How does the eye perceive colour?

There are two different kinds of photo receptor cells in your retina: rods and cones. The rods are not capable of perceiving color. They are only sensitive to variations in the intensity of light. Rod cells function only in dim light. Some animals have almost no color vision because their eyes are full of almost entirely rod receptors.

The cone receptors in our eyes are responsible for our ability to perceive color, but there are much fewer of these types of receptors in our eyes. As a matter of fact rods outnumber cones by a factor of about 20 to 1, except i n the retina's center (called the fovea). They are highly concentrated in this part of the eye. The cones require bright light in order to be activated and able to function.

Additive Color System

Your computer monitors uses three phosphors to emit beams of light in three different wavelengths that can combine to produce all the colors it can create. Each of these differently colored beams of light affects a specific conal receptor in your eye and therefore lets you see the color. Notice when you combine red and green beams of light, you see yellow, when you combine green and blue beams of light, you see cyan, when you combine blue and red beams of light, you see magenta. If you send each of the three beams of light with equal intensity, you'll see white. If you don't combine any of the beams of light you'll see black or an absence of light on your monitor. Red, Green and Blue are called the Additive Primaries.

Substractive Color System

You can also create color by allowing the reflective quality of objects to substract colors from the white light available in nature before it reaches your eyes. You don't see the colors that get absorbed, you only see the colors that are reflected. This is how color paints and pigments work. Printing uses this substractive system by using four colors Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black to create all of the colors you see in most magazines and printed materials. In printing these colors are know as the process colors. Black is added because artificial pigments are not capable of absorbing all colors except one, they are impure. If you were to combine the cyan, magenta and yellow pigments in full intensity they would produce a dark brown instead of a pure black as in the example above.

Grid Systems

Grid Systems

In graphic design, a grid is a structure which is usually two-dimensional, and it is made up of a series of intersecting straight (vertical, horizontal, and angular) or curved guide lines used to structure a content. A grid system is a framework that is supposed to help the graphic designers in the logical and consistent organisation of information on a page. Graphic designers have started to build a rigid and coherent system for page layout. Grid systems are an established tool that is often used by print and web designers to create well structured and balanced designs.

They enable the graphic designer to organise whatever content they are working with consistently onto a page, using any combination of margins, guides, rows and columns. Grid systems are commonly seen in newspaper and magazine layouts with columns of text and images. Grids can also be used across an entire project so that the structure is consistent throughout. The gird will not be noticed once the finished product has been printed, but before print, it enables a consistent design to be produced. When starting a project, using a grid system will help position the elements of your design on a page.

Types of grids:

Rule of thirds

There are several types of grid systems a designer can use. The simplest method is to use the rule of thirds. This consists of dividing a page into thirds with two equally spaced vertical/horizontal lines so that the important compositional elements can be placed along these lines or intersections. This is commonly used in photography. 

Golden ratio

The golden ratio is another popular method (approximately 1.618) for proportioning. The ratio has been studied by mathematicians. It has been used for centuries by architects, artists and book designers for its aesthetically pleasing qualities. 

Baseline grid
A baseline grid is commonly used in publications such as newspapers and magazines, the page is divided into several equal sized columns. This consists of a set of horizontal lines on a page, the baseline of all type sits on this. 

RGB Vs. CMYK

RGB is an additive type of colour mode, that combines the primary colors, red, green and blue, in various degrees to create a variety of different colours  When all three of the colors are combined and displayed to their full extent, the result is a pure white. When all three colors are combined to the lowest degree, or value, the result is black. CMYK is a four color mode that utilizes the colors cyan, magenta, yellow and black in various amounts to create all of the necessary colors when printing images. It is a subtractive process.

Converting RGB format pictures to CMYK mode for printing can be a complex task. It often involves using RGB to CMYK conversion tables, or various software utilities, to ensure that the colors seen on the computer screen will match the colors that appear on print. One way of making this process quicker and more efficient is to simply convert a file to CMYK format as soon as it is created if there are any future plans for converting the documents to printed format.

Subtractive Colors
Subtractive colors are seen when pigments in an object absorb certain wavelengths of white light while reflecting the rest. We see examples of this all around us. Any colored object, whether natural or man-made, absorbs some wavelengths of light and reflects or transmits others; the wavelengths left in the reflected/transmitted light make up the color we see.

