Seven Principles of Effective Typography
By Kelly Garbato,
author, ePublisher, and small business owner,
Kansas, U.S.A.
http://www.kellygarbato.com/
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Whether
you’re designing a magazine layout or a personal
web site, functionality, aesthetics, and - above
all else - ease of use should comprise your primary
concerns. Your reader must be able to find the information
she needs, quickly and effortlessly. Locating the
desired content is only half of the battle; once
found, your audience must also be able to read your
subject matter fluently and without difficulty.
Type
constitutes one of the dominant elements of most
publications. Good typography is largely “invisible”
typography; rather than drawing the reader’s attention
away from the material, the type remains in the
background, unseen and unnoticed. However, invisible
typography does not necessarily entail boring typography.
Quite the contrary; it takes both creativity and
skill to make type attractive and pleasing to the
eye while simultaneously keeping it from becoming
distracting.
In
order to ensure that the type in your publication
is living up to its potential, heed the seven principles
of effective typography:
Generally
speaking, your layout should be as uncluttered and
uncomplicated as possible. If too much information
is crammed onto any one page, your readers will
have trouble locating what they are looking for.
Such chaos and disorder are also disconcerting;
readers are more likely to flip (or click) right
by pages that make them feel anxious or confused.
“Clutter”
does not refer just to the decorative or directional
elements on a page. Text, which is oftentimes colored
black, can also make a page look busy. Too much
type gives the space a “gray” feeling.
In
order to avoid such unintended consequences, begin
by keeping secondary details to a minimum. Also,
take care to break your content up into manageable
chunks. This is especially easy to do when designing
a web site; long articles can be divided into smaller
sections, and readers may jump from one fraction
to the next via hyperlinks.
2.
Include plenty of “white space”
Likewise,
you should factor in an ample amount of “white space”
when designing a layout. Blank, white space balances
the darkness of the text. Don’t think of such areas
as wasted or unused space; rather, regard the whiteness
as a design element in and of itself. Properly placed
white space is an essential element of an artfully
designed layout!
The
elements on your page will usually be arranged into
a hierarchy; for example, your page may include
a title, subtitles, a byline, or a list. Each of
these elements must be differentiated from one another
so that their relationship is immediately obvious
to your audience.
Common
methods of depicting hierarchies include the use
of color, sizing, weight (boldness), italics, and
spacing. For example, the most important elements
on a page might be colored red, sized a few points
larger than the rest of the text, have a heavier
weight, be italicized, or be spaced farther apart
(or any combination of these). Be careful not to
overuse any of these, however; if too many elements
are stressed, it becomes difficult for your reader
to determine which, if any, are important.
In
addition to ordering elements into a hierarchy,
contrast serves several other purposes. When used
sparingly, a section of text that’s weighted differently
from its surroundings will jump out at the reader.
Thus, bold text can serve to make important elements
stand out.
Contrast
between text and its background is even more essential
in layouts. If there isn’t sufficient contrast,
your audience will have to strain to read your publication;
most likely, they won’t bother at all! Web designers
seem to be especially prone to combining unsightly,
hard-to-read color combinations on their web sites.
Before placing yellow text on a blue background,
take a moment to reorder your priorities - do you
want your site to be pretty or legible?
5.
Pay attention to spacing
Similar
to contrast, spacing is another strategy you can
use to reflect hierarchies. Also like contrast,
good spacing is essential to a legible layout. Lines,
words, or letters spaced too closely together (or
placed too far apart) can prove hard to read. Pay
close attention to leading (line spacing), tracking
(which controls letter and word spacing), and kerning
(which can help to smooth out spacing between specific
characters).
Along
these lines, opt for a flush-left/ragged-right setting
for your main body of text, as opposed to justifying
it. Justified text can create unsightly word and
letter spacing, making certain lines hard to read.
Although the line edges on a flush-left/ragged-right
setting will be uneven, you can reduce this from
a “hard” to a “soft” rag by making selective use
of justification (i.e., setting a minimum length
for each line) and allowing for hyphenation.
6.
Standardize your pages
Standardizing
your design will ensure that all the pages of your
publication relate to one another. This will not
only make for an attractive and integrated final
product, but will also help your readers find what
they want when they want it. Pages that share the
same basic design flow together well. They also
allow readers to become accustomed to the template
and learn where the essentials (such as a page number
or navigational button) are located.
7.
Design for your audience
Above
all else, you should always design your publication
for your audience - not yourself! It’s not about
what you think is pretty; good design is that which
helps you effectively communicate with your readers.
For
instance, rather than using ornate, elaborate typefaces,
choose those which differ slightly from your competition’s
(to set you apart) but are somewhat simple and clean
(so as to not redirect attention from your message
to your design). Moreover, don’t utilize too many
typefaces, no matter how simple; instead, use one
or two and vary different elements of them (weight,
size, etc.) to signify relationships.
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