Chapter two
discusses the anatomy of type and its evolution over many centuries. Chapter
two begins by defining several terms that are parts of letterforms (apex, arm,
spine, etc). This vocabulary allows designers to really analyze text deeply or
compare and contrast two existing typefaces. There were several terms that were
included in the textbook that I had never heard or seen before. Take the term,
fillet, for example. A filet is defined by our book as “the contoured edge that
connects the serif and stem in bracketed serifs. I didn’t even know there was a
term for that! I had recognized, through my years of drawing fonts on pictures,
that some serifed fonts do have small curved parts that connect the main stroke
of the letter and the serif. I never knew if it was intended or if it even had
a name, but now that is an interesting fact that I could throw around at
parties. The fundamental element of a letterform is the linear stroke. The
marking properties of the brush, the reed pen and the engraver’s chisel
influenced the form of the early alphabet. The transition from crude marks to
letterforms with clarity and understanding is but a matter of design. Over the
centuries, different designers have had but one goal in common: to create a
type that is better than or improves the already existing system. The unity of
design in type font is something that surprised me in this chapter. I have
grown up with type as a vital part of my everyday life, but for some reason,
maybe because it was so blatantly in front of my nose, I chose to not give it
close enough attention. I was surprised to see how many letters really do share
a similar form with slight variations in the whole letter. The optical
relationships in font is also new information to me. Certain pointed and curved
letters have less weight at the top, so they appear shorter than the rest of
the letters. In order for their to be unity when looking at the text, certain
parts of these letters extend above or below the capline or baseline.
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