This is the nature of color print production and cyan, magenta, and yellow, as used in four-color process printing, are considered to be the subtractive primaries. The subtractive color model in printing operates not only with CMY(K), but also with spot colors, that is, pre-mixed inks.

Red, Green, and Blue are the "additive colors " - combine red, green and blue light, and you get white light. Cyan, Magenta and Yellow are "subtractive colors" - if you print cyan, magenta and yellow inks on paper, they ought to absorb all the light shown on them. Your eye receives no reflected light from the paper, and perceives black

Difference between serif and sans serif

Serifs are small decorative flourishes on the ends of some of the strokes that make up letters and symbols. An example would be the Times New Roman font. Sans serif does not have these details or flourishes. An example would be the Arial font.

Serifs are the usually perpendicular projections found on the termini/endpoints in type. For instance, a capital "I" is usually rendered with 2 crossbars. Those are serifs.

Sans-serif just means "without serif." The definition of serif / sans-serif typefaces should be self-explanatory.

Another name for serif is "roman"; likewise, sans-serif typefaces may also be referred to as grotesque /grotesk or gothic.

There are also different types of serif, such as slab serif—also referred to as Egyptian, mechanistic, orsquare serif—versus bracketed serifs.

Additionally, there are some typefaces with serifs that are still considered sans-serif. Bell Gothic is an example of this. And, lastly, some typefaces have what are called petit-serifs ("small serifs") or semi-serifs.

Serif font:
A serif is the line that trails off a letter shape. The most common serif typefaces are Times New Roman, Baskerville, Caslon, Garamond and Bodini, and there are plenty more. Serif fonts have always been seen as more of a traditional typeface. There are ongoing debates as to whether serif or sans serif is easier on the eye to read. 

San Serif font:
Once you understand what a Serif is, its easy to explain a San Serif, without the trailing lines. Popular san serifs include Helvetica, Arial, Geneva, Tahoma and Veranda. San serif fonts are used widely on the internet. They are considered as more contemporary than the Serif font. 

Slab Serif font:
Although Serif and San Serif are the main types there are others included Slab Serif. This is a font with a thick bold serif. Rockwell is the best known Slab Serif although typewriter style fonts are also slab serif like Courier and American Typewriter. Urban brands like 'the cowshed' have brought back the use of typewriter style fonts.

Legibility vs. readability

Legibility is concerned with the very fine details of typeface design, and in an operational context this usually means the ability to recognise individual letters or words. Readability however concerns the optimum arrangement and layout of whole bodies of text:

An illegible type, set it how you will, cannot be made readable. But the most legible of types can be made unreadable if it is set to too wide a measure, or in too large or too small a size for a particular purpose.(Dowding 1957, p.5; in Lund, 1999 )

Point size

Point size is perhaps the element most used to describe the legibility of a type face, but it can also be the most deceptive. Point size is a legacy from the letterpress system, where each letter is held on a small metal block. The point size actually refers to the size of this metal block, and not the actual size of the letter. The letter does not have to take up the full area of the block face, so two fonts with the same nominal point size can quite easily have different actual sizes. ( Bix, 2002)

X-height

X-height refers to the height of the lower case “x” in a typeface. It is often a better indicator of the apparent size of a typeface than point size ( Poulton, 1972 ; Bix, 2002 ).

Counters

Counters are the “negative spaces” inside a character. They are also good indicators of the actual size of the type.

Define the colour pantone system

Define the colour pantone system

The Pantone Matching System (PMS) is a recognised system for specifying colours. By standardising colours it is possible to keep colours consistent by different printers or manufacturers. Pantone is a set of colour codes, and the colour has to work systematically.
The Pantone Matching System was created to meet the needs of graphic designers who want to use a solid spot or special colour in specific. If a print job only needs one or two colours, for example, when printing business stationery, then it would be more economical to use two inks instead of the four colours used in process printing; cyan, magenta, yellow and black.
The system uses a small number of inks which can be mixed according to a book of colour swatches. These inks are physically mixed prior to going on a printing press, whereas, process printing uses half-screen dots of CMYK colours to create the illusion of solid colours in the human eye.


Pantone is a standardized color matching system, utilizing the Pantone numbering system for identifying colors. By standardizing the colors, different manufacturers in different locations can all reference a Pantone numbered color, making sure colors match without direct contact with one another. It is a popular colour matching system used by the design industry. The color formula guide provides an accurate method for selecting, specifying, broadcasting, and matching colors through any medium around the world. It is the ideal way to ensure true colours when you select your imprint.


