Typography is...

What is typography and, by extension, typographic design? To use the most basic explanation, typography is the design and use of typefaces as a means of communication. Many people consider typography to have begun with Gutenberg and the development of moveable type, but typography goes back much further than that. This branch of design actually has its roots in handwritten letterforms. Typography encompasses everything from calligraphy through the digital type that we see today on web pages of all kinds. The art of typography also includes type designers who create new letterforms which are then turned into font files that other designs can use in their work, from printed works to those aforementioned websites. As different as those works may be, the basics of typography underpin them all.

Ty­pog­ra­phy: Vi­sual Com­po­nent of The Writ­ten Word

A text is a se­quence of words. A text stays the same no mat­ter how it’s ren­dered. Con­sider the sen­tence “I like pizza.” I can print that text on a piece of pa­per, or read it aloud, or save it in a file on my lap­top. It’ll be the same text, just ren­dered dif­fer­ent ways—vi­su­ally, au­di­bly, digitally.

But when “I like pizza” is printed, ty­pog­ra­phy gets in­volved. All vi­su­ally dis­played text in­volves ty­pog­ra­phy—whether it’s on pa­per, a com­puter screen, or a billboard. For ex­am­ple, what’s the dif­fer­ence be­tween these two signs: the text or the typography?

Is ty­pog­ra­phy an art? That’s like ask­ing if pho­tog­ra­phy is an art. Cer­tainly there are pho­tog­ra­phers and ty­pog­ra­phers whose ideas and tech­niques raise their work to the level of art. But at their core, both pho­tog­ra­phy and ty­pog­ra­phy per­form a util­i­tar­ian func­tion. The aes­thetic com­po­nent is sep­a­rate. Be­ing an ef­fec­tive ty­pog­ra­pher is more about good skills than good taste.

The Elements of Typography

Typefaces and Fonts: If you've ever spoken to a design who use typography in their works, you likely have heard the terms "typeface" and/or "font". Many people use these two terms interchangeably, but there are actually some differences between these two items. "Typeface" is the terms give to a family of fonts (such as Helvetica Regular, Helvetica Italic, Helvetica Black, and Helvetica Bold). All of the various versions of Helvetica make up the complete typeface.

"Font" is the term used when someone is referring to only one weight or style within that family (such as Helvetica Bold). So many typefaces are comprised of a number of individual fonts, all of which are similar and related but different in some way. Some typefaces may only include a single font, while others could include numerous variations of the letterforms that make up the fonts.

Does this sound a bit confusing? If so, do not worry. In reality, if someone is not a typography expert, they will likely use the term "font" regardless of which one of these terms they truly mean - and even many professional designers use these two terms interchangeably. Unless you are speaking to a pure type designer about the mechanics of the craft, you are probably pretty safe using whichever of these two terms you'd prefer. That being said, if you do understand the distinction and can properly use the correct terms, that is never a bad thing!