Chapter 4: Legibility
Chapter four covers the importance of legibility within typography.
When typographers design, they have the ability to control how clearly things
are seen. Nowadays, the concept of legibility relies on contrast, simplicity, and
proportion. Popular typefaces contain these concepts, which make them easily
legible. Space is very critical in balancing the way type is formed.
Typewriters focus on how negative space is conveyed with positive space, and
this is how each letter receives certain distinctiveness. Throughout the years,
letters have expanded in numerous ways, but the basic structure of each letter
is the same. The basic structures are vertical strokes, curved strokes, a
combination of vertical, curved, and oblique. There is also distinction between
the upper and lower halves of letters.
This chapter also focused on how legibility of type plays a
huge role in how words are perceived. The size of the word and internal pattern
make a difference in how someone sees the word. Capital and lowercase type are
known to create different messages. For example, caps lock may sometimes grab
more attention and appear more aggressively than lowercase. Page and paragraph
formatting also affects legibility greatly. If the spacing of a line is too
short, then it can be difficult to read. This chapter continues to explain
every little detail about how type can be legible and why certain rules are
followed.
Chapter four was very beneficial to read because it expanded
my knowledge a lot further than I expected it to. I felt like I understood how
to cleanly format a page, but this chapter was able to describe what techniques
have worked in the past and why they continue to work now. It also went more
into depth about little things such as strokes of characters and spacing.
Chapter 5: The Typography Grid
Chapter five discusses what the typography grid is. A
typographic grid is a skeletal framework, used by designers, to organize
information into a hierarchical system. It originated with a printing process
from Europe and eventually formed into typographic theories we use in today’s
world. Division of space is a common aspect for communicating in typography. This
chapter does a good job explaining the rules of divided space and how it can be
found in nature or the human body. Learning about the various grids such as
single column, square, multi-column, and modular grids helped me understand the
architecture behind design and kind of opened a new way of looking at
typography. It clearly ties a lot into the previous chapter, and I enjoyed
being able to put some things together. It is important in typography to be
extremely clean and precise for those viewing. The typography grid is there to
ensure legibility.
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