// My Problem & The Importance of Good Type
// Feb 25th, 2008 & filed under Learning, Typography
No designer likes to be hindered, either by their own inability, or by something outside of their control. Part of the beauty of self crafted design, is the freedom.
Since I’ve given myself more to design, the importance of good typography on the web becomes ever more real and apparent. Of course, one must be careful that it doesn’t turn into an obsession. However, that aside, it’s definitely something worth studying, and learning more about.
Higher awareness = Greater frustration
As you learn more, however, observing sites which possess a terrible use of type, becomes a rather frustrating experience. Particularly when you’re aware that the individual has paid a so-called ‘designer’ to develop the design for them. Having said that, there are those times when it’s basically down to the bad taste of the client. This is something which every designer struggles with of course, and I’ll have more to say about it in the future.
To be honest, although artistic ’sense’ is something which has been part of my nature for years, I (along with thousands of others I guess) must blame John Boardley for heightening my interest in type, and bringing me to realise just how vital it is to good design. Thanks John!
My problem
For months now, there have been certain fonts I’ve been itching to purchase. I mean, really itching. But, I’ve been holding back; not because I’m tight, or I don’t have the money. Simply because I’ve been thinking of moving from a Windows machine to Mac, and I was led to believe that the font files wouldn’t be compatible, so I held off. In fact, I only realised very recently that you can actually convert the files if necessary, and the OpenType file is compatible on both platforms. At any rate, my MBP is due to arrive this week, so I’m going to wait a few days longer before I buy anything.
Admittedly, my knowledge and experience of typography is extremely limited in comparison to many other quality designers out there, and it’s a severe work in progress on my part. Although I’ve heaps to learn, I’m getting there, and I’m continually trying to develop my usage of solid grid layouts (currently wading my way through ‘Grid Systems in Graphic Design), so that whatever I’m designing at least fulfills it’s purpose: communicate clearly and effectively.
Why I’ll give myself to continual type related learning
The benefits of learning in this area, not only affects my own confidence, but will also, without a doubt, be instrumental in the ’success’ of future projects. I will refuse to limit myself in the future to free fonts, and will begin to load my arsenal with paid fonts very soon, probably beginning with Avenir, Gotham, Caslon, Futura, and maybe something like Sabon (my preference over the popular Garamond).
Closing thought…
The WordPress community has been blessed with some very dedicated, and fairly high quality designers over the past 1-2 years. However, many of them are lacking in understanding proper, or thoughtful use of type, using tacky free fonts, when paid alternatives would greatly enhance their work, and making no effort in enhancing legibility. It would be great to see a shift from this ‘laziness’.
What about you? Is typography something you consider important?
>Higher awareness = Greater frustration
How very true.
>…one must be careful that it doesn’t turn into an obsession.
Oops, too late.
Sabon is an excellent choice. Sabon Next (little pricey) is even better. Minion Pro is also wonderful, as is Le Monde Livre (I have a real soft spot for her). And, there’s an about-to-be-released new text face from ??? (that I can’t talk about right now) which will be a must-buy.
Thoroughly enjoyed reading your post.
johno - Thanks for responding. I’ve still a few things to tidy up around here, and your comment kinda caught me by surprise there.
My MBP arrived sooner than expected, and I’m now replying to you with it (yey!), so while it’s working a lot faster than my old Dell, productivity will drop until I get accustomed to the slight differences in operation.
Yeah, Minion Pro is nice, but I’ve never heard of Sabon Next (I’ll check it out), and I can’t think if I’ve ever come across Le Monde Livre (something is telling me you’ve mentioned it on your blog?).
Looking forward to the ??? from ??? with great anticipation!
Anyway, thanks for taking the time to read and respond at such an early stage in the life of this site. I haven’t even linked to this domain when leaving comments yet, so I’m feeling very honoured to have you as my first commenter, and probably my first visitor!
Keep up the fantastic work.
That about-to-be-released new text face was/is Newzald.
johno - Thanks. I wasn’t sure if you had mentioned it or not, but I noticed that type had prominence in your last ‘Sunday Type’ post.
Typography is something that I consider very important, even though it doesn’t look like I’m nearly as good as you yet. But I do pay a lot of attention to font size and color contrast as well as baselines.
Joshua - Man, I’ve barely scratched the surface! I know about as much to stop me from completely embarrassing myself, but I’m learning, and that’s the important thing.
The same goes for yourself, just keep learning.
Armen, I’m with you there!
For me typeface is the hardest part of design, and one I’m struggling with (take a look at our site for all the proof you need). There are a limited subset of fonts that are available on both major platforms, and I find this frustrating. However, as of very recently I’ve decided I need to invest some meaningful time furthering my knowledge of this, and at least bring it up to a level of some competence.
Any advice/links etc greatly appreciated!
Karl - Yeah. The limitations can be annoying, but with care and consideration, rather than focussing on what’s not available, just know that what isavailable, can work well.
On your own site, you’re using Verdana extensively. It’s ok, but your h1 tags look a little messy. If you want to stick with Verdana, just play around with negative letter spacing sizes, to help the look those h1 tags, although I might be inclined to use helvetica/arial instead, but you’ll still need to use negative letter spacing there.
My best advice, is for you to subscribe to this blog
. I’ll be writing about many different, and practical aspects of web design in the future.
Armen,
I took a look at the code, and for a reason which I cannot recall, letter-spacing was set at 1px for h1. I’ve since removed it, which improved the appearance considerably. I’ve also changed the font to Arial, but am unsure as to whether I like it better or not.
Thanks for the help, I really appreciate it! I have also subscribed to your blog, so hopefully good things aren’t far off.
Karl - I’m not sure if Verdana would look better, but it definitely looks better now, than it did. You can also experiment with -1px if you want. Close, but not touching, is a good rule of thumb. Speaking of which, I’ve just noticed that my h3 tags are a little too close for comfort.
Thanks for subscribing. Every now and then, I’ll be doing the big resource type posts, but I’ll also be writing articles on type, usability, accessibility, and pretty much anything which may be classed as web design related. I hope you find it beneficial.
Typography is one of the most important factors in designing for web, print or other visual communications.
Be consistent in what type you use, for instance don’t use too many serif and sans serif mixed together, what you need in designing with type is balance.
Personally I like FF Meta very much, very readable when using a small type height. Also be sure to take a good look at the line height.
Sander - Hi. Good to see you here.
I see the site you linked to has some nice typographic elements. It looks good, even though I can’t read it
Armen,
Thank you for your good guidance. I spent a little bit of time on this lately, and have made some progress in the right direction with typeface, for both OS X and Windows platforms. Whilst I wouldn’t say it’s perfect, it’s definitely better than it was.
I look forward to learning (a lot) more as time goes on - thanks again
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