ABCs of Text Art and Typography // #3: S - Z

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projecteducate  presents: ABCs of Text Art & Typography.
Today:  #3 //  S - Z.

Read and enjoy :la:  And maybe even learn something ;)

S



Serif
Is a characteristic of a typeface. It is a style element added to the end of strokes on a typeface. It is characteristic for Roman typefaces.
Serif fonts on a copy text are easier to read in print publications than other fonts.

Sans-Serif
Is a typeface without Serifs, Sans being french for without. Sans-Serif typefaces can be referred to as Grotesque or Gothic typefaces.
Sans-Serif fonts ona  copy text are easier to read on online publications, because Serif fonts would blur too much when reading long paragraphs.

Specimen
A sample sheet of a font can be called Specimen. It shows the glyphs contained in a font and different style of the typeface. Often a Pangram is included to show the range of a typeface. Fontdesigners create Specimen when publishing new typefaces.

Diavlo by maddy89 OfficinaSerif-Specimen Poster by BrunoZambelli SPECIMEN KAGENA by A-Synchronize

Swash
Is an exaggerated Serif. It usually appears on script fonts, but can be a single style, additonaly to Italic, on a typeface. Well known for Swashes is the typeface Zapfino.


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T



Typeface
A Typeface is the synoptical term for a set of fonts in different sizes and styles. Nowadays Font has become a synonyme for it.
For example:  Helvetica is a typeface, Helvetica Bold 12pt is a font.

Typesetting
The composition of metal types or sorts to form a mirrored version of a page, used in printing. Before digital layouting became possible, every newspaper or magazine had to be made arranging metal types in a forme.

Bleisatz 02 by TheRealJersey Old Type by Bobbyeagle Typography IV by Yoxall


U



Univers
Is a sans-serif typeace designed by Adrian Frutiger in1954. It is closely related to Helvetica, both coming from Switzerland and being used in modern typography. Univers uses numbers to indicate different styles of the typeface, currently consisting of 44 styles.

Univers Type Specimen Poster by kjm52b   univers layout by JRWrkshp Typography by zichoong

V



Vignette
A decorative element to seperate chapters or paragraphs in books or to decorate borders and corners.
Replacing words or single letters by a symbol is also a Vignette, as done i "L♥VE" or "I  ♥NY".


W



Web-safe Fonts
When creating a website it is good to know, what fonts are best to use. Not every browser supports all fonts and not very computer has every font installed. However there are some fonts that were created especially for web use and are avaiable on most systems (Windows, Mac & LInux). A simple rule is: the more systems have the font installed by default, the safer it is to use. It's all about statisitics.
The most common fonts are: Arial, Verdana, Trebuchet, Tahoma & Times New Roman.. More fonts that are usually usable are: Arial Black, Comic Sans MS, monospace, Georgia, Impact, Lucida Console & Lucida Sans Console.

Widows & Orphans
Are terms used in Typesetting.
A widow is a line in a paragraph, that only consists of one word. Typesetters justify paragraphs in order to avoid Widows, as it is seen as an aesthetical mistake.
An Orphan is the first or last line of a paragraph, that stands alone on a page, with the rest of the paragraph either appearing on the page before or the next page.

X



x-height
x-height a term used to describe typefaces.  It refers to the height of the letter x in a typeace. It has the same height as the letters u, v, w, & z. a, c, e, m, n, o, r and s are higher than the x-height, they overshoot, which is a visual compensation regarding the roundness of the letters.
If a letter is higher than the x-height, the part above is called Ascender; letters with parts below are called Descenders.


Y



Y(ellow)
Y, as used in CMYK, is the shortform of the color Yellow used in printing. Yellow is one of the 3 colors (Cyan, Magenta & Yellow; plus Black) that is used for printing. In order to print pages, each color is on a seperate layer or forme so the piece of paper that is printed on ahs to go through 4 pressings.
In order to get a better result in the color Black, you don't use K=100%, but a mixture of all 4 colors. This results in a stronger and more saturated print result for black.

CMYK by eppy91 POUR THIS TYPO DOWN by pixel-junglist CMYK Scale by Gill Sans Type by PaulinhoFrajola

Z



Zero
The use of Zero has been both a philosophical and mathematical matter in history.  Even in ages BC a term to be "nothing" when working with numbers has been used in Persia, China or India. It cannot be said with certainty who "invented" Zero, It has been seen as an arabic invention in Europe due to the fact that is was first brought there by Spanish Muslims (Moors) aside astronomy and other persian/arabic inventions.
The italian mathematician Leonardo of Pisa, more famous as Fibonacci, was the first western scholar to introduce the Zero and the 9 other numbers in the 13th century. Before that time, the roman counting system (I II III V X C M) was used alone.
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erikakochanski's avatar
You've put so much work into these articles! They're all great! :+favlove: