Type

Basics

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100% practical. Sketches have been made
to explain some basic issues in type design
during the workshops. They get used to point
out some problems which raise while creating
a new typeface. Only some foundations are
shown, no deep sophisticated details.
Same size for all!
To optically align all characters on a
line, they cannot not have exactly the
same mathematical height. For exam-
ple the triangle on this drawing has to
be higher than the rectangle. If this is
not the case, the triangle will for sure
look smaller than the rectangle. While
creating a typeface, you want all the let-
ters to have the same height.
Also round forms have to exceed the
baseline to be optically the same. If
the circle would have exactly the same
mathematical height as the rectangle,
it would look smaller than the square.
This doesn’t only count for basic forms
like triangles, circles and squares. It’s
essential in type design, because they
apply to every single character in a
typeface. Then it even doesn’t matter
if you’re designing a latin, cyrillic or
greek font. It’s a basic principle for any
kind of shape.

Type Basics | 3 ▶
Type terminology.
Communication during the design
process is much easier when using
basic terminology of type. Here are a
couple important ones, which will help
to bring the conversation a bit further
than ‘yeah, that there, that little black
thing.’ The counter of the ‘e’ can also be
called an ‘eye’, but there are many more
terms. If you want to know them all, go
to the library or browse-the-web.

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Fluent shapes.
Designing type is like driving a car. If
you drive a car, you always take the cur-
ve in a natural way. If you draw a curve
(of a character) on paper, this is exactly
the same. The curve starts smoothly,
never out of a sudden. While driving
a car, you don’t start turning the wheel
when you are already in the beginning
of the curve. A while before you arrive
in the curve you anticipate by leading
your car gently in the right direction.
Think about driving a car when you are
sketching type on a paper.

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Calligraphic origin. (1/2)

The characters on the top line have a

different construction than the cha-
racters on the bottom line. They have
a different calligraphic origin. It doesn’t
matter if a typeface has serifs (like Ti-
mes New Roman) or not (like Arial).
It’s about the original way they where
constructed.
The characters in the top line are
constructed with a pointed pen (calli-
graphic tool). The contrast is caused by
changing the pressure on the pen, not
because of the form of the pen. Bodoni
is one example of this, but also sans
serif faces like Helvetica have this ori-
gin. The thickest part will be (mostly)
totally vertical. From this perspective
there is no difference between Bodoni
and Helvetica. They both have the same
construction. Only the contrast varies.
The characters in the bottom line have
a origin which is derived from the
broad nib. The calligraphic pen itself
has a thick and a thin part. The contrast
in the type is made because of the form
of the pen, not because of the pressure.
You slant the pen with an angle of 30
degrees on the paper. In that way your
thickest part of a character will not be
on a vertical direction, but will be on an
angle. Also the thinnest part will not be
on the most horizontal parts. Typefaces
like Garamond and Minion have this
kind of construction. But also sans serif

Type Basics | 6 ▶
Calligraphic origin. (2/2)

faces like Gill Sans have a construction

which is originally derived from the
broad nib.
If you want to know more about these
different origins, read the books of Ger-
rit Noordzij. His expansion and trans-
lation theories are explained in many
of his writings. ‘The stroke of the pen’
is a good starting point. You can also
read a small part of Noordzij’s theories
on-line.

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Spacing. (1/2)
Some words about spacing type. Much
more important than the shapes of the
characters, is the rhythm of the type.
A typeface with beautiful characters
which are badly spaced is extremely
hard to read. However, if the shapes of
the letters are not that good, but when
they are all perfectly spaced, the type
will be fairly easy to read. Defining the
rhythm is more important than defi-
ning the shapes.
The white spaces inside and in between
letters are defining the rhythm, much
more than the black shapes of the let-
ters. When you manage to create a
good rhythm in your line of text, your
type gets more readable and gives a ba-
lanced end result. While creating the
black shapes, you have to take the white
spaces into consideration. Because the
white spaces are more important than
the black shapes.
However, white cannot exist without
black. Changing a white shape, inevita-
ble will have an influence on the black
shape. From that perspective, one co-
lour cannot be more important than
the other.
For example, there has to be a relation
between the space inside an ‘n’ and the
space between the ‘i’ and the ‘n’ (see
drawing). In the top row you can see
the space inside the ‘n’ is much much
bigger than the space in between the

Type Basics | 8 ▶
Spacing. (2/2)
‘n’ and the ‘i’. In the bottom row they
are much more equal, and in this way
you’ll get a much better rhythm and
more harmony in your line of text.
The same goes for the inner form of the
‘a’ and the ‘e’ for example. There is a big
relation between these two forms. If
they have (optically) the same amount
of white inside the character (=coun-
ter), your type will have a better rhythm
as well.

Type Basics | 9 ▶
Black vs. white.
Designing type is nothing more and
nothing less than harmonizing black
and white shapes. Black can’t exist wi-
thout white, and white can’t exist wi-
thout black. Black, the shape of a let-
ter. White, the space in or in between
letters. The amount of white inside a
character defines the amount of white
in between two characters.
As it is impossible to create a very black
character with a big (white) counter
form, a black typeface will always have
smaller counters than a light type-
face. Hence it follows that there is less
space in between the characters (see
drawing). A light typeface has much
bigger counters. The space in between
two letters has to be in proportion. As a
consequence there is more white space
in between light letters than in between
black letters.

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Italic vs. cursive. (1/2)
A roman font can be slanted (having an
angle) and a cursive font can be upright
(totally vertical like a roman). Urgh!
The angle doesn’t decide if a charac-
ter is a ‘roman’ character or an ‘cur-
sive’ character. This depends on the
construction. To make it a bit more
clear, take a look at the four big n’s. As
you would expect, the first letter is a ro-
man character. But the second one as
well. Although it’s not totally vertical,
it still has the same construction as the
first ‘n’. This is called a slanted roman.
The third ‘n’ looks like an cursive, but
also this one is not a real cursive. Ba-
sicly there is no difference between the
second and third ‘n’, only some parts of
the serifs have been cut off.
Compare the first three letters with the
last ‘n’. That’s a real cursive. The big dif-
ference with the previous three is the
construction.
The first three are constructed from
separate pen strokes. The last ‘n’ is
constructed out of one pen stroke. This
is the basic difference between roman
and cursive fonts. Not the angle, but the
construction.
Many different explanations can be gi-
ven for the difference between a ‘cur-
sive’ and ‘italic’ from a historical point
of view. However we consider this as
the big difference: ‘italic’ is concerning
the function, ‘cursive’ is concerning

Type Basics | 11 ▶
Italic vs. cursive. (2/2)
the construction. Almost anything can
work as an ‘italic’, it doesn’t even neces-
sarily needs an angle. When making a
font family with a roman and an italic
font, the italic font can be constructed
in many different ways. The third ‘n’ in
the example could probably function
perfectly as an italic inside your family.
But don’t forget, it’s not always a real
cursive when it’s called ‘italic’.

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One for all.
What defines if one character can fit
to another character? Once you made
a decision, how to apply this to all the
other characters in a font?
Starting point: ‘e’ (in the center of the
drawing). Imagine you sketched this ‘e’,
you like it a lot, and now you want to
design more characters fitting to this ‘e’.
Where to start? Should it be a serif or a
sans serif for example?
First try: ‘i’ on the left. Sans serif. The
black part is as thick as the black parts
of the ‘e’. Same x-height. So this should
work you think.
Second try: ‘i’ on the right. Same thic-
kness, the character has the same x-hei-
ght, but now it has serifs.
The bowl of the ‘e’ is not only having
a certain thickness, but the ‘e’ also
has contrast. The ‘i’ on the left has no
contrast at all. Therefore these two cha-
racters don’t belong to each other. The
‘i’ on the right however has the same
kind of contrast as the ‘e’, just because
it has serifs. Just those tiny serifs make
sure there are thick and thin parts, like
the ‘e’ has. This means that the starting
point, the ‘e’, already defined that the
rest of the font cannot be a sans serif
typeface.
Of course, every so called rule is there
to be broken. Mentioning this, doesn’t
mean you can’t make a font which has
an ‘e’ combined with an ‘i’ like the one
on the left. Everything is possible of
course. But now you realize better what
you are doing, also when you don’t do
it. Still get it?
Type Basics | 13 ▶
Readability.
The only important aspect of a text ty-
peface is the readability. Many decisions
can influence the readability. Which
contrast you create, the length of the
ascenders and descenders, the rhythm,
the blackness of a type, the strength of
the curves and the bowls, etc.
Most of those decision apply to all the
characters inside a font. These have
to be defined first. For example the
contrast. The characters on the top
line (see drawing) have a much bigger
contrast than the characters on the bot-
tom line. The type on the top line will
be more suitable for display use, the
type the bottom the bottom line more
for text use. Not only because of the
difference in contrast, but also because
the characters on the top line are much
more condensed. This makes them less
legible in small sizes, but more eye-cat-
ching and flexible for headlines. De-
fining the contrast and the width are
decisions which count for every single
character in a font.
But also while designing every single
glyph, you can create details which
improve the readability of a font. For
example, the ear of a ‘g’ can make sure
the reader’s eye will follow the horizon-
tal reading direction more fluently. The
‘g’ on the bottom line will work much
better in a text typeface for small sizes
(see drawing).