By standardizing the colors, different manufacturers in different locations can all reference a Pantone numbered color, making sure colors match without direct contact with one another. The most commonly referenced colors are in the Pantone solids palette. The Pantone Solid palette consists of 1,114 colors, identified by three or four digit numbers, followed by a C, U, Or M suffix.. Originally designed for the graphics industry, the pantone solids palette is now used by a wide range of industries, and is the most commonly used palette. For example, Pantone 199 Red can be identified as Pantone 199C (C= Coated Paper), Pantone 199U (U= Uncoated Paper) or Pantone 199M (M=Matte Paper).

The history of pantone

Pantone was founded in 1962, when the company at the time manufactured colour cards for cosmetic companies, was bought by Lawrence Herbet, who had been an employe since 1956. He started to develop the first colour matching system in 1963. Herbet remains the CEO, chairman and president of the company  The companies primary product include the pantone squids, which consist of a large number of small (approximately 6x2 inches or 15x5cm) thin cardboard sheets, printed on one side with a series of related colour swatches and then bound into a small flip book. For example a particular page might contain a number of yellows varying in luminance from light to dark. The idea behind PMS is to allow designers to colour match specific colours when designers begin the production stage. This system is commonly used by graphic designers and reproduction and printing houses. There are various types of stock available, coated matte or uncoated.

The Pantone Matching System mixes cyan, magenta, yellow, and key, or black, together to create a single color. Graphic designers have a swatch book of thousands of Pantone colors to choose from. Each color has a specific number which a printer can look up to determine how the inks should be mixed. In this way, the graphic designer can ensure that the color of his or her choice is reproduced in the finished product.

PMS stands for Pantone Matching System (PMS), a proprietary color space used in a variety of industries, primarily printing, though sometimes in the manufacture of colored paint, fabric, and plastics. By standardizing the colors, different manufacturers in different locations can all refer to the Pantone system to make sure colors match without direct contact with one another.

http://www.ubsolutions.net/downloads/pms-chart.pdf

Glossary of terms

Alignment:
A term used to refer to the proper positioning of all typefaces and size variations along an imaginary reference line.

Ascender:
The part of a lowercase letter which rises above the main body, as in the letters “b”, “d”, “h”, and “k”.

Baseline:
An invisible horizontal line on which the feet of all characters on a line of type are set, used for proper alignment of type.

Bleed:
A printed image that extends beyond one or more of the finished page margins and is later trimmed so that the image “bleeds” off the edge of the sheet.

Body copy:
The main portion of a book or other document, excluding front matter and back matter.

Cap height:
In typography, the distance from the baseline to the top of the capital letters.

Descender:
In typography, the portion of lowercase letters that extends below the character’s baseline as in “g”, “j”, “p”, “q”, and “y”.

Font:
In typography, a set of all characters in a typeface.

Gutter:
In typography, the term refers to the space between columns of type, usually determined by the number and width of columns and the overall width of the area to be filled.

Heading:
In typography, display type used to emphasize copy, act as a book, chapter, or section title, or otherwise introduce or separate text. More commonly referred to as simply a head.

Kerning:
In typography, the reduction of letterspacing between certain character combinations in order to reduce the space between them, performed for aesthetic reasons.

Pantone:
A brand-name for a popular color matching system, or series of printed color swatches used to match, specify, identify, and display specific colors or colored ink combinations.

Sans serif:

In typography, characters (or typefaces) without serifs, which are lines crossing the free end of the stroke. “Sans serif” means “without serif”.

Serif:

In typography, an all-inclusive term for characters that have a line crossing the free end of a stroke. The term serif refers to both that finishing line and to characters and typefaces that have them.

Typeface:

In typography, a specific variation within a type family, such as roman, italic, bold, etc.

Subjective Colour

Contrast of saturation:
The contrast is formed by the juxtapositioning of light and dark values and their relative saturation.

Contrast of hue:
Contrast is formed by the juxtapostioning of different hues. The further away the hues on a colour wheel, the greater the contrast.

Contrast of compliments:
The contrast is formed by the juxtaposition of hues, warm and cool

Contrast of tone:
The contrast of light and dark, the contrast is formed by the juxtaposition of light and dark values

Contrast of extension:
Contrast is formed by assigning proportional field size, with regards to the visual weight of a colour.

