13 Typography Tips Every Designer Should Consider

Typography is the pillar that supports any design. A good cover is worth little if the typography of the book is the wrong one, if its size has not been taken care of, if the hierarchy is not clear, if the reader gets tired when he looks at the pages.

Si you are interested in typography from here I encourage you to read Enric Jardí's book entitled 22 Typography Tips, a benchmark in the field. In fact, this post is based in part on the information that is presented in it in a didactic and entertaining way.

13 Typography Tips

1. Use 2 fonts

   They are enough, you don't need 6 (it could only be admitted in posters, for example).

2. Typography also conveys

   It is not the same to use Times New Roman (elegant but vulgar) than Helvetica (universal and too bland, perhaps), or Courier New than FF DIN. Try to ensure that what the typography conveys is consistent with the message it is conveying.

3. Your fonts don't look good at any size

   Each typeface is designed to a specific size. As a rule we can know that the letters for small bodies have a wider skeleton and there is less difference in height between upper and lower case; furthermore, the thinnest areas are thick. An example would be the Nimrod, which is ugly on large bodies and is very readable on small bodies.

4. Be careful with languages

   You are designing a book, you select a font that has the accents, question marks and exclamation marks, ñ… After 4 months they tell you that you have to make a special edition for an Arab country. Does that guy have the characters you need? This is something very important to take into account in this kind of work, which can be expanded. To avoid taking risks, use the best sellers of the typeface and make sure that, if you need them, you can buy the character pack that corresponds to you.

5. Body is not the same as size

   An 11-body Adobe Garamond Regular and a Helvetica Neue of the same body, they are not the same size. In fact, if we use both in the same text in single words we will see that our eyes need to take a leap to read the Helvetica Neue. To match sizes, it is best to "adjust by eye" taking the X of each font as a reference. In this case, we would leave the Adobe Garamond Regular to melee 11 and reduce the Helvetica Neue to melee 8'4.

6. Deliver your fonts to the printer

   It is very easy that in the printing process let our typography be replaced by any other. To avoid this, the best (in the case of InDesign) is the Package option (File> Package); and if not, create a PDF and also deliver the file of the corresponding font used (if we use two, then two). Of course: check the license of your fonts very well, since if it does not allow you to deliver them to the printer, you will be committing an illegality.

7. DO NOT modify a type

   Do not condense it, do not expand it. Don't stretch it. Also do not make false bold, or false italics, or false small caps. You're destroying years of work of a professional who has dedicated himself body and soul to designing and redesigning each letter forty thousand times.

8. Take care of hierarchies

   It must be assimilated naturally and understand from the first glance what is the first heading, the second, the third ...

9. Use a base rack (if you want)

   This will give you a more regular composition, since the lines of text will be at the same height.

10. Reduce spacing and line spacing in headlines

    If you use large type sizes, it is advisable to do it by eye.

11. Keep an eye on the interlettering of headlines and headers

    Readjust tracking and kerning so there are no differences in white spaces.

12. Pay attention to orthotypography

    What quotes to use? How to write a book quote? A good read (highly recommended) to learn all this is the book called Orthotypography for designers, by Raquel Marín Álvarez (at € 19 at Gustavo Gili).

13. Partition and Justification Window: a matter of trial and error

    For avoid orphans and widows, this InDesign panel is of utmost importance. By modifying the values ​​that appear in it, we can achieve better formed text blocks. The trick? There isn't, it's all a matter of a good eye and the trial-error process. Cheer up!