4 ms·

> Basic on typography (It makes a big difference even if most people don't notice it) Can you expand on why typography matters? I've never understood why some

by jolmg 8y ago

> Basic on typography (It makes a big difference even if most people don't notice it) Can you expand on why typography matters? I've never understood why some people seem to care so much about kerning and line angles in the glyphs and such. What do you think are the most important topics in typography people should learn and why do they matter?

titanomachy 8y ago
Matthew Butterick says it better than I ever could: https://practicaltypography.com/why-does-typography-matter.html https://practicaltypography.com/why-does-typography-matter.h...
- jolmg 8y ago
  > Whose résumé got your attention—Violet’s (the first one) or Trixie’s (the second)? [...] I’m guessing you picked Trixie’s. Actually, Violet's grabbed my attention more. The dark backgrounds, the heavyweight bullet points, the bold letters... I guess my first reaction was that Violet's contained more information because it had a higher black-to-white ratio, and that's what caused me to favor it. Trixie's seemed too white (the black lines too thin) and so more difficult to read. I'm not sure what to take away from this. If Matthew's judgement is the more common one, maybe I'm a poor judge of what people would commonly think of as good graphic/typographic design. Then again, maybe a large reason of why I favored one over the other is because I saw them as small images instead of printed pages. Maybe as printed pages, Trixie's would've read fine, and Violet's font would be too big and loud.
  - felideon 8y ago
    > If you truly preferred Violet’s résumé to Trixie’s, you didn’t fail some typographic litmus test. The point is the same—whatever preference you had, it was based on typography, not substance. (Though after you read more of this book, come back and see if you still prefer Violet’s résumé.)
d0m 8y ago
Well I'm not saying to become a typography expert, but it's important to understand how font types relate to each other and how to increase clarity based on the context. For instance, print vs slides vs web page, or a little bit of content vs some heavy content could probably be improved with different fonts. Also, even if people don't notice it, the typeface/font is part of the branding and it creates different experiences. I.e. it makes something look more friendly or serious.
DonaldPShimoda 8y ago
"Good typography is something everyone sees but no one notices." — John Warnock, co-founder of Adobe
felideon 8y ago
https://ia.net/topics/the-web-is-all-about-typography-period https://ia.net/topics/the-web-is-all-about-typography-period
lobo_tuerto 8y ago
It matters because of Comic Sans. :)

by jolmg 8y ago

titanomachy 8y ago

Matthew Butterick says it better than I ever could: https://practicaltypography.com/why-does-typography-matter.html https://practicaltypography.com/why-does-typography-matter.h...

jolmg 8y ago
> Whose résumé got your attention—Violet’s (the first one) or Trixie’s (the second)? [...] I’m guessing you picked Trixie’s. Actually, Violet's grabbed my attention more. The dark backgrounds, the heavyweight bullet points, the bold letters... I guess my first reaction was that Violet's contained more information because it had a higher black-to-white ratio, and that's what caused me to favor it. Trixie's seemed too white (the black lines too thin) and so more difficult to read. I'm not sure what to take away from this. If Matthew's judgement is the more common one, maybe I'm a poor judge of what people would commonly think of as good graphic/typographic design. Then again, maybe a large reason of why I favored one over the other is because I saw them as small images instead of printed pages. Maybe as printed pages, Trixie's would've read fine, and Violet's font would be too big and loud.
- felideon 8y ago
  > If you truly preferred Violet’s résumé to Trixie’s, you didn’t fail some typographic litmus test. The point is the same—whatever preference you had, it was based on typography, not substance. (Though after you read more of this book, come back and see if you still prefer Violet’s résumé.)

d0m 8y ago

Well I'm not saying to become a typography expert, but it's important to understand how font types relate to each other and how to increase clarity based on the context. For instance, print vs slides vs web page, or a little bit of content vs some heavy content could probably be improved with different fonts. Also, even if people don't notice it, the typeface/font is part of the branding and it creates different experiences. I.e. it makes something look more friendly or serious.

DonaldPShimoda 8y ago

"Good typography is something everyone sees but no one notices." — John Warnock, co-founder of Adobe

felideon 8y ago

https://ia.net/topics/the-web-is-all-about-typography-period https://ia.net/topics/the-web-is-all-about-typography-period

lobo_tuerto 8y ago

It matters because of Comic Sans. :)