Simultaneous contrast:
Contrast formed when boundaries between colours perceptually vibrate.

Source: https://guymanningphotography.wordpress.com/tag/contrast-of-extension/ 

1.  Contrast of Hue

2.  Light-Dark Contrast, or contrast of Value

3.  Cool-Warm Contrast

4.  Complementary Contrast

5.  Simultaneous Contrast

6.  Contrast of Saturation

7.  Contrast of Extension or Contrast of Proportion

That section covered the first four types. Here we continue with the others.

Simultaneous Contrast

In the “real” world, the one defined by physics, objects have no inherent color. Instead, their surfaces contain materials that absorb some wavelengths and reflect others. Our eyes take in the reflected light waves and convert them into signals. Then, our brains translate the signals into color. If we see a green colored object, it is because the surface of the object absorbs all colors except green.

The only way to accurately describe any color is with an instrument like a spectrometer. Furthermore, the only way to accurately perceive a color by eye, with all of its qualities intact, is when it is isolated from other colors.

All colors interact with the colors adjacent to them. Simultaneous contrast is the name given to the effect colors exert on their neighbors. In the case of two colors side by side, the left will influence the one on the right. In turn, the right one will influence the one on the left. They influence each other simultaneously, therefore the term “simultaneous” contrast. The affect is not real in the physical sense but a result of the way the brain and eyes operate in the real world.

Below is a discussion of seventeen effects observed as colors interact. Keep in mind that some of these effects will be minor and difficult to perceive. If they are, keep looking by holding your gaze on the example, simultaneous effects will increase over a short time. In other samples, the effects should be readily obvious. When studying the samples, if you are sure that the examples are not accurate between the samples, copy them, and measure them in your photo-editing program. Use of the HSL scale will help you make the most sense of the comparisons. You will find the samples accurate.

Any color will change appearance when put in proximity of another color.

This is easiest seen using a neutral grey on a colored field. In the example below, the grey patches in the colored field are identical. However, there appears to be variations between them. In the next example, the identical blue-violet squares shift color even more dramatically than the greys did.

You will notice that the colored rectangles of the background between the two samples show a change in intensity. To see this best, move your gaze back and forth from one quadrant on the left to the same quadrant on the right. The colored squares interact with their colored backgrounds, creating a perceived difference between the backgrounds of the samples.

Dark colors and dark values look darker when exhibited against light colors and light values, than if against dark colors and values.

Light colors and light values look lighter when exhibited against dark colors and dark values, than if against light colors and values.

In this pair of samples, the four small squares are identical for each position between the two samples. In addition, the yellow squares on the left side of each sample are of the same hue, just as the blue squares in each sample are of the same hue. The difference between each hue pair is in the luminance/lightness measurements, one is lighter than the other is. Viewing the visual differences in value between the squares in the sample will prove the statements underlined above. For instance, when comparing the light blue squares, the one on the left will appear lighter. When comparing the dark yellow squares show the one on the right to appear darker.

Any color will influence an adjacent color’s hue in the direction of its own compliment. An adjacent color will be pushed toward the other colors direct compliment. Below, the light blue bars tend toward the compliment of the field color. The bar in the orange field picks up a slight bluish tint while the bar in the green field picks up a slight reddish tint.

This second pair of samples shows different bar colors on the same background. This illustrates how the complimentary push works regardless of the color associated with a given background. Looking closely you will notice how background colors are influenced by the bars, just as the bars are influenced by the backgrounds.

A non-complimentary color will create a shift toward its own compliment in the adjacent color’s hue.

This is something of a restatement of the one above. Colors push adjacent colors toward their own compliment. For example, a red field will push overlying colors toward cyan. Direct compliments cannot affect its opposite hue.

Any color will appear to gain intensity, and appear lighter, when exhibited against a black ground.

Any color will appear to loose intensity, and appear darker, when exhibited against a white ground.

These are pretty self explanatory, and commonly known to most image makers. To get the most intensity from a color, show it on a black background. To reduce the intensity of colors, show them on a white background. A mid grey background is used to show the image off in a neutral manner.

Dark colors on a dark complimentary ground will exhibit more intensity than when on a non-complimentary ground.

Light colors on a light complimentary ground will exhibit more intensity than when on a non-complimentary ground.

Any two complimentary colors will exhibit higher intensity contrast when side-by-side, than either color viewed alone.

