Typography 101. Know Your Typography’s Anatomy

To know your typography’s anatomy is an essential requirement for designers. You may not find it as a much popular graphic component, having a command over the anatomy of fonts or typographies can surely help you stand out among your peers and become a successful designer.

Well, two types of designers are good at using type, the first category includes those who can use typography efficiently but cannot speak the terms accurately while the designers in the second category can do both. And the truth is, the majority of such designers stand in the first category. Do you also fall in a similar category, huh? Worry not because after publishing the history of type technology, we’ve put together this amazing guide to help you know your typography’s anatomy with perfection.

Knowing the crucial typographic vocabulary is a significant skill. It not only helps you engage better in peer discussions but also to make an impact in front of the clients and convince them of your expertise.

Dive into the blog post and know your typography’s anatomy. Boom!

Basic Type Definitions 

Character.

It refers to a symbol or maybe a sign that has some meaning.

Glyph.

It refers to the particular shape or design of a character.

Typeface.

It refers to the composition of glyphs together in accordance with some common principles.

Font.

In general, fonts can be defined as a set of certain typefaces or characters that come from a similar family i.e. width, weight, and slope, etc.

However, the advent of digitalization has made the free scaling of graphics possible and so, there isn’t any need to characterize the fonts as per their sizes.

Know Your Typography’s Anatomy

Proportional and Monospaced Typefaces.

In the case of proportional typefaces, such as Times Roman, glyphs comprise of multiple widths. However, monospaced typefaces have glyphs with exact width. A common response is that people find proportional typefaces as easier and seamless to read, however, monospaced typefaces are still common with manuscripts for they provide a clearer and more stylish view of any script.

Kerning and Tracking.

As mentioned before, not all the letters have equal spacing when using a proportional typeface. This is because some pairs of letters look good with overlapping while others call for a clear distance. For an instance, in the pair of letters WA, the rightmost corner of letter W is more towards the right than the left most corner of the letter A. Comparatively, in the pair of letters SY, the rightmost corner of letter S is more towards the left than the left most corner of the letter Y.

This arrangement or letters based on how they fit and overlap with each other is called Kerning. Whereas, tracking is the opposite and supports an equal spacing between the letters no matter their shape and adjustment.

Metrics. 

There are four basic metrics of a typeface i.e. baseline, midline, ascender, and descender. Imagine a typeface i.e. miss or no, all the glyphs in these typefaces begin and end at a similar point that can also be called the baseline or a mid-line. However, some glyphs like g, j, and y, etc. go beyond the baseline and so, the certain part of these glyphs which goes beyond the baseline is called a descender. Consequently, some glyphs like b, d, and h, etc. go above the midline and so, they are called ascenders.

Now that you know your typography’s anatomy pretty well, you must be ready to bring class to your designs. Have questions? Feel free to ask your queries in the comments section!.

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