Introducing type
We all use type every day, from word processors and social media graphic apps to professional desktop design software and hand-coded websites. Good typography is within everyone’s reach, and it starts with the fundamentals. This module acts as an accessible primer for anyone to build confidence and skills, and is also a solid foundation for experienced designers looking to deepen their understanding of the basics.
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Why care about typography?
An overview of Latin type anatomy
Making sense of typographic classifications
Exploring punctuation
Introducing weights & styles
Introducing alternate glyphs
Understanding numerals
OpenType features in practice
Introducing variable fonts
Introducing color fonts
How typefaces are designed & fonts are made
Em
A unit of measurement, 1em is equal to the size of a font. Adjusting font size will resize glyphs relative to the em square.
Weight axis (wght)
An axis found in some variable fonts that controls the font file’s weight parameter.
Optical sizes
Different versions of a typeface optimized for use at specific sizes or size ranges.
Typeface
A typeface is what you see; a font is what you use.
X-height
The height of the lowercase characters that have no ascenders nor descenders, which indicates how tall or short the type appears.
Contrast
The difference between the thick and thin parts of a stroke. A monolinear typeface has low stroke contrast, and is the opposite of a high contrast face.