Marketing Communications Resource Center

Typography dos and don'ts
(Printed with permission from Thom Myers, Western Michigan University)

With the advent of computer word processing, we have all become typographers. Unfortunately, most of us were trained in typing class. We learned the rules for typewriting and not the rules for typesetting. The following are some important distinctions between the two and general rules for good typography.

Good typography is readable. In this context, readability does not refer to the quality of the writing, but to the relative ease with which the reader can translate an abstract set of shapes-letters, words, and paragraphs-into meaningful symbols.

Sentence spacing
In typing class, most of us learned to put two spaces between sentences. Fortunately most people no longer use typewriters. On a computer you only use one space between sentences, and one space after colons and other punctuation. The adjustment is automatically made.

Alignment
Flush left, also called "ragged right," is the most readable alignment. It provides uniform or normal letter and word spacing, minimizes awkward hyphenation of words, and provides the eye with a common starting point for each line. Any significant amount of text set centered or ragged left is very difficult to read because the eye must search for the start of each new line.

Justified alignment (flush left and right) compresses or expands letter and word spacing to fit a given line and can produce awkward hyphenation of words. The disadvantages of justified text can be reduced by increasing the line length or by decreasing the point size of the type.

Line length
Line length is very important to readability, especially for justified alignment. As a general guide, line length should be between 1.5 and 2 times the lowercase alphabet in the type and point size being used. If the line is too long, it is difficult for the eye to accurately and quickly locate the start of the next line. If the line is too short (with justified alignment), excessive hyphenation and exaggerated letter and word spacing renders text visually unattractive and virtually unreadable.

Line spacing
The original method of type composition was hand-set cold metal type. Line spacing is called "leading" because in hand-set metal type line spacing was increased by inserting thin strips of metal between the lines of type. In general, increasing the leading (line spacing) increases the readability.

ALL CAPS
Perhaps the most frequently violated rule of readability involves the use of ALL CAPS (capital letters). Designers are often drawn to all caps because it forms neat, uniform, visual elements, or "blocks." Unfortunately, for precisely that reason, type set in all caps is more difficult to read.

Your brain does not recognize words solely on the basis of specific letter combinations, but on the overall shape of the words. In fact, your brain recognizes whole phrases based on letter shape rather than identifying individual letters and words. Which of the following is easier to read: GOOD OLD DOG or good old dog.

For readability, avoid all caps even in heads and subheads. The most readable headlines and subheads are set only with the first letter of the first word (and proper nouns) capitalized, just as in sentences.

Type face selection
San serif type faces are neither more nor less readable than serif type faces. Readability is enhanced by selecting common type faces, such as Helvetica, Times, Garamond, Palatino, and Univers, to name just a few. Common type faces have become common type faces because of their versatility and readability. And, because they are common, their letter shapes are immediately recognizable to most readers.