OUGD404- Type Classifications & Manipulation

Based on the session where we picked out of the fonts we had initially chosen to manipulate. Firstly we had to define what made a good typeface based on how it represents its origins of; stone, sable, bone, wood, lead and silicone. However for the next session I will chose the best set of fonts which represent the type classifications; roman, gothic, script and block. In my manipulations for typeface I looked at the font Day Roman as a form of "stone" however for this next section to the task I will review and refine my font choices. 

Roman- Baskerville

Gothic- Gill Sans

Script- Brush Script Std

Block- Impact

Within this session we looked at the idea of legibility and readability and how this can be described within all the examples that people brought showing a range of roman, gothic, script and block fonts. As a class we found several points which were interesting; these included that complex letterforms were difficult to read such as script and block fonts. Lowercase letters are much easier to read (in both roman and gothic- serif and sans serif) this could also be the reason why these are used within body copy in books for example. Contrasting glyphs within the lowercase for instance within the roman (Baskerville for example) contrast with ascenders and descenders therefore making the letterforms easy to differentiate between them. The size of the font on the page also made the words easier to read which also involved the space in-between the words/ lines of text. There was also another element which made certain fonts easier to read than others, distance away from the text. Up close roman fonts are much easier to read (lower case) however up close upper case tend to be less readable and legible because of their shape. The further the distance the easier it is to read upper case letterforms, especially gothic fonts such as gill sans because of their simplistic nature. Lower case gothic fonts are used on motorway signage because they can be seen from a far distance and are easily read (for safety). 

Terms learnt within the session:

Legibility- is the degree to which glyphs in text are understandable or recognisable based on appearance.

Readability- Is the ease with which text can be read and understood. This can be influenced by the line length, type style, kerning, tracking and point size. 

Leading- Is the distance between the baseline and the successive lines which make things further away.

Kerning- Makes the text closer together and closes/reduces the amount of space between letterforms.

Tracking- Is the making of letterforms further apart (the opposite of kerning).

From my four fonts (roman, gothic, script and block) seen above within my example prints we were asked to dissect the letters to create sentences reading "the quick brown fox". However we found that from looking at these sentences they didn't read as this and certain words were read before others such as the words in the block font. 

Task: Create four separate sentences which all read "the quick brown fox" from the above, manipulating only with upper/ lowercase, point size and arrangement.