Typography Questions

1.  In your own words, define Typography. 
Typography is the art of arranging letters and printing so it has a pleasing appearance.

·         Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typography

2. What is a Serif Font? Serif fonts are fonts that have little tails at the bottom or on the edges of the letters.

Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serif

3. What is a Sans Serif Font? Sans Serif fonts are fonts that do not have the little tails at the bottom or top or on the edges of the letters.

Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sans-serif

4. Describe the term Leading. Why is it called Leading? Leading is the distance between the lines of printing. It’s called leading because in the old days they used to put lead between the lines to increase the distance.

Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leading

5. What is the difference between Kerning and Tracking? Kerning is when you adjust the distance/spacing between the letters to make it more appealing. Tracking is when you adjust the total letters in a whole text.

Reference: http://www.proximasoftware.com/fontexpert/terms#t

6. Who was Johann Gutenberg? He was a German goldsmith, blacksmith, publisher and printer.
• What is he known for? He invented mechanical movable type printing.
• Where is he from? German city of Mainz.
• When did he live? Mainz.

<!Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johannes_Gutenberg

7. Define these Elements of a Typeface:
• Decender-the lowest portion of a letter that extends below the baseline
• Ascender-a part of a lower case letter that rises above the main body/portion of the letter
• Bowl-an enclosed oval or rounded part on letters such as ‘D’, ‘o’, and ‘b’
• Foot- text appearing at the bottom of every page 
• Baseline- imaginary line which text sits upon/follows
• Cap height-height of the uppercase letters within a font
• X height-height of lower case letters that do not have ascenders

Reference: http://www.proximasoftware.com/fontexpert/terms#t

8. Following the traditions of typography, when is it correct to use:
• all caps? Used for emphasis, seen on books, ads, and newspapers
• a bold typeface? Used for emphasis and to stand out.
• an italic style typeface? Can be used for emphasis, thoughts in a story, and names of things that you are referring to.
• a serif typeface? Used for body text and lengthy items such as books, newspapers and magazines.
• a sans serif typeface? In print, these fonts are used for headings rather than for body text.
• Script or Calligraphy typefaces? Used for formal invitations, greeting cards, or designs with short titles.

Reference: http://designmodo.com/script-fonts/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typeface

9. What is the difference between a Bitmapped font and a Postscript font? Bitmap fonts: consists of dots/pixels representing the image of each glyph in each face and size. Postscript fonts: has two parts. One contains the information to display the font on screen and the other part is for printing.

Reference: http://graphicdesign.about.com/od/Definitions/g/Postscript-Fonts.htm