15 TYPE RULES & TIPS

Smooth roads, soft beds, large windows, and sound-proof walls
spell comfort to the average human being. The same feelings may
be applied to optimum reading comfort of the printed word: suitable
paper, sharp printing, well-justified composition, and clean, open,
universally recognized letterforms guarantee optimum legibility.
—Adrian Frutiger

“Legibility” is based on the ease with which one
letter can be told from the other. “Readability” is the ease
with which the eye can absorb the message and move
along the line.
—from ‘Types of Typefaces,’ by J. Ben Lieberman, 1967

1. LEGIBILITY
Legibility refers to a reader’s ability to easily recognize letterforms
and the word forms built from them. We don’t read by recognizing
one letter at a time, but by recognizing the shapes of whole words
and phrases.

1 . L E G I B I L I T Y FA C T O R S
Type size is the most abused legibility attribute.

1 . L E G I B I L I T Y FA C T O R S
Text type has a greater need for legibility than
display type because text type is smaller, so character
and word recognition is made more difficult.

1 . L E G I B I L I T Y FA C T O R S
Type’s legibility is determined in part by the spaces
within and immediately surrounding each character. As type’s
size gets smaller, the spaces must be increased.

1 . L E G I B I L I T Y FA C T O R S
The alphabet has four shapes: vertical, round,
vertical/round combination, and angular. Letters in each
group can be mistaken for another: choose a typeface
where distinctions are clear.

2. READABILITY
Readability refers to the facility and comfort with which text can
be comprehended. Text with good readability must also be legible,
but more legibility doesn’t make text readable.

2 . R E A D A B I L I T Y FA C T O R S
Optimal text size is 10 to 11 pt.
Medium weight produces maximum
legibility: the relationship of letterforms to
counter spaces is balanced.
Paragraphs of italic text are harder to read
than roman.
Optimal line length is two alphabets
(52 characters).
Optimal letterspacing is invisible.
Wordspacing should be sufficient to
separate words but not so much that it
weakens lines of type.

2 . R E A D A B I L I T Y FA C T O R S
Linespacing should increase with line
length.
Alignment: Consistent word spacing makes
flush left easier to read than justified type.
Type color and background: Black on
white is about twice as fast to read as white
on black. Reducing contrast between type
and back ground causes loss in legibility and
readership.
Readers prefer serif faces for text reading.
High gloss paper makes images look great
but makes type hard to read.

2. READABILITY

2. READABILITY
(exerpt from Ellen Lupton’s Thinking in Type)

2. READABILITY
(exerpt from Ellen Lupton’s Thinking in Type)

2. READABILITY

2. READABILITY

2. READABILITY

3. DASHES

4. TYPOGRAPHERS QUOTES
Apostrophe vs prime, quotes vs inches.
Straight or “dumb quotes” vs typographer, smart, or curly quotes.

5. ELLIPSES
An ellipses indicates omission and is also called a suspension point, or
more commonly, dot-dot-dot. When the omitted words are within a
sentence, use a three-dot ellipsis preceded and followed by a space. The
ellipses is not three periods, but a special character that is found under
the type menu under “Insert Special Character.”

6 . W H I T E S PA C E C H A R A C T E R S
Letterspace, em space, tabs. (see also, hair space,
non-breaking space, thin space, figure space, punctuation space).

7 . D O U B L E S PA C E
Use only one space after periods.
Never hit the space bar more than once.

8. DOUBLE RETURNS
Use space before and space after to create extra
space between paragraph-level elements.

9 . PA R A G R A P H S H A P E
Soft line breaks allow you to start a new line without starting
a new paragraph. This will avoid creating a new paragraph that takes
on the potentially unwanted formatting attributes of the paragraph that
it came from. You create a line break by holding down the shift key
when pressing return.

If using flush-left alignment, keep and eye on excessive rags on the right-
hand side, as well as unnatural repetition and alignment at the end of
lines. If using justified text, be sure to avoid rivers—uneven and excessive
spacing between words.

Also be sure to shape your headlines as well.

10. FRACTIONS
A single space should be used after periods. Fractions should normally
be set as shown on the right. Most of the common fractions should be
build into the font, and can be accessed in the “Glyphs” palettes under
the “Type” menu. Besides fractions, other numerical signs, like the
multiplication sign, might also be hidden in the font’s glyph set.

11. WIDOWS
before after
Widows and orphans can be corrected by discriminating tracking,
line breaks (soft returns), and, if possible, copy editing.

12. ORPHANS
Representative Roscoe G. Bartlett legislation.
is confident that in voting against
a $35 billion expansion of the The struggle here in Frederick County,
State Children’s Health Insurance a crossroads of the Civil War, not far
Program, he reflected the views of his from Antietam and Gettysburg, is a
conservative Congressional district in microcosm of national debate over
western Maryland. But some of his the child health bill.
constituents are not so sure.
“Roscoe just looks mean and petty,”
“It’s a good program,” said Edward said Amy-Catherine McEwan, a
Wrzesinski Jr., a Republican who manager at the Frederick County
manages Frederick Primary Care Humane Society. “He looks like
Associates, a group practice with Snidely Whiplash, the cartoon villain,
24 doctors and eight offices. “It’s taking medicine away from little
benefiting children.” kids.”
Mr. Bartlett, a Republican, was the But Walter T. Mills, the proprietor of
only member of the Maryland a barbershop here for 32 years, said
delegation to vote against the bill, and he and many of his customers agreed
he is coming under intense pressure to with Mr. Bartlett.
switch sides as the House moves
toward a vote next week on whether Mr. Mills, a Republican, summarized
to override President Bush’s veto of the the reasons for his opposition to the

13. LINING AND NON-LINING FIGURES
AKA Arabic and old style/lowercase/hanging numerals. Arabic
numerals are the familar digits used in arithmetic; they all have the same
height and all stand on the baseline. Normally, they all have the same
width, for better alignment in tabular work. Old style numerals contain
characters that have descenders and are only as tall as the face’s x-
height. They are used like small caps—they blend in better when used in
running text, and have more interesting shapes than lining figures.
However, they typically have unique character widths, making them
usually unsuitable for tabular work.
The third type of numerals are roman numerals (I, IV, XIIXV).

1 4 . PA R A G R A P H L E N G T H
On average, line measures should be between 35–65 characters long.

1 5 . D O N ’ T U S E D E FA U LT S
— at least not all of the time, but some settings should always be
considered for adjustment, such as tabs, line spacing, and bullets.
Kerning and tracking settings should be adjusted in some situations, as
with large or small type, all caps, italics, and special characters.