In a section above it was mentioned that direct compliments do not affect each others hue. This is true but they will affect each others apparent contrast or brightness. The samples below exhibit more contrast when adjacent, than they do when alone in a field.

A high intensity color used with a lower intensity or toned down field of the same hue, will further reduce the intensity of the field.

In both sets of samples the colored field appears to be less intense when the smaller block of higher intensity color is included.

Intense colors next to less intense colors exhibit the strongest contrast when the colors are compliments.

In the two samples below the blue appears more intense on the degraded yellow compliment than it does on the split complimentary green or other colors. The backgrounds vary only in hue, the saturation and value settings are constant between them.

Light colors on light, non-complimentary backgrounds gain strength by use of narrow borders of black or dark complimentary colors. 

Dark colors on dark, non-complimentary backgrounds gain strength by use of narrow borders of white or light complimentary colors. 

Anatomy of Type, Readabilty vs Legibilty and Type Classification

Legibility can be defined as the ability a human reader to read something without effort. It can depend on many things. Often, the size of font chosen restricts legibility. For our purposes though, legibility is discussed in light of typeface choice.

Readability can be defined not on a letter by letter basis, but how he combination of letter are read within a larger body of text. In other words, readability is defined by the amount of effort one needs to make to read text, not single characters.

Kerning The adjustment of space between pairs of letters to make them more visually appealing is known as kerning. It is normally applied to individual letter pairs in headlines or other large type. Kerning is not usually done with body text because the gaps between characters at body text sizes is generally not as distracting.

Bowl the adjustment of space between pairs of letters to make them more visually appealing is known as kerning. It is normally applied to individual letter pairs in headlines or other large type. Kerning is not usually done with body text because the gaps between characters at body text sizes is generally not as distracting.

• Ear

  A small stroke projecting from the upper right bowl of some lowercase g’s.
  
  
  
  

  • Counter

    Fully or partially enclosed space within a letter.
• 
  

x-height

The height of the main body of a lowercase letter.

Stem

Primary vertical stroke

http://typedia.com/learn/only/anatomy-of-a-

typeface/

Readability and legibility are two elements that every designer needs to think about when making their type choices. Readability is how easy it is to read words, phrases, blocks of copy such as a book, a web page or an article. Legibility is a measure of how easy it is to distinguish one letter from another in a particular typeface.

A typeface is made up of a collection of fonts. Lowercase is easier to read, serif fonts are easier to read, different strokes and thinner strokes are easier to read and roman fonts are more readable. Fonts are not designed to operate at the same size. 

Considerations need to include:
distinction between glyphs, alignment and justification, kerning (dependant on the font) x-height, speed of reading, intricacy, contrast of anatomy and legibility. 

Counter = the negative space within a letter form (fully partial or enclosed)

Legibility:

The degree to which glyphs in the text are understandable or recognisable based on appearance

Readability:

The ease which text can be read and understood

Kerning:

The space in-between individual letters

Leading:

Refers to the distance between the baselines

Tracking:

Spacing of letter forms 

There are several factors that determine if text is readable and one of the most important is what typographers refer to as transparency or invisibility. The idea being that if a typeface is noticeable, it can be difficult to read. If you find yourself stopping to admire a font instead of reading the text, that is not a particularly readable font.

Letter spacing is the amount of space between letters and word spacing as the name implies the amount of space between words. These are both major factors in how readable body copy is 

Type Classification

Type Classifications:

An important factor in the composition of a piece of printing is the selection of the correct type faces. Choosing the right type face makes clear the sense of the message, and imparts that atmosphere or environment which enables it to be more easily understood.The number of type faces in use today runs into the thousands and as such presents difficulty in selecting the appropriate design for a particular job. Because there are so many type designs to choose from, it is easier to first choose a general type style or classification to suit your graphic design, and then, look for a particular type face that relates to that classification. Although there are well over 32 unique type classifications, the simplest form, as follows, places type into seven broad classifications: Roman (Serif) Serif is an all-inclusive term for characters that have a line crossing the free end of a stroke. This style face, said to have been invented by the Romans, is also commonly referred to as `roman'. It is the one most often used and also one of the most legible styles. The style is very comfortable and familiar to all readers and is therefore used in the bulk of reading material. `Tranjan Letter' shapes based on ancient Roman lettering The Serif type face is then further classified into Humanist, Garalde, Transitional and Didone, according to their stress and serif-form as follows:
	ROMAN Humanist Faces: Stemple Schneidler, Centaur, Italia, ITC Berkeley Garalde Faces: Bembo, Garamond, Plantin. Transitional Faces: Times New Roman, Lucida, Baskerville. Didone Faces: Bodoni, Walbaum, Americana.
Humanist (Venetian) faces are named after the first roman type faces that appeared in Venice in 1470, Humanist type faces were initially designed to imitate the handwriting of Italian Renaissance scholars. These types that are characterised by their strong, bracketed serifs. The letters are in general wide and heavy in colour. Other characteristic letters are the wide lower case e with a diagonal bar to the eye. A noticeable feature of true Humanist types is the square full point.These types have a small x-height, moderate contrast between strokes, and an acute `angle of stress' and do not lend themselves to modern design treatments of type such as reverse or stipple. The style prints best on a unsized stock in black or brown ink. Garalde (Old Style) were designed centuries ago by such masters as the French printer Claude Garamond and the Venetian printer Aldus Manutius. Garalde type faces include some of the most popular roman styles in use today. These faces have rounded serifs and moderate contrast between strokes. The letters are open, rounded and very readable. The thick strokes of curved letters are off-balanced. The `angle of stress' of these types is less acute than Humanist types. Like Humanist, these types do not suffer reversal and stippling well, except in large sizes. Prints best on an unsized, off-white stock, in black ink. `Angle of stress' Transitional faces reflect the fact that the eighteenth century was a time of transition. During this period, type designers were more likely than their predecessors to rely on mathematical or scientific principles to create new letterforms. Containing elements of both Garalde and Didone styles, these faces have rounded serifs which are less formal than Didone, but more formal than Garalde and therefore reflect the transition from Garalde and Didone. Curved letters are more balanced than Garalde and the 'angle of stress' is near vertical to the Didone. Due to their mechanical-like structure, these types can be reversed and stippled, looking their best on a smooth white paper. Didone (Modern) faces typify the profound affect the course of typography would take as a result of improvements in paper production, composition, printing and binding during the late eighteenth century. It was possible to develop a type style with strong vertical emphasis and fine hairlines; this is what the French family Didot did, and what the Italian printer Giambattista Bodoni perfected. This style has thin, straight serifs, with an extreme contrast between the thick and thin strokes; curved letters are balanced and slightly compressed. The `angle of stress' is vertical. Due to fine hairline strokes and serifs, the types do not lend themselves to reversal or stippling except in large sizes. Prints best on a smooth, matt-finish, white paper in black ink. Italic The upper and lower case roman alphabet acquired, since they were first used, an italic and bold companion letter. It was a different alphabet closer to handwriting than the roman, and was based on the handwritten script of the day. Designed centuries ago, it was the Venetian printer Aldus Manutius's designer, Francesco Griffo who not only refined the roman letter but also cut the first italic type face. As such, like the word 'roman' the word 'italic' credits Italy as the land of origin. It was coined by the French and was not capitalized. Today, italics may be based on serif, sans serif (lineale) or slab serif types. While the slant of the italic will vary, a good standard is about 78º. There are three kinds of italics: Unrelated italics are 'pure' styles based on 15th-century 'hands'. Related italics are designed to blend with a specific roman type face, but still more or less `pure' italic. Matching italics are essentially the same design as a particular roman type face. Digitized typesetting devices that modify characters electronically to create italic are creating matching italics, although purists will call them 'oblique'. Italic differs from Script in that the letters never join nor do they appear to join. They have a free flowing appearance creating daintiness, charm or action which makes them ideal for gaining attention in text or headings. Today it is used for emphasis, titles, quotes and extracts. Italic is not as legible as roman when used as paragraph matter and is therefore not recommended for large areas of setting. All capital italic lines are to be avoided. Lineale (Sans Serif) Though the first sans serif (sans meaning without) type face was issued in 1816, another hundred years passed before this style gained popularity. Then, in the 1920s, when typography was heavily influenced by the `less is more' philosophy of German's 'Bauhaus' school of design, designers began creating type faces without serifs. A popular type face for all classes of publicity and advertising work due to the large variety of weight and styles available and because their structure suggests newness and attention-awakening appeal to a remarkable degree. They possess simplicity and neatness since there is little variation in the thickness and weight of the letter strokes. There are three kinds of Lineales: Grotesque (earlier) and Neo-Grotesques (later, more elegant)—Franklin Gothic (m.f. Benton, 1903); Helvetica (Miedinger, 1951); Arial (Monotype); Swiss, Univers (Frutiger 1952). Geometric are influenced by Bauhaus design—Century Gothic, Avant Garde (Lubalin Graph), Futura. Humanist containing some features of serif typefaces—Gill Sans (Gill, 1928), Optima (Zapf, 1958), Frutiger (Frutiger, 1975), Shannon (Holmes & Prescott Fishman, 1981), Myriad (Carol Twombly & Robert Slimbach [one of the first Multiple Master Fonts]). One of the main reasons for the popularity of the Lineales in display work is because of the ease with which the thickness of the strokes can be increased and the design of the letters expanded or condensed. These modifications are much easier to perform than with serifed types. However, because of the absence of serifs, they are not recommended for large areas of solid text setting but can be used for headlines without any problems. Slab Serif The Industrial Revolution of the early nineteenth century encouraged the development of very bold printing types that could be used for a new vehicle of communication: advertising, posters, flyers and broadsides, which all completed for attention. They were often created using slab serif type faces, which, with their strong, square finishing strokes, proved very effective for commanding readers' attention. There are actually three kinds of Slab Serif types faces: slab serifs, Clarendons, and typewriter types. While the stems and serifs of all three kinds often appear to have the same stroke of Type thickness, slab serifs have a square, unbracketed serif, Clarendons have a square, bracketed serif, and typewriter types have similar weights of stems and serifs together with a constant character width. Today, these styles are still popular with advertising agencies in the production of advertisements and other publicity work. Although of a hybrid combination of Sans Serif and Roman, they are not truly suited to large areas of solid setting. Slab serifs only appear to advantage when used as a series or family in any piece of display, therefore they should not be combined with any other kind of face. Text (Blackletter) This style of type mimicked contemporary manuscript handwriting which was drawn with a wide, flat pen popular in much of Europe at Gutenberg's time. You may also hear it referred to as Old English, Gothic, or Blackletter. Although this style is still used extensively in certain European countries, we in the English-speaking world find the structure of the letters complex and therefore difficult to read in paragraph form. For this reason, text should seldom be used in small sizes. Text type faces should fit snugly together with less space between the words than is customary with normal Roman types and, because of their complex structure, should never be set in all-capital form. These letters are used for formal occasions such as diplomas and invitations. They establish a feeling of a monumental event and are sometimes used for ads and books where the subject is history or antiquity. Script Since a Parisian printer created the first in 1643, script type faces have become almost as numerous as the handwriting instruments — brush, broad-edged pen or pointed pen — that they were designed to imitate. All script faces are based on different styles of cursive or current handwriting and is frequently ornamented with flourishes. Letters of this form are usu ally highly rounded, slant to the right, and either connect from letter to letter or have a tail on the letters which leads to the next. Scripts are available in two broad styles: Formal script is usually characterised by having a small x-height and long ascenders and descenders in imitation of the classical pen handwriting. This style is used extensively for formal type printing and invitations. Informal script is more suited to work of a less formal nature: menus, advertisements, etc. and is characterised by the looser, less restrained formation of characters. The letters appear to have been casually drawn by either a pen or brush. Because these types imitate handwriting, two of the main essentials when using Script are not to have too much space between the words and to take additional care when considering leading. Decorative These type faces are also known as novelty faces and are primarily designed to be used for a word or words in display or headings where the product needs a close-matching type face. Therefore their use is not suitable for the setting of text since they lack legibility. One kind of decorative type face seeks to create a mood and is therefore highly emotive, another kind is designed to represent something else: computer printouts, baseball bats, balloons, etc. The majority of these types are designed as a single font only with perhaps only a handful containing a small family such as normal, bold and outline. The specific nature of the designs of these types are such that most must be separately purchased. Alternatively, boutique type design houses offer decorative faces far above and beyond those which are offered by major type foundries such as Adobe, Linotype, Monotype and Bitstream. Mixing and matching type faces A well-designed page contains no more than two different typefaces or four type variations such in type size and bold or italic style. Consider using contrasting fonts in upper and lowercase, e.g. Lineale fonts (e.g. Frutiger, Gill Sans) for headings; Roman fonts (e.g. Times, Palatino, Garamond) for body text. Italics and bold can be used to highlight words or phrases within body text.