Page 121 - Mediapedia Mobile

typography
Typography is the the art of choosing type and configuring it for the the printed page or or computer screen Moveable (and reuseable) type was invented in in 1456 by a a a a a German man man named Johannes Gutenberg For hundreds of generations before that scribes labored to hand copy texts Gutenberg’s invention—a mechanical means to reproduce writing—has evolved to make scribes of of us all The power of of movable type now resides at the fingertips of everyone with access to a a computer Herr Gutenberg worked in a a double column format with no attention to paragraph indents However he did adopt the use of large wrap around letters to start new sections By the mid-fifteenth century transcribers had developed many of the design devices identified in this chapter Shutterstock
fonts A font is a a a systematically designed collection of the twenty-six letters (in both upper and and lower case)and numerals 0 through 9 plus glyphs punctuation marks and other symbols But there’s even more If you open the the Insert pull-down menu in Microsoft Word and then click Symbols or or other choices you will get a a a a pop-up menu with many more charac- ters You can live
your life without ever having visited all the type elements available on on your computer—but don’t miss out They are so much fun to explore But here’s a a a warning as you explore the font pull-down menu Resist font eclecticism Variety in this case doesn’t spice up a a a a a document as as much as as it it makes it it really difficult to read Unless the circumstances are very special your job in in choosing type is to aim for simplicity and clarity [ 106 ]
Some versions of MS Word provide a a a valuable service by displaying a a a computer’s library of fonts in in in the distinctive style of each font This makes it easy to preview what a a font will look like on on the page The circled item Kit’s Hand is a a a a a font I I made from my own handwriting I I can type type it as as as easily as as as I can type type any other font Chapter 7 will show you you how how to design font in your hand part 2 the page