OUGD404 Design Principles: The anatomy of type part 5.

In this studio session we learnt a few of the principles that effect the readability of text. 

Line length and distance effect readability.

Script in bigger scales become less readable - counters come further and further apart disrupting the type anatomy. 

Block is more clearly read when on one single line, and becomes less readable the more lines added. 

For this session we took the fonts we had chosen for a previous study task, uppercase and lowercase abc im gothic, roman, script and block which we then began to manipulate. 

First we took the Gothic lowercase b we had chosen and traced it onto tracing paper filling the letter in with black marker. To the left of the b we individually attempted to duplicate a light version of the letter, and to the right a bold version, In which I realised after I had done the exercise that I had undertaken it with the wrong principles, altering not only the size of the counter but also extending other elements such as the stem to the left.

We then moved on to experiment with the gothic uppercase and lowercase C. For the lowercased version we were to draw out the lightest version possible of the c. Which we learnt from the previous exercise should demand just line and no fill. We were then to draw out the boldest version of this letter, however making sure it was still readable, only changing the size of the counter. 

We then moved onto the third exercise in which we experimented with line contrast in one single letter instead of a contrast between two. For this task we used both the Gothic, Uppercase and lowercase B and A. We were to either alter the stem or counter to be bold or thin in order to create contrast in line weight. For the section of the letter I was keeping bold, I traced around the original weight, and for the section that would be thinner I drew a single line with the weight of a thin fine line nib. 

When differentiating fonts I learnt that the x height should stay constant, this should not be altered in response to the change of line weight. 

The only elements that should change when increasing or decreasing line weight is the size of the counter or the inside line of the stem. 

In order to keep readability when creating bold fonts, the spacing between letters (kerning) should be increased in order to avoid the stem becoming condensed.