Typography Principles – MDIA 1900 – April 13 to June 08, 2013 – Instructor: Roland Clifford

Course description

This course covers typographic development and usage. Students will study typographic development and the rules of composition along with typesetting terminology and a printer’s measurement system called picas and points. Students will also study serif and sans serif fonts, type sizes, kerning and tracking, leading, indents and paragraph spacing options. Students will also learn how to set type in various modes. Students will become aware of different font formats including OpenType, Postscript, and TrueType fonts while gaining the advantage of understanding enhanced features of page layout software. Throughout the course students will complete a series of well defined projects and hand in a set of printed proofs throughout the course.

Course learning outcomes / competencies

Upon successful completion of this course, the student will be able to:

  • Comprehend type terminology: x-height, small caps; ligatures; accents; etc..
  • Use various measurements: Pica; Agate; Imperial; Metric.
  • Control font size, leading, tracking, kerning, word spacing.
  • Apply typesetting: measure; paragraph spacing; indentation; subheads, etc.
  • Track and custom kern headline type.

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