Karen Cheng

An indispensable new guide for developing and designing typefaces One of the most essential tools of graphic design, typography influences the appearance of visual print materials perhaps more than any other component. This essential book explains the processes behind creating and designing type. Author Karen Cheng discusses issues of structure, optical compensation, and legibility, with special emphasis given to the often overlooked relationships between letters and shapes in font design. The book is illustrated with numerous diagrams that demonstrate visual principles and letter construction, ranging from informal progress sketches to final type designs and diagrams. A wide range of classic and modern typefaces is analyzed, including those from many premier contemporary type foundries. Introductory essays and diagrams emphasize the history of type, the primary systems of typeface classification, the two main proportional systems for type, the parts of a letter, the effects of new technology on design methodology, the optical illusions that affect density and balance in letterforms, and the differences in form between basic serif typestyles. The book provides detailed guidelines for creating serif and sans serif letters, numbers, punctuation, and accents. As design clients increasingly call for original and custom typefaces, Designing Type is a superb reference for both students and professional graphic designers.

Designing Type

This comprehensive guide to type design is hailed as a 'must-have' for typographers, graphic designers and students and has been fully refreshed and updated with the introduction of more contemporary typefaces, more explanatory diagrams and a closer connection between text and corresponding image. The new edition of Designing Typealso features more in-depth discussion of the processes behind developing typefaces and the basic issues that need to be taken into consideration such as visual principles and letter construction, optical compensation and legibility, and the relationships between letters and shapes in a font. This is a valuable reference for both experienced professionals and novice designers.

The now-classic introduction to designing typography, handsomely redesigned and updated for the digital age In this invaluable book, Karen Cheng explains the processes behind creating and designing type, one of the most important tools of graphic design. She addresses issues of structure, optical compensation, and legibility, with special emphasis given to the often-overlooked relationships between letters and shapes in font design. In this second edition, students and professional graphic designers alike will benefit from an expanded discussion of the creative practice of designing type—what designers need to consider, their rationale, and issues of accessibility—in the context of contemporary processes for the digital age. Illustrated with more than 400 diagrams that demonstrate visual principles and letter construction, ranging from informal progress sketches to final type designs and diagrams, this essential guide analyzes a wide range of classic and modern typefaces, including those from many premier type foundries. Cheng’s text covers the history of type, the primary systems of typeface classification, the parts of a letter, and the effects of new technology on design methodology, among many other key topics.

Karen Cheng

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