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Legibility
Legibility is the ease with which a reader can decode symbols. In addition to written language, it can also refer to behaviour or architecture, for example. From the perspective of communication research, it can be described as a measure of the permeability of a communication channel. A large number of known factors can affect legibility. In everyday language, legibility is commonly used as a synonym for readability. In graphic design, however, legibility is often distinguished from readability. Readability is the ease with which a reader can follow and understand words, sentences and paragraphs. While legibility usually refers to the visual clarity of individual symbols, readability is more about their arrangement or even the choice of words. Legibility is a component of readability. The legibility of text is most often examined by controlled deterioration of viewing conditions and determination of threshold detection. Not all writing benefits from optimizing for legibility. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Typography
Typography is the art and technique of arranging type to make written language legible, readable and appealing when displayed. The arrangement of type involves selecting typefaces, point sizes, line lengths, line-spacing ( leading), and letter-spacing (tracking), as well as adjusting the space between pairs of letters ( kerning). The term ''typography'' is also applied to the style, arrangement, and appearance of the letters, numbers, and symbols created by the process. Type design is a closely related craft, sometimes considered part of typography; most typographers do not design typefaces, and some type designers do not consider themselves typographers. Typography also may be used as an ornamental and decorative device, unrelated to the communication of information. Typography is the work of typesetters (also known as compositors), typographers, graphic designers, art directors, manga artists, comic book artists, and, now, anyone who arranges words, letters, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Serif
In typography, a serif () is a small line or stroke regularly attached to the end of a larger stroke in a letter or symbol within a particular font or family of fonts. A typeface or "font family" making use of serifs is called a serif typeface (or serifed typeface), and a typeface that does not include them is sans-serif. Some typography sources refer to sans-serif typefaces as "grotesque" (in German, ) or "Gothic", and serif typefaces as "roman". Origins and etymology Serifs originated from the first official Greek writings on stone and in Latin alphabet with inscriptional lettering—words carved into stone in Roman antiquity. The explanation proposed by Father Edward Catich in his 1968 book ''The Origin of the Serif'' is now broadly but not universally accepted: the Roman letter outlines were first painted onto stone, and the stone carvers followed the brush marks, which flared at stroke ends and corners, creating serifs. Another theory is that serifs were devised to neaten ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Readability
Readability is the ease with which a reader can understand a written text. In natural language, the readability of text depends on its content (the complexity of its vocabulary and syntax) and its presentation (such as typographic aspects that affect legibility, like font size, line height, character spacing, and line length). Researchers have used various factors to measure readability, such as: * Speed of perception * Perceptibility at a distance * Perceptibility in peripheral vision * Visibility * Reflex blink technique * Rate of work (reading speed) * Eye movements * Fatigue in reading * Cognitively-motivated features * Word difficulty * N-gram analysis * Semantic Richness Higher readability eases reading effort and speed for any reader, but it makes a larger difference for those who do not have high reading comprehension. Readability exists in both natural language and programming languages though in different forms. In programming, things such as programmer comments ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
X-height
upright 2.0, alt=A diagram showing the line terms used in typography In typography, the x-height, or corpus size, is the distance between the baseline and the mean line of lowercase letters in a typeface. Typically, this is the height of the letter ''x'' in the font (the source of the term), as well as the letters ''v'', ''w'', and ''z''. (Curved letters such as ''a'', ''c'', ''e'', ''m'', ''n'', ''o'', ''r'', ''s'', and ''u'' tend to exceed the x-height slightly, due to overshoot; ''i'' has a dot that tends to go above x-height.) One of the most important dimensions of a font, x-height defines how high lowercase letters without ascenders are compared to the cap height of uppercase letters. Display typefaces intended to be used at large sizes, such as on signs and posters, vary in x-height. Many have high x-heights to be read clearly from a distance. This, though, is not universal: some display typefaces such as Cochin and Koch-Antiqua intended for publicity uses have low ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Letter-spacing
Examples of headline letter spacing In typography, letter spacing, character spacing or tracking is an optically consistent adjustment to the space between letters to change the visual density of a line or block of text. Letter spacing is distinct from kerning, which adjusts the spacing of particular pairs of adjacent characters such as "7." which would appear to be badly spaced if left unadjusted. History Historically, with metal type, a kern meant having a letter stick out beyond the metal slug to which it was attached, or having part of the body of the slug cut off to allow letters to overlap. A kern could therefore only bring letters closer together (negative spacing). Digital kerning could go in either direction. Tracking can similarly go in either direction, but with metal type, one could make groups of letters only farther apart (positive spacing). In the days of hot metal typesetting, ''letter spacing'' required adding horizontal space between letters of words set in m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Line Length
In typography, line length is the width of a block of typeset text, usually measured in units of length like inches or points or in characters per line (in which case it is a measure). A block of text or paragraph has a maximum line length that fits a determined design. If the lines are too short then the text becomes disjointed; if they are too long, the content loses rhythm as the reader searches for the start of each line. Line length is determined by typographic parameters based on a formal grid and template with several goals in mind: balance and function for fit and readability with a sensitivity to aesthetic style in typography. Typographers adjust line length to aid legibility or copy fit. Text can be flush left and ragged right, flush right and ragged left, or justified where all lines are of equal length. In a ragged right setting, line lengths vary to create a ragged right edge. Sometimes this can be visually satisfying. For justified and ragged right settings ty ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kerning
In typography, kerning is the process of adjusting the spacing between characters in a proportional font, usually to achieve a visually pleasing result. Kerning adjusts the space between individual letterforms, while tracking (letter-spacing) adjusts spacing uniformly over a range of characters. In a well-kerned font, the two-dimensional blank spaces between each pair of characters all have a visually similar area. The term "keming" is sometimes used informally to refer to poor kerning (the letters r and n placed too close together being easily mistaken for the letter m). The related term ''kern'' denotes a part of a type letter that overhangs the edge of the type block. Metal typesetting The source of the word ''kern'' is from the French word , meaning "projecting angle, quill of a pen". The French term originated from the Latin , , meaning "hinge". In the days when all type was cast metal, the parts of a typecasting sort that needed to overlap adjacent letters sim ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Typographic Alignment
In typesetting and page layout, alignment or range is the setting of text flow or image placement relative to a page, column (measure), table cell, or tab (and often to an image above it or under it). The type alignment setting is sometimes referred to as text alignment, text justification, or type justification. The edge of a page or column is known as a ''margin'', and a gap between columns is known as a ''gutter''. Basic variations There are four basic typographic alignments: * flush left—the text is aligned along the left margin or gutter, also known as ''left-aligned'', ''ragged right'' or ''ranged left''; * flush right—the text is aligned along the right margin or gutter, also known as ''right-aligned'', ''ragged left'' or ''ranged right''; * justified—text is aligned along the left margin, with letter-spacing and word-spacing adjusted so that the text falls flush with both margins, also known as ''fully justified'' or ''full justification''; * centered—text is ali ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Leading
In typography, leading ( ) is the space between adjacent lines of type; the exact definition varies. In hand typesetting, leading is the thin strips of lead (or aluminium) that were inserted between lines of type in the composing stick to increase the vertical distance between them. The thickness of the strip is called leading and is equal to the difference between the size of the type and the distance from one baseline to the next. For instance, given a type size of 10 points and a distance between baselines of 12 points, the leading would be 2 points. The term is still used in modern page-layout software such as QuarkXPress, the Affinity Suite, and Adobe InDesign. Consumer-oriented word-processing software often talks of line spacing or, more accurately, interline spacing. Origins The word comes from lead strips that were put between set lines of lead type, hence the pronunciation "ledding" and not "leeding". The practice became popular in the eighteenth ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Written Language
A written language is the representation of a spoken or gestural language by means of a writing system. Written language is an invention in that it must be taught to children, who will pick up spoken language or sign language by exposure even if they are not formally instructed. Written languages can be formed by an alphabet, or using other writing systems to give words and graphical counterpart. History The first writing can be dated back to the Neolithic era, with clay tablets being used to keep track of livestock and commodities. However, the first example of written language can be dated to Uruk, at the end of the 4th millennium BCE. An ancient Mesopotamian poem tells a tale about the invention of writing."Because the messenger's mouth was heavy and he couldn't repeat, the Lord of Kulaba patted some clay and put words on it, like a tablet. Until then, there had been no putting words on clay." —''Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta,'' circa 1800 BCE.Scholars mark the dif ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Italic Type
In typography, italic type is a cursive font based on a stylised form of calligraphic handwriting. Owing to the influence from calligraphy, italics normally slant slightly to the right. Italics are a way to emphasise key points in a printed text, to identify many types of creative works, to cite foreign words or phrases, or, when quoting a speaker, a way to show which words they stressed. One manual of English usage described italics as "the print equivalent of underlining"; in other words, underscore in a manuscript directs a typesetter to use italic. The name comes from the fact that calligraphy-inspired typefaces were first designed in Italy, to replace documents traditionally written in a handwriting style called chancery hand. Aldus Manutius and Ludovico Arrighi (both between the 15th and 16th centuries) were the main type designers involved in this process at the time. Along with blackletter and Roman type, it served as one of the major typefaces in the history of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dyslexia
Dyslexia, also known until the 1960s as word blindness, is a disorder characterized by reading below the expected level for one's age. Different people are affected to different degrees. Problems may include difficulties in spelling words, reading quickly, writing words, "sounding out" words in the head, pronouncing words when reading aloud and understanding what one reads. Often these difficulties are first noticed at school. The difficulties are involuntary, and people with this disorder have a normal desire to learn. People with dyslexia have higher rates of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), developmental language disorders, and difficulties with numbers. Dyslexia is believed to be caused by the interaction of genetic and environmental factors. Some cases run in families. Dyslexia that develops due to a traumatic brain injury, stroke, or dementia is sometimes called "acquired dyslexia" or alexia. The underlying mechanisms of dyslexia result from diffe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
