So what are some of their simple secrets about type design that we can steal?
Here are a few things I have learned.
- You only need one space after periods. I know for some of us who learned to type in pre-computer days it was two spaces, but with modern computers no extra space is needed.
- This is an apostrophe ’ and this is a foot mark '. There is a difference.
- Never underline. Underlining was designed for typewriters. Instead use italics.
- NEVER USE ALL CAPS. All caps are harder to read. Never use All Caps.
- Learn to kern, however one needs to kern to learn. Kerning is the process of adjusting the space between individual letters. There are no magical formulas. It is all based on the eye. You have to practice. Here is an example.
- Never hit two returns between paragraphs. Again, this is left over from typewriter days. Use paragraph spacing in your document controls.
- Until a few years ago I did not know there were two major groups of fonts; Serif and Sans Serif. Serif has more detail at the ends while Sans Serif does not. Sans Serif fonts are easier to recognize at short glance, while Serif fonts are more readable for longer text forms, such as books.
- I am guilty of this, but never combine more than two typefaces on the same page. Period.
- Don't use gray boxes behind text. Experiment. Look at the example below:
- Learn to like white space. I am a recovering white space filler. Text with white space around it is actually is more readable. I always think of this funny video from a few years ago when I think about white space.
Most of this post was inspired and adapted from Robin Williams excellent book, The Mac is Not a typewriter. I would encourage anyone remotely interested in type to pick up this one book.
If you want to move beyond this, she wrote a really good follow-up, The The Non-Designer's Type Book, 2nd Edition
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