Transcript Typography - Purdue University

Typography
• It’s not just the words, but the shape, size of
headline and letters can attract readers.
• Typography important enough to warrant
own journal
• Type is classified into a few large groups
called races. Races are divided into
families, then typefaces and finally, fonts.
• Serif has finishing flourishes on the ends of some
letters and fat and skinny strokes (usually text)
• Sans Serif has no flourishes and most of the
strokes are the same thickness (usually headlines,
cutlines, indexes, info boxes, etc.)
• Newspapers usually buy specialty fonts from sites
or Fonts.com
• Body type
• Display type (headlines)
• Supplement, secondary or accent (boxes,
pull-outs, etc.)
• Most papers provide copy editors with a
guide that spells out which faces are to be
used for what.
Measuring type
Copy editors use a system of units called
picas and points for measurement.
• 6 picas in an inch, 12 points in a pica, so 72
points in an inch
• A 24-point headline is a headline that
measures 24 points from descender (like g
or y) to top of ascender (like h or l or capital
letter)
• Points are used to measure the space
between lines (called leading)
• x-height: the size of letters before the
ascenders and descenders.
• Measuring column width: 12p3 means 12
picas, 3 points. This is standard column
size. Gutters are usually 1 pica wide.