
Five Principles for Choosing and Using Typefaces - kingsidharth
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2010/12/14/what-font-should-i-use-five-principles-for-choosing-and-using-typefaces/
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powrtoch
Great article. Lots of good, concrete points, which is unusual for the subject
matter.

This seems like an article for new designers, so I'll go ahead and chime in
that I think the single most crucial thing you can do when choosing a typeface
or making any other design decision is to be able to look beyond _what you
intended_ and see into _what is actually conveyed_. Once you've learned this
skill, you'll no longer make dumb mistakes like trying to grab the audience's
attention with the 30pt bright red candy cane font. Because doing that usually
doesn't communicate "This is worthy of your attention". It communicates "The
designer is desperate for your attention", and that's a surefire way to be
ignored. So the chief rule is to put yourself into the audience's shoes, and
make sure your design decisions don't topple under an (automatic, subconcious)
examination of your motives.

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blahedo
What's particularly nice (and the reason I'm bookmarking it) is that even
though a lot of it is type advice I've heard before in some form, it expresses
it well and puts it all in one place.

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kadavy
Darn, I had a similar blog post sitting in draft form; but this is very well
done - much better advice than I'm used to seeing on Smashing. I approve of
this article.

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smashing_mag
Thank you, kadavy, we are listening. Over the last six months or so we've been
trying very hard to improve the overall quality of the articles published on
Smashing Magazine. One of the improvements we introduced is the so-called
'Smashing Magazine Experts Panel' where our articles are reviewed by experts
(who are invited and paid for their reviews) before these articles get
published online. There are also other things we do to ensure the good quality
of the articles. We want to be a professional, reliable online publication for
designers and web-developers.

Your feedback indicates that we are on the right way — thanks, we truly
appreciate your time.

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kingsidharth
Indeed this is such an improvement on what I am used to reading at SM. I just
mailed you about it. Seems like the expert panel is working.

I had similar article outlined - waiting to be written too. But this was
really good!

Edit: This was Vitaly, so changed language addressing him.

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ivanzhao
One thing I learned over the years is that "rhythm, size and spacing" is as
effective as using different typefaces.

So one type, plus its italic form, is enough for most of your need. Two types
and you can rule the world.

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kingsidharth
True words!

In-fact, you have 'letter-spacing' and 'text-transform' with CSS. That in
itself is enough to create so many variations of same type.

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powrtoch
CSS letter-spacing is under-utilized on the web. Obviously I'm not suggesting
it be used for body text, but elsewhere it's a very easy way to make your
design stand out online and give the feeling that a print-design level of
attention to detail was put in.

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retlehs
Also check out this free ebook from FontShop, Meet Your Type: A Field Guide to
Love & Typography

<http://www.fontshop.com/education/pdf/fsfinalbook_spread.pdf>

Got it from <http://www.fontshop.com/education/>

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cisforcody
Ellen Lupton's 'Thinking with Type' is also an excellent resource for those
who wish to have a basic understanding of typography and its principles.
<http://www.thinkingwithtype.com/>

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cemregr
Good article, but they plagiarized Vignelli's quote (in the movie Helvetica)
about 'I love you in' Helvetica Ultra Light and 'I hate you' in Ultra Bold
without attributing him.

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kingsidharth
Also you can say both in same variation of Helvetica, it will feel the same
because Helvetica is neutral.

And that's what Vignelli meant in the film.

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wccrawford
This is one of the best articles I've ever read on typefaces.

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ThomPete
Finally Smashing Mag is beginning to write great articles.

