In this process and production lesson we were focusing typography. This acted as a refresher of the text tools we all use, but gave some direction in what and how to use and to what effect.
Key terms:
- Kerning- the spaces inbetween each individual letter
- (spacing should be consistent throughout a word, visibly, even if not numerically)
- (Below illustrates this, there needs to be a suitable distance between letters as with the "w" and "i" of "Windows".)
- (Each example here is demonstrating a different level of kerning)
- Tracking- is the uniformed spacing of letters within a word.
- (quicker editing process)
- (provides a less visual alignment as all letters are spaced equally regardless of how that appears on the screen)
- (as seen below with "claws" and "Jupiter")
- Leading- refers to the distance between the baselines of successive lines of type.
- this can be manipulated to increase or decrease the gap.
- Playing around with this function we were challenged to create a "jaw" like image of the words jaw. Below is my attempt, I wanted the sharp points of the 'w" to reflect the teeth, however the outer edge doesn't look defined enough yet.
- Rag- is the irregular or uneven vertical margin of blocks of type.
- this is normally what appears on the right, as a left margin is usually aligned.
- This can be changed manually by pressing shift and enter to move the out of place text on to the next line. (This was a new shortcut learnt.)
- (This can be seen in the second image below)
- Rag can also be controlled by the computer, by changing the line alignment options on the top tool bar, although this may not generate the right look.
- To further manually control the right rag, the tracking of specific line of text could be subtly adjusted to make the text fill the same space.
- This should only be done subtly, the text shouldn't appear to be changed.
After this we looked further at the choice of typefaces people have, and why what we chose is crucial in the design process. Types can have different meaning according to their appearance and its important to marry the ethos and connotations of a word to a suitable typeface. Going through examples with multiple choices, it was clear that the class were quite decisive in which one seemed best suited for the information it was to be used on. However the few variations that did occur were still justifiable due to how that word presented itself to that designer. Each of us has a different perception of certain words, so will therefore also have a different opinion in which font best reflects it. By realising this, its also important to understand that it all depends on which context that word will be used with. For example "school"- "Old-school", "`primary school", "`nursery school", "grammar schools" and "official school documents" would all require a different typeface due to their striking difference in formality and audience.
Finally we looked at how words can be edited using a "crop" function. This was obvious when explained but was something i had honestly never considered as a way to customise typefaces. We trialled this out on a number of different examples, and then used my name to form my own design from letter cropping.
(Bebas Typeface)
However this would prove more difficult with a patterned background, as a white box to act as a blanket over the unwanted text wouldn't be suitable. The items I believe would have to be grouped and then saved as a PNG image so that the white could remain as a transparent background. So to use this in any works may need some preparation beforehand to ensure it was in a suitable file format for continued use.
