but varies in width.   The length is measured in picas.  While measuring the type itself, the designer also measures the space within the type.  Each type is spaced differently.  The space between the letters is called inter-letter spacing, the spacing between words is called word spacing, and the space between lines of text is called interline spacing or leading.  With addition to spacing, weight changes and proportion are also significantly important.  When you change the weight or stroke in type, you can create a whole new typeface.  These new alphabets have been classified as ranging from extra light to ultra bold.  Also, making letterforms either expanded or condensed changes proportion.  Angle is represented through italics.  Italics were first introduced as a new style, but now italics is now available in almost all type families.  Finally, elaboration is added to typefaces to make them more unique.  Many gaudy typefaces come out with excessive elaboration, but with the correct ornamentation some can work.