Table Of ContentAlso by James Craig
Production for the Graphic Designer
Phototypesetting: A Design Manual
Basic Typography
Working with Graphic Designers
Graphic Design Career Guide
Thirty Centuries of Graphic Design
www.designingwithtype.com
www.designingwithtype.com/5
Copyright © 1971, 1980, 1992, 1999, 2006 by James Craig
This revised edition first published in 2006 by Watson-Guptill Publications, a division of VNU Business Media, Inc.,
770 Broadway, New York, NY 10003
www.wgpub.com
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Craig, James, 1930-
Designing with type: the essential guide to typography.—5th ed./by James Craig, Irene Korol Scala, and William
Bevington.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
eISBN: 978-0-82308560-6
1. Graphic design (Typography)
I. Scala, Irene Korol. II. Bevington, William. III. Title.
Z246.C69 2006
686.2’2——dc22
2005029914
Every effort has been made to trace the ownership of and to obtain permission to reproduce the material in this book.
The authors, editors, and publisher sincerely apologize for any inadvertent errors and will be happy to correct them in
future editions.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication maybe reproduced or used in any form or by any means—graphic,
electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping, or information storage and retrieval systems—
without written permission of the publisher.
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Contents
Cover
Other Books by This Author
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Introduction
Basics of Typography
Origins of the Alphabet
Type Terminology
Type Measurements
Five Classic Typefaces
Classifications
Characteristics
Garamond | Old Style
Baskerville | Transitional
Bodoni | Modern
Century Expanded | Egyptian
Helvetica | Sans Serif
Type Families
Exercise | Identifying Typefaces
Designing with Text Type
4
5
6
About Type
Letterspacing and Wordspacing
Linespacing | Leading
Line Length | Measure
Type Arrangements
Paragraph Indications
Creating Emphasis
Grids
Designing with Display Type
Selecting Display Type
Arranging Display Type
Optical Considerations
Punctuation
Display Initials
Modifying Type
Color
Spot Colors
Process Colors
Projected Colors
Projects
Solving Design Problems
Five Classic Typefaces
Type Arrangements
Typestyles
Paragraph Indications
Expressive Words
7
8
9
Visually Enhanced Quotation
Early Letterform
Grids
Brochure
Experimental Typography
Ransom Note
Logo
Traditional Skills
Design Process
Comping
Copy Preparation
Type Specimens
Classifications
Old Style
Transitional
Modern
Egyptian | Slab Serif
Sans Serif
Decorative | Novelty
Script and Black Letter
Ornaments | Icons | Flourishes
References and Resources
Punctuation
Typesetting | Digital Design
Glossary
Bibliography
Index
Colophon
Introduction
Typography, the art of designing with type, is probably the most
important subject students will study in school. As professional
graphic designers they will be called upon to perform many design
tasks, most requiring a thorough knowledge of typography. Few
assignments will be devoid of type, and many will consist entirely of
type. Words will always remain central to communication.
Today’s graphic design students will be the typographers of the
future, and their success will be determined to a great degree by how
well they are able to design with type.
Typography Today
Typography is a living art, with each generation of designers
contributing something new and innovative. It is an art that continues
to grow and change, drawing both praise and criticism.
This scrutiny is not unprecedented; typographic changes and
experimentation have been criticized throughout history. Gutenberg’s
type was too cold and lacked the warmth of handwritten scripts.
Subsequent typefaces designed over the centuries were criticized as
having too much contrast and thereby causing eye strain and
dizziness, while others lacking serifs were considered difficult to read.
The controversy continues. No longer is type required to be
“invisible”—that is to serve as a quiet vehicle for enhancing the
meaning of the text. Now type can be expressive, entertaining,
challenging, outrageous, and in the best examples, fine art.
Some designers welcome change and the freedom to experiment,
while others prefer a more traditional approach. Still others believe the
old and the new can co-exist, which in the end will lead to a richer,
more diverse world of typographic expression. However, there is no
consensus when it comes to typography. Students should keep an
open mind, embrace all forms of typographic expression, and from
this perspective develop their own personal esthetic.
Hopefully, each new generation of graphic designers will continue
Hopefully, each new generation of graphic designers will continue
to redefine the boundaries and conventions of their art. Some
innovations will withstand the test of time, while others will simply
represent passing fashions. All will add to the rich history of
typography.
The Fifth Edition
Although typography can be taught in a number of ways, it is
generally agreed that the most successful curricula are built around a
knowledge of metal type because metal type is the source of our
typographic vocabulary. This new edition of Designing with Type
combines this rich foundation with today’s technologies from which
readers can acquire a deep and thorough understanding of
typography.
In response to today’s needs, we have completely redesigned and
reorganized the contents, introduced full color throughout, and added
much new information without omitting features that have made this
book such a valuable tool.
Designing with Type was first published more than thirty-five years
ago. The book has sold more than a quarter million copies and has
been adopted by design schools around the world. All this would
suggest that in spite of dramatic changes in the design industry,
Designing with Type continues to educate and inspire. We believe this
fifth edition will be a most useful companion to a new generation of
graphic designers.
The Web Site:
www.designingwithtype.com/5
A major innovation of this latest edition has been the integration of the
book with the Web site www.designingwithtype.com/5, where
students and faculty members can examine hundreds of solutions to
design projects and explore a world of typographic information.
1
Basics of Typography
Origins of the Alphabet (on the web)
Type Terminology (on the web)
Type Measurements (on the web)
The art of designing with type began in the West around 1455 when
Johannes Gutenberg perfected the craft of printing from individual
pieces of type. From this early technology we draw a great deal of our
current terminology. This section introduces the origins of the
alphabet, and defines the terms and measurements that will form the
basis of your typographic vocabulary. Once you are familiar with this
information, you will be able to communicate your ideas clearly and
work efficiently with type.
Origins of the Alphabet
Click here to read about the origins of the alphabet on the Designing with Type website
Before proceeding with the more practical aspects of typography,
let’s first consider the twenty-six letters we call our alphabet. We tend
to forget that the alphabet is composed of symbols, each
representing sounds made in speech. The symbols we use today are
derived from those used thousands of years ago. However, the
ancient forms did not represent sounds but were pictures of things or
symbols for ideas.
Pictographs
At some point in time, people began to communicate visually. They
made simple drawings of the things that existed in their world—
people, animals, tools, and weapons, for example. These basic images,
called pictographs, were symbols representing objects, such as an ox or a
house (1).
1 | Pictographs
Ideographs
As the need to communicate more abstract thoughts developed, the
symbols began to take on multiple meanings: ox, for example, could
also mean food. The new symbols would represent not objects, but ideas
and are called ideographs (2).
2 | Ideographs
Abstract thoughts could also be communicated by combining
different pictographs: for example, to communicate the idea of rest,
pictographs of a man and a tree might be combined. A contemporary
example of the ideograph is the warning symbol of the skull and
crossbones, which is not seen for what it is, but for what it represents:
danger, death, pirates, or poison.
This evolution from pictographs to ideographs represented a major
step in the development of a written language. Early cultures used this
system of picture-writing, combining symbols for the concrete
(pictographs) and for the abstract (ideographs), to communicate and
keep records. Today the Chinese still use an evolved version of this
system.
There are some disadvantages to the picto-ideographic system: not
