• Has been around for thousands of years
• Thanks to the Internet, text has become more important
• Meaning is key for all designs – text can create that
• Plan your words carefully when designing and using text
• A typeface is a family of characters that includes many
type sizes and styles
• A font is a collection of characters of a single size and
style, belonging to a particular typeface family
• Typical font styles are bold and italic.
Fonts & Typefaces
• Typefaces and Fonts are like comparing Songs to MP3’s
• When you talk about how much you like a tune, you
don’t say: “That’s a great MP3”. You say: “That’s a great
song”. The MP3 is the delivery mechanism, not the
creative work; just as in type a font is the delivery
mechanism and a typeface is the creative work.
• Font is what you use, Typeface is what you see.
Songs vs MP3’s?
• The way I remember it is that referring to, say,
Helvetica as a nice font is like saying that my
wife wore a nice wardrobe today. I expect equal
punishment should be dished out in response to
• Typeface is the style, font is the collection of
symbols using the same typeface.
• Size is in Points (pt)
• 1pt = 0.35mm
• Point size measured from top of a capital to bottom of
• Font size doesn’t describe the height or width of all its
characters. The x-height can vary, even though the size is
• Leading (pronounced Ledding) is the space between
lines of text
• Kerning is the space between characters pairs (such as
• Tracking the space between all characters
• Case = capital letters is UPPER case, small letters is
• Does it have a Serif or not? Sans is French for “without”
• Serif is the little decoration at the end of the letter stroke
• Traditionally, Serif is used for blocks of text, whereas
Sans Serif is used for headings
• Not so relevant in the digital age due to the limitations of
screens (72dpi) which make the Serifs harder to read at
Serif vs Sans Serif
• Different standards for how text is displayed on screen
and produced when printed.
• A 3 are based on mathematical equations to determine the
best possible output.
• The focus of PostScript was to keep text readable and
clean when scaling for printing (Adobe and Apple).
• TrueType was introduced as it could scale better on
screen with low resolutions (Microsoft and Apple).
• OpenType is a combination of them both and made
without any licencing limitations (Microsoft and Adobe).
PostScript vs TrueType vs
• If your intent is digital only, then TrueType (.ttf) is what
you want. However, if you go with OpenType (.otf) you
can have the best of both worlds.
• Most software now days will simply apply either standard
to the finished product when you are in production.
• In a nutshell, it just means that all three will display
differently depending on their application so choose
What does that mean?
• Multimedia presentations shouldn’t flood the viewer with
• Typeface, style, colour and size can have a major impact
on readability and getting your message across
• Decorative fonts should never be used for blocks of text
• Limit the number of typefaces in a piece of work
• Alignment and columns of text are important when
viewing large blocks – don’t make the viewer tired!
• Get people to evaluate your choice of text styles and
welcome the criticism
Text and Design
• Vaughan, T. (2010). Multimedia: Making It Work.
McGraw-Hill Publishing, USA.