Copyright © 2010 by Laura Franz H O W TO C H O O S E A F O N T Does the Font Convey the Right Message? Aesthetics and Emotions 17 www.typographicwebdesign.com This excerpt (pp 17-24) of Typographic Web Design may be shared freely, as long as the copyright notice remains intact. Words have dictionary definitions (denotation) and emotional associations (connotation). Fonts can help communicate both. Fonts are like clothing. We take them in and process their underlying meaning constantly — often not noticing them unless they are either really amazing or really “wrong.” Sometimes the C HAPTER TWO “wrongness” is related to legibility (text is too hard to read). Does the Font Convey the Right Message? Aesthetics and Emotions Other times it’s related to noticing a font is aesthetically or We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal... emotionally mismatched to the meaning of the word or text. How Do I Choose a Font with Appropriate Aesthetic or Emotional Associations? We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal... Much like clothing, the aesthetic and emotional associations we have with fonts are a social construct. We expect wedding Comic Sans looks like what it is: an Comic Sans invitations to use script fonts, much like we know how to dress informal font designed to imitate comic (top) Aesthetic and emotional associa- for such an occasion. We also know, on an intuitive level, we book lettering. It’s not appropriate for Caslon 540 tions are a social construct. shouldn’t see the Declaration of Independence or the US The Declaration of Independence. It (bottom) No font can completely and clearly Constitution in Comic Sans (unless it’s a political statement), just feels wrong. communicate the emotional associations much like we probably won’t ever see the Supreme Court of a text. Choose a font that feels like it Justices wearing vintage Hawaiian shirts on the bench. could work. Serif fonts feel more traditional, sans serif feel more modern. Caslon 540 on the other hand, is an interpretation of the font (by William The trick is to remember no font can completely and clearly Caslon) used to print official copies of communicate the emotional associations of a text. There is no The Declaration of Independence on perfect font to communicate the complexity of marriage or civil the evening of July 4, 1776. Caps feel more powerful, reliable and rights. Don’t go looking for a font with hearts or gavels in it. enduring. Lowercase letters are less You’ll only undermine the text by drawing the reader’s attention formal and feel more friendly. to odd elements in the letters. Serif italics feel more humanist, more Instead, choose a font that feels like it could work—a font that and other literal connections are not like cursive. doesn’t jar us because it is inappropriate or unexpected. necessary for us to form associations Remember, the words themselves communicate the message, between the font and the text. Fonts play a supportive role to the author’s words. Fonts should never say, “look at me! I am ripe with meaning!” the font plays a supportive role. It does not have to (and should not try to) say, “look at me! I am ripe with meaning!” Caslon 540 feels more appropriate, even though most people can’t identify it and don’t know its history. Historic In the end, Caslon 540 is not an appropriate font either, regardless of its historical connection to the text. Legibility aside (smallish x-height, closed counter in e is too small), Caslon 540 is not a web-safe font. Copyright © 2010 by Laura Franz H O W TO C H O O S E A F O N T Does the Font Convey the Right Message? Aesthetics and Emotions 18 www.typographicwebdesign.com Why Serif Fonts Feel More Traditional, and Sans Serif Fonts Feel More Modern. We’ve built emotional associations with serif and sans serif fonts, influenced by how letters and fonts have been used for hundreds of years. Serif lettering has been part of the cultural landscape since at We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish least the first century CE via inscriptions, handwritten documents, and fonts (the first successful roman typeface was cut in 1470 by Nicholas Jenson). Sans serif lettering was also used in early inscriptions (as early as fifth century BCE) but did not have a presence in hand-written documents. Experimental sans serif fonts were used in the 1700’s, but the first commercial Latin printing type to include lowercase sans-serif letters wasn’t in use The letters on Trajan’s The Inscription until 1832. Column in Rome were on Trajan’s originally brushed onto the Column, built Thus, sans serif letters took a cultural backseat to serif letters stone before being chiseled in 113 BCE. until the end of WWI. In the 1920’s — after seven years of living out and repainted. Informal in a country devastated by war — German designers wanted it, and to institute new Government, laying its handwritten documents at to look forward, not back. They wanted to help society move the time were done in foundation on such principles and organizing its toward a prosperous future. Influenced by industrialization, cursive, but formal docu- powers in such form, as to them shall seem most Modernism lauded clarity over decoration, and function over ments and manuscripts were beauty. All decoration was seen as superfluous, including the written in Latin Book Hand serifs on letterforms. Traditionalists were accused of living in the (based on the Roman past, described as “aping” what had come before. Square Capitals used in likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. For both artistic and economic reasons, Traditionalists and Modernists each defended their typographic theories, while Georgia 13/20. verbally attacking the other camp. In the end, both continued to Roll over the find work in the field: traditionalism predominated book design, text to see it in while modernism predominated advertising and corporate Verdana 12/20. design. We (the bystanders) see traditionalism and modernism as peacefully coexisting. We have been exposed to both traditional and modernist typography and have built our own associations with serif and sans serif fonts along the party lines. inscriptions). Serif letters such as these live in our collective subconscious. We think of them as “old” and “important.” H O W TO C H O O S E A F O N T Does the Font Convey the Right Message? Aesthetics and Emotions Copyright © 2010 by Laura Franz 19 www.typographicwebdesign.com Capital and Lowercase, Roman and Italic, Quirky Fonts All caps. Roll over Justice to see it in lowercase letters. JUSTICE JUSTICE Words set in all caps feel important, powerful, reliable and enduring. The letters are bigger, more demanding. Letters tend to be more square, with less variation in shapes and fewer round (softer) forms. Justice Justice words and ideas were worthy of carving into stone, we begin to associate a Justice Justice word set in all capital letters with power Serif italics feel more humanist, more like cursive. Letters often have curved endings and thick and thin strokes reminiscent of old pen and ink writing. Terminals reference where ink may and importance. Words set in all lowercase letters are roman letterforms. reference letters written by hand. alphabets did not have lower case caps. Since only the most important Justice to see it in Words set in italic feel humanist — they In addition, early Roman and Greek letters, so inscriptions were done in all Italic. Roll over have pooled on the paper. Above left: Quirky fonts give additional meaning to a word, Georgia. Roll and remind us we cannot classify type by serif Sans serif italics (often called oblique, less formal and tend to feel more over Justice to and sans serif alone. Impact (a sans serif font) because they are slanted rather than friendly. More variations in form, more see it in Courier. feels very different from Verdana. Its bold italic in form), lack the organic, strokes and condensed forms make it feel both humanist quality of the serif italic. rounded shapes, and no initial capital letter give lowercase words a common, Above right: conversational feeling. Verdana. Roll Connotation isn’t just about fonts. powerful and constricting. over Justice to Courier (a serif font) does not feel traditional at see it in Impact. all. It announces to the reader, “Hello, I was When using less text (a word, a quote, written on a typewriter.” The presence of the a heading), it helps to consider how we imaginary typewriter becomes dominant, and read meaning into capital and lower- the reader wonders: is this some sort of potboil- case letters, roman and italic type. er justice, doled out by Raymond Chandler’s Philip Marlowe? Copyright © 2010 by Laura Franz H O W TO C H O O S E A F O N T Does the Font Convey the Right Message? Aesthetics and Emotions www.typographicwebdesign.com L E SS O N T W O Word Connotations 1] Choose a word you have an emotional association with. 2] Create an HTML document defining 4 versions of the word, and a CSS document describing each of the 4 versions of the word. Using typetester.org, test your word in various fonts and sizes. Try to communicate different (even opposite!) connotations for style to communicate emotional the word. Experiment with case (capital and lowercase), style (roman and italic), and size. Take screenshots of your word as you experiment, jotting down fonts and sizes to document your associations with words. 2] Build your vocabulary for describing fonts and defending font choices. process. Choose 4 versions of the word to set in HTML and CSS. All 4 3] Build your confidence to communicate emotional associations in a versions must use web-safe fonts. If you want to work with other subtle way (no hearts, daggers, fonts, do more than 4 versions of the word. blood!), using available resources (web-safe fonts). Have at least 2 people look at your finished assignment. Ask them to describe how they “read” each word (that is, the 4] Take the time to find out how emotional associations they have with each version of the word). Working with the word yes, I Remember, the words themselves communicate the message, centered four versions of the the font plays a supportive role. The fonts you choose do not word in a white space framed have to (and should not try to) say, “look at me! I am ripe with by a gray background. Visit the meaning!” Typographic Web Design site to see other explorations. Write About What You See. A great way to build your analytical skills when it comes to how If you are an HTML/CSS begin- fonts communicate is to carefully notice what you see, and to