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Proportions.
Which x-height to define? Which des-
cender depth? Defining these propor-
tions are essential, and very strongly
connected to the purpose of the type.
The proportions within a certain type-
face are influencing the way your type
will work & look. For example, it’s im-
possible to create a space saving news-
paper typeface with an extremely wide
body width.
Extremely short descenders will give
a strange look to a text typeface. Even
worse, they might not be visible at all
anymore. But extremely short descen-
ders can also be a smart decision, while
creating a display or headline type.
For a text typeface the ascender height
should be as big or, even better, bigger
than then cap height to give a optical
pleasurable result (see drawing).

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Small caps.
You could guess it already from the
name, small caps are small capitals.
Capitals which have the same height as
lowercase characters.
Why are small caps needed? Because of
several typographical reasons. First of
all a whole word set in caps will look
awful, it will drown out the rest of the
text. Second, in lots of typefaces the
capitals are not designed and spaced
to work together, but to be followed
by a lowercase character. Small caps
however are designed to purely work
together. They will give a more pleasu-
rable, harmonized result.
Having said that small capitals are ca-
pitals on x-height, it’s mostly not 100%
true. To optically give them the same
height, the small caps will have to be
slightly bigger than lowercase charac-
ters of the same font (see drawing).

Type Basics | 16 ▶
Swash caps?
Admitting that it’s not the most urgent
issue to learn in typography, it’s interes-
ting to quickly pay attention to this to-
pic. Not every font family has a Swash
variant. Most common are swash capi-
tals, but also swash lowercase charac-
ters and swash-beginnings and -en-
dings exist.
Sometimes you want to set a whole line
in capitals. It’s possible to do this with
roman capitals, although sometimes it’s
better to choose small capitals which
are designed for this purpose. Roman
capitals are not, but mostly they don’t
cause problems. Swash capitals howe-
ver do. Swash capitals are mostly desi-
gned to give some extra visual pleasure
to your designs. The caps are meant to
be followed by lowercase characters
(number 1), or used as an initial (num-
ber 2), but not to be combined with ea-
chother. Only with some fonts it’s pos-
sible to combine swash capitals with
normal roman caps (number 3).

Type Basics | 17 ▶
x-heights.
If you make a light weight and the black
weight of one typeface, you’ll have to
make sure that the black weight has a
bigger x-height than the light weight
(top line drawing). If this is not the case,
the black weight will look optically too
small when it’s combined with the light
weight in a line of text.
In display sizes this is not exactly the
same. If the type is printed in big sizes
there can be a much smaller difference
between the x-height of the light and the
black weight (bottom line drawing).

Type Basics | 18 ▶
Bold-faced.
Since the introduction of the computer,
type design has become available to a
wide audience like never shown before
in history. Of course the digitalization
makes many acts easier and particu-
larly faster. This doesn’t mean it auto-
matically gets better, but that’s another
story. For example, many font software
programs have included an option to
‘bolden up’ your regular weight. The
outlines of the perfectly designed font
get expanded, but the program is trying
to fool you. That’s not a bold. It’s a li-
mousine which got quickly extended
by a local blacksmith. The contrast will
probably be destroyed (see the second
‘a’ in the drawing). Doing this by hand
will give a much more pleasurable re-
sult. No matter how well font software
programs will improve in the future,
there is only one thing that really counts
in the end: your critical eye.

Type Basics | 19 ▶
Digitizing sketches.
When the handmade sketches on paper
are ready to be scanned, take care of
digitizing them in a proper way. More
specifically, take care while converting
your scanned image manually with a
Bezier based pen tool. Too many points
on a character, or points at the wrong
position can have a negative influence
at your font.
Too many points (=nodes) can not only
cause technical problems -e.g. the prin-
ter can’t print the font anymore- but it
is also much harder to control the sha-
pes of a character. Controlling a curve
between two nodes is much easier than
changing a curve with twelve nodes. Of
course it’s possible, but it will not end
up in a fluent form.
Having the nodes at the wrong position
can cause technical problems -e.g. it’s
impossible to hint the font perfectly-
but also practically it is recommenda-
ble to put nodes at extreme positions at
your glyph. For example, digitizing an
‘o’ would only need 8 nodes. Four at the
outer form, four at the counter form.
Putting nodes at extreme positions
(most top & down, most left & right)
means the BCP (Bezier Control Point)
will always be totally horizontal or ver-
tical. In that case they are much easier
to control. In most software programs
you can use shift key to keep the BCP
totally horizontal or vertical.

Type Basics | 20 ▶
Copy-paste? (1/2)
When you have created a few basic cha-
racters, you also want to create the rest
of the alphabet. But how? Copy and
paste? Euhm, not really. Although, this
can help you on the way.
There are some things which you can
do, and some which you cannot do
while copy-pasting. Some forms can
be just the same. The ascender of the
‘l’ and ‘h’ for example. But maybe the
bowl of the ‘d’ and ‘q’ as well. Once you
created a ‘d’, this could work fine as a
starting point for a ‘b’ and a ‘p’, by rota-
ting the ‘d’ 180 degrees.
Copy-paste should not change the
contrast in your typeface. When you
make a typeface based on the broad
nip, horizontal and vertical flipping
will disturb the angle of your contrast,
and will destroy your shape. However,
by rotating a (part of a) character 180
degrees, the contrast remains perfect
and untouched.
But copy-paste doesn’t bring you all
the way there. It can work as a starting
point, but manual adjustments will be
mostly necessary. For example, if you
have a ‘n’, you can quite quickly make a
‘m’ and a ‘h’, but also a ‘u’ (see drawing).
Copy, paste and rotate the ‘n’. Then cut
some serifs, and... not ready yet! If you
cut away the serifs, also on the inner
side of the ‘u’, the white space inside the
‘u’ will get bigger then the white space

Type Basics | 21 ▶
Copy-paste? (2/2)
inside the ‘n’. This has to be optically
corrected.
One solution for this could be to make
the ‘u’ a bit more narrow, or maybe ano-
ther solution could be to make the serif
on the top a bit longer (which also ma-
kes the innerform smaller of course).
Whatever way you do it, make sure the
inner forms have (optically) the same
amount of white space. Only in that
way you’ll get a harmonious rhythm in
your type.

Type Basics | 22 ▶
Balance shapes.
If you make both of the inner forms
(counters) of the ‘B’ exactly the same,
the top counter will optically look big-
ger. Your character will look plumby,
like it’s falling down. If you make the
top counter smaller than the bottom
one, your character looks much more
balanced.
The counter of the ‘B’ doesn’t have to
be exactly the same as the counter of
the ‘P’ for example. If you would make
them exactly the same, the right side-
bearing of the P would be much too
big. So you have to balance the black
and white spaces in every character se-
parately. However, there must be a rela-
tionship between the amount of white
space inside a ‘B’ and inside a ‘P’.
About making a lowercase ‘r’: it’s not an
‘n’ with an amputated leg. Your ‘r’ can
get very weak and soft in that way. You
can make it much stronger if you let
the ending of the ‘r’ follow the horizon-
tal reading direction. In that way, the
space on the right side of the ‘r’ will be
more open, and more balanced. It will
not disturb the rhythm of your type
because the right sidebearing can be
much smaller. The whole letter can be
made more narrow as well. As a conse-
quence the white space in the top of the
‘r’ could be has to be changed. In case
you change that form, optically you’ll
not confuse the ‘r’ so quickly with the
‘n’ as well.

Type Basics | 23 ▶
Kerning.
Knowledge about kerning will give a
deeper understanding of type. Howe-
ver, forget about kerning for now, spend
your time on other things. It’s much
more important to properly space your
characters.
A kerning pair is a technical issue for
optical reasons. Simply said: when one
certain character is followed by another
character you can define a different
space in between these two characters.
This space can vary from the the nor-
mal spacing (right sidebearing of the
first character + left sidebearing of the
second character). The difference can
be positive or negative; you can add
more space for a certain combination
or you can reduce the space. A kerning
pair can technically be implemented in
a digital font file.
In some cases kerning is inevitable
and necessary. When a capital ‘A’ is
followed by a lowercase ‘v’, a big white
space will appear which cannot be sol-
ved by adapting the spacing of the cha-
racters. Changing the spacing would
mess it up when they would be com-
bined with other characters again. For
this occasion a kerning pair is needed
(see drawing). In the sketch you only
see some examples where the kerning
pair is negative; reducing space. But
you can also imagine a positive kerning
pair when a ‘f ’ is followed by a bracket
for example; «f)». More space has to be
added to avoid those characters over-
lapping eachother.

Type Basics | 24 ▶
Ligatures.
In a very few cases they are essential.
Some well known ligatures are ‘fi’ and
‘fl’. The inevitable need for a ligature
is depending on the design of a font.
Not every typeface will need a ligature
for a ‘fi’ combination. But in some ca-
ses the dot of the ‘i’ is interfering with
the ‘f ’. Get rid of all that annoying row
but making a ligature, one glyph which
represents two (or more) characters.
Next to a functional aspect, there is an
aesthetic aspect of ligatures. You could
create a ligature for a ‘st’ combination,
or maybe for ‘nky’ or ‘ism’. Anything is
possible. Admitting that also this is not
the most urgent issue in type design, it’s
another obstacle on the road to perfec-
tion!

Type Basics | 25
 Type
Basics
Transformed to E-Book by :
Mohamed Iyadh Gallah

www.typeworkshop.com