Type Categories, part 03: Italic

Echoing the contemporary Italian handwriting of the day, the first italics were close-set and condensed, allowing for more words to fit on single pages. Italics were initially used to produce pocket-sized editions of the classic literature. Italics soon became complements to many roman type families. By the 16th century, virtually all typefaces have been designed with accompanying italic forms.

Italic, circa 1500

Examples shown here are the italicized version of the Oldstyle type we showcased on October 12th, 2009. In order of appearance: Bembo italic, Caslon italic, Garamond italic, and Jenson italic.

CONSIDERATIONS WHEN USING ITALICS
First, make sure that the type family you’re using includes an italic, and that the italic is installed on your system. If you specify italic without having an italic font installed, you’ll get only a slanted version of the roman, which looks (and is) amateurish. Every variation within a type family — italic, bold, condensed, extended semibold italic, whatever — is a separate font. Having one of them does not guarantee that you have all the rest. Just because an “italic” style shows up on your font menu (especially in Windows) doesn’t mean that an italic font is installed on your system. Some typefaces were never designed to have an italic complement.

Information cited from: A Type Primer by John Kane and an article from CreativePro.com, written by John D. Berry

Type Categories, part 02: Oldstyle

Here’s a nice piece of type trivia…

The Caslon typeface, created in 1734 was brought to England’s American colonies and ended up being the typeface used in the earliest printings of the Declaration of Independence. Who knew that learning about type could be so fun?

This is relevant because today’s type lesson is all about oldstyle figures.

Keep in mind that no ONE type classification systems satisfies everybody. So, for simplicity’s sake we’ve omitted the some of the sub-categories within  the oldstyle category. In general, these letters have diagonal stress in their thick & thin strokes. Notice the diagonal stress in the lower case “e.” The thick parts of the letter are in the lower left and upper right section of the letterforms. Oldstyle letters can have either stubby serifs or more polished bracketed serifs and are based on classic Roman proportions.

Oldstyle, circa 1475

To the untrained eye, there would seem to be no difference in the above type specimens. But look closely at the serifs, the letter proportions and idiosyncrasies to distinguish one from the other. Oldstyle letters are based on the lowercase forms used by Italian scholars for book copying, and the uppercase letterforms found inscribed on Roman ruins. Examples shown above, in order: Bembo, Caslon, Garamond, and Jenson.

We will often recommend an oldstyle typeface because they’re classic, well-designed, and will stand the test of time. They’re a great starting point for logotypes, body text, and will lend classic, sophisticated, and professional feel to any publication or piece of design.

Information cited from: A Type Primer by John Kane, and Fonts and Logos by Doyald Young

Type Categories, part 01: Blackletter

Throughout history various type forms have been developed in response to the technology, needs, and trends of the particular period. In the world of typography there are numerous ways of classifying type. Here is a simple, easy to use graphic that will give you a brief insight into the major categories of typography along with their approximate date of origin (rounded to the nearest quarter century). We’ll begin by taking a closer look at Blackletter today, and will visit the remaining categories over the next 8 Mondays.

Keep in mind that decorative and headline typefaces are not included in the list because there are so many different ways to categorize them.

Blackletter, circa 1450

Blackletter is the earliest printing type, it’s forms were based on the hand-copying styles used for books in Germany, France, Spain, the Netherlands and England. Due to it’s use in England the blackletter fonts sold in the US are often referred to as “Olde English.” Examples shown above: Cloister Black, and Goudy Text. You’ve probably seen Blackletter type all around you, some of the larger newspapers in the US use a custom drawn Blackletter for their mastheads.

Information cited from: A Type Primer by John Kane and The Elements of Typographic Style by Robert Bringhurst

Type Basics, part 01

Letterforms come in all shapes and sizes. If you have a need for typography, then someone has probably already designed* a typeface for your specific purpose. (*Yes, I said designed. Well-designed type is a thing of beauty and is more complex than you might imagine. More on this in the future posts.) In order to gain a deeper understanding of type, let’s start by learning about some of it’s parts.

There is a basic and invisible structure that type fits onto, and it may take you back to your days of penmanship in elementary school.

The baseline is the line that all the letters sit on. Obviously, some letters dip below the baseline and are called descenders (typically lower case g, j, p, q, and y). The x-height is exactly what it describes: the height of a lower case x.

Notice how letters with a curves at the top or bottom, like a lower case e will extend slightly above or below their horizontal guidelines, otherwise they appear too small.

Serif typefaces have the foot-like terminal at the end of certain strokes. A typeface without these strokes is called San Serif, and gets it’s name from the french sans meaning “without.” The serif letters are shown with the red callouts and the san serif, with the grey ones. Something to consider when picking between a Serif or San Serif: Large bodies of serif text are easier to read because the serifs pull the eyes through the words and letters more quickly. See for yourself in your favorite book (some exceptions apply).

Some of the more colorful names for typographical elements: Ear, Spine, Shoulder, and last, but not least, the Crotch.

All of this may seem overly technical, but I assure you an understanding of the basics will help you see typography in a new light. The more you learn about type, the more you’ll be able to explain what you love or hate about the details. Stay tuned for future installments of the Type Basics series where we’ll share a bunch more useful basics for understanding typography.