Using Color and Type Part 2
March 5th, 2008 by kip0130Recently in part one I discussed the rules of using colors and typography together. I touched grounds on what not to do such as color combintaions. I also told you all about the problems with colors and print and how they don’t always come out as planned. In this section I am going to talk about printing type, sizing , line-height’s and how to use them correctly.
Size matters
When designing print media or a website you want to with what looks best. On the web thats a lot harder as your limited to web safe fonts without using an alternate methods. But you can make your fonts work with your designs without sacrificing readability,and accessibility. For some reason i noticed that font sizes keep getting smaller, and smaller as the trends continue to go on. I am glad to say i haven’t noticed this trend in print media (lucky us).on the web font size is everything. you may think having a font size of 9/10px is cool but think about the users with bad eyes or small screens. As i mentioned in part one hierarchy makes your design. Substitute that 10px font for a nice 12-13px font and use the 10px font for your captions.
To be tall or not so tall…
Another trend I’ve noticed is the smaller line-heights. Avoid Small an narrow line heights. There annoying and make long bodies of text annoying to read.
for example.
Notice the difference between the line-heights and the readability factors.
Typography on the screen
isn’t really typography. Fonts look there best when printed and on paper. thats because 90% of all fonts were meant for print use and don’t need AA treatment to make them look good. so whenyou consider buying a font fire up your printers and Print there sample PDF and decide from there not what you see on screen.
In conclusion Combine all these elements together in a good design and you have a professional print/web design that will make people read it again. What do you do to make your typography more accessible and readable?
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