Design by Elle

“The typographer’s one essential task is to interpret and communicate text. Its tone, its tempo, its logical structure, its physical size, all determine the possibilities of its typographic form.”
(Burninghurst, 2005)

Typography on the web can benefit from attention to detail that can support brand differentiation. On the web, only a handful of fonts are available on all platforms. Common ones are Arial, Verdana and Georgia. The danger is uniformity. How can brand differentiation be possible when using the same typeface as the competitor?

There are only limited fonts that can be used consistently on all computer platforms on the web. Because the web page is rendered on the client side, the only fonts available are those installed on the user’s computer and which differ on various computer platforms. Since there is no way to predict what those will be, it’s common practice to only use those typefaces that come pre-installed on most computers (Croft, 2007).

Many times companies select a certain typeface for its specific qualities, style or feel to represent the company’s brand identity. The limited typefaces available for use on the web increase the danger of brand uniformity as companies are forced to use the same fonts as their competitors instead of their brand-specific typefaces. In order to combat the limitation in type choices on the web, the typographer can apply good graphic styling.

Typography is an important element in graphic styling. Typography is optimising legibility, usability and overall graphic balance of the presented content (Reichenstein, 2006). A printed work, which cannot be read, becomes a product without purpose. The typographer’s responsibility is to convey information in writing by providing visual cues for the reader. Optimising typography establishes a balance for rendering content on the page by providing visual hierarchy that helps readers understand the interrelations between chunks of information and absorb the content more readily.

Merely choosing a typeface is not typography. The typographer should not care too much what kind of fonts she has at her disposal. She should use what is available at the time and use it the best she can. Anyone can select a typeface; but only a few master typography. Ill-formed punctuation detracts from an otherwise well-designed page. Careless punctuation looks amateurish while good punctuation looks stylish and professional. Good typographic attention differentiates the amateurish from the professional.

Full typographic attention should be given even to trivial details in order to achieve good graphic styling (Bringhurst, 2005). Attention to both macro and micro elements on the page results in good typography. Macro typography is concerned with composition, placement, correct leading and active white space to create spatial relationships between blocks of information. Micro typography for example is applying correct punctuation such as proper use of em and en dashes instead of double hyphens, true curly quotes instead of double single prime quotes, or even the correct character for ellipsis instead of three continuous full stops.

Typography is the art of designing with words and letters. It is more involved than simply choosing a font. While it would be great to have more available typefaces, the truth is that there is no reason designers cannot create elegant, beautiful typography with what typefaces are available (Croft, 2007). Good graphic styling and full typographic attention to even incidental details assists in establishing and/or maintaining unique brand identity by presenting a professional visual appearance. (Boulton, 2007)

References

Boulton, M., (2007), Better Typography, Presentation Slides from Type in Berlin, Web 2.0 Expo, Retrieved on January 7, 2008.

Bringhurst, R., (2005), The Grand Design, The Elements of Typographic Style, Hartley and Marks Publishers, Version 3.1

Croft, J., (2007), Elegant Web Typography, Presentation Notes from Future of Web Design 2007, Retrieved on December 28, 2007.

Reichenstein, O., (2006), Web Design is 95% Typography (1), Information Architects, Retrieved on December 28, 2007.