Font faces are a more difficult topic than many people think. If you want to see your graphic designers in paroxysms, choose fonts because you like them and insist on using lots of different fonts throughout your layout.

Here are a few things to consider.

• Fonts are selected on a continuum based on whether they are intended to make the written word more legible or to create a visual impact where readability is irrelevant.
• The scale of the lettering affects the choice.
• Different fonts give a different mood as they range from large and loopy to tight and cramped.
• Fonts should be judged by their precision, curves, proportions, and negative spaces.
• The strokes of the letters usually varies, so look at the contrast between the thicker and thinner parts.
• The ascenders and descenders may be straight or curved
• The curves may be stronger and reach further or be flattened
• The negative spaces may be large and well-formed or cramped
• Look at the sharpness of the corners
• Are the letters formed consistently

Font  terms

• Apex: the point where 2 strokes meet
• Arm: a horizontal stroke that only connects with the vertical stroke at one or at neither end (T, E, F)
• Ascender: the portion of a lowercase letter than extends above the height of the x
• Bar: the horizontal stroke
• Baseline: the imaginary line that the type sits on
• Bowl: the loop
• Counter: the open space within the loop
• Cross stroke: a bar that crosses a lowercase t or f
• Crossbar: the bar that connects two strokes on a capital letter like A or H
• Crotch: the acute angle where 2 strokes meet, as with A or V
• Descender: the part of the letter that falls below the baseline
• Ear: the tiny stroke that extends up from the upper right of the bowl of g or the upper left of r
• Hairline: on a font where the stroke varies in weight, this is the thinnest stroke
• Ligature: the character formed when two letters are combined
• Mean line: the imaginary line that runs across the top of the non-ascending lowercase letters
• Sans serif: fonts that don’t have a serif
• Serif: the line that crosses the end of a main character stroke and which makes it easier to read printed letters
• Shoulder: curved down stroke on m, h, n
• Spine: main storke in the s
• Spur: a small stroke at the base of some G
• Stem: full-length vertical in upright letters like L or T.
• Stroke: main portion of the letter
• Swash: ornamental additions to some letters
• Tail: short down stroke on a Q and on some R and K
• Terminal: the end of a stroke with no serif
• Tittle: the dot on the i
• Vertex: the point at the bottom where 2 strokes meet.

Typeface categories

Serif fonts are based on hand-written fonts and have counter-strokes capping the ends of the main strokes. This gives each letter visual anchor points, joining letters together to form the words. The end result is that serif fonts are easier to read and are perfect for large blocks of text, in print. On screen there are so few dots per inch that the counter-strokes break up and look jazzy.

Serif fonts are usually elegant with sweeping changes in the weight of the stroke and tiny arches filling in the gap between the strokes and counter-strokes.

Sans serif fonts lack the counter-strokes and tend to be very uniform in weight of the stroke throughout the letter. This makes a very bold, clean look, but it is harder to read. It is great for headlines. The slanted form is oblique.

Italic and Weight

A good font is reshaped for the italic version and for different weights. Many DTP programs are able to slant or thicken the standard font face but the results are not as clean as they would be if the font comes in different styles.

Helpful Considerations

• Make the paragraphs easy to read by using a typeface that is doesn’t draw attention to itself.
• Increase the space between lines when the lines are long,  the type is large, or the font is sans-serif.
• Decrease the space between lines when the x-height of the font is small

Asset Management Protects Your Content

Asset management can save you time and money. As you commission or create any content, you should think about

• all the places it might be used
• all the people who might need to access it
• how the content will be stored, protected and distributed.

Key to versatility is

• possessing the original graphics in their raw format so they can be manipulated as needed
• ensuring the originals are saved in a common file format that other designers can open
• owning copyright to use the graphics wherever you need them
• creating graphics in formats that are sufficiently versatile to be optimized for any-size print, web, or video
• creating graphics at a size (resolution) that allows them to be used in a range of media from promotional items to billboards and signage.
• ensuring that the originals are protected from damage by ensuring only copies are manipulated
• ensuring that only people with authority to alter images have access to the original copies
• simplifying the distribution of copies so that people who need them have appropriate sizes and formats.

Notes

Graphics designed for the web are usually too small for print. Graphics designed for print are usually in the wrong format for the internet. Photos downloaded from most digital cameras are too large for video or the internet.

When you purchase stock imagery, you purchase a license to use the graphics. In other words, you don’t own the copyright and you may there may be limits on where you can use the graphic and how much you can alter the original.

Many of the people who will use your graphics have little experience in manipulating them, so you need to ensure they get the right graphic in the right format. The internet makes extensive use of compact file formats such as JPEG, GIF and PNG. These optimize the images by compressing the colours.  While modern computers can display millions of colours, GIF and PNG files typically a maximum of 256. The compression on a JPEG is more complicated but essentially reduces the available tones, often leading to muddied images. Further, the colours are understood using a light based spectrum referred to as RGB for red-green-blue.  Print media use an ink based spectrum, usually CMYK for cyan-magenta-yellow-black.

Suppliers as well as staff need access to your graphics. They will have their own specifications that must be met if they are to give you their best quality results. For example, printers  frequently adjust the files they receive to suit the idiosyncracies of their presses. Web designers optimize graphics to decrease the time they take to download; if the files they start with have already been compressed, they must choose between further damage to the graphic or posting a graphic that will load slowly on the web page.

Photo retouching is the art of changing photos to improve the quality. In many cases the goal is to restore a treasured, damaged photo, but retouching is also used to:

• Salvage creased or damaged photos
• Remove scratches, speckles and stains
• Enhance colours
• Remove elements: from electrical wires to evil Uncle Ernie
• Blend 2 photos, for example, to put a smile on Grandma’s face
• Blend 2 photos to change grey skies to blue
• Remove red eye caused by flash camera glare
• Replace backgrounds

We scan photos or slides into CD or DVD collections.

Stock photography is available.

Services Available at C.R. Visuals

File format exchange. If you have a file in a format you cannot open, we may be able to help. Let us know what format the file is in currently and we’ll let you know if we can convert it.

Cover art and posters. Use imagery to convey your message to your audience. Strong visuals can summarize a concept and emotionally prepare the viewer to favorably receive information.

Stationery templates. Your letters, invoices, memos, etc., should be branded with your logo and corporate style through templates. Every time a client or supplier receives a written communication from you, they will know the source, verify its legitimacy, and be reminded of your customer service guarantee.

Form design. Corporate forms should follow a consistent design that both brands them and makes them easier to fill in. Your forms should be reviewed as a group in order to uncover redundancies in collecting information and to eliminate bottlenecks in disseminating data. Great customer-service management systems break down when people shunt information from one system to another, re-typing information scrawled on scraps of paper. Your forms audit looks for mismatched form fields and poorly labeled fields which no-one understands.

Newsletters. A well designed newsletter sent to staff, clients and suppliers keeps everyone up to date, and reiterates your brand. We can design the format and masthead, create a templated layout for you to fill in, or research and write the copy. If you are contemplating an emailed newsletter, sit down with us first. We can discuss the amount of work that is involved and whether or not you can expect the newsletter to be effective.