In class today we looked at typography for screen. We looked at the more fine details of type to get a better understanding of it. We first looked at different elements of typography. One of the things that amazed me was how many different types of glyph there are.

When and what Typeface do I use?

We then looked at how to know when to use what typefaces, to match the theme of the project or design. For example you would use a different typeface for a kids show than an Italian restaurant menu. Here we were given two pieces of text from two different books, and we had to choose our own typefaces and colours, keeping in mind what the text is about.

Here is my first designs without colour

Punctuation

Next we looked at punctuation and how important using it correctly is. I learn a lot here about punctuation and grammar that I didn’t in school in English (or maybe I wasn’t listening). I especially took a lot from learning about quotation marks and how they should be used correctly, also the proper use of hyphens, en dash, and em dash.

Ligature

Ligature’s are when characters are connected to make a single glyph. They are used to join characters together seamlessly and can create a better reading experience for the viewer. I thought these were quite interesting as they make letters seem more fluent and overall adds a touch of class to the type.

Here is an example of a ligature that I found in a bookmark. You can see the ‘g’ and ‘i’ are connected.

Practicing Typography for Screen

We were asked to make the text from our earlier books and choose one to create so that it would fit a phone screen. The frame I used was an iPhone 14 frame and I think that my design turned out quite well. We had to use a grid and I think that it always makes the design turn out better. I think that the colours match the theme of the book, mostly which was taken from an image of the front cover that I used.

We then were asked to use a body of text and using everything we had just learnt, turned into a professional layout of the text. We had to use a grid with these dimensions; 1440px x 1024, 12 columns, 8px gutter, and 200px margin. The text was about John Baskerville and his typeface. I used different sizes and fonts to emphasise certain things. I decided to use a horizontal frame which I regret as I think that it would have turned out better if I used a portrait frame. Here is how mine turned out: