Basic Rules of Type

We have this handy-dandy little Typography Primer laying around that we reference every so often. Here are some juicy little tips for when you’re faced with basic type decisions for your document layout:

• Long lines of text are hard to read. A line should have ~9-10 words. Try multiple columns to keep your line length down.
• White space on the page makes your document cleaner-looking and easier to read.
• Use bullets and indents to highlight important points. Use headings and subheadings to help your readers find the information they’re interested in.
• Avoid using more than two type families on a page. Generally one serif and one sans serif make a nice mix. Using the sans serif for headlines and the serif for body text is a common and effective formula.
• Use italics or bold to highlight words and phrases, rather than using all uppercase. All uppercase is hard to read.
• Left justification can be easier to read and looks less formal and full justification. Pick the alignment option that matches the tone of your document.
• Graphs, pictures, and charts add interest to your documents and clarify your text. Horizontal and vertical lines can be used sparingly to break up blocks of text.

If you are really serious about brushing up on your typography, click the link below and pour over the whole Adobe Typography Primer.

I’m really serious about my typography!

4 Responses to “Basic Rules of Type”

1. Kellie Trenkle says:

   February 3, 2010 at 8:07 pm

   hey, so this PRIMER?
   total bonus for me today.
   thanks for the share!
2. Weekly Fixations – February 5, 2010 « Mollie Tobias Photography Weddings and Portraits says:

   February 5, 2010 at 7:02 am

   [...] for making layouts using textures. If you are interested in type face at all check out the Basic Rules of Type. Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)New In Touch Weekly looks interesting…Us Weekly [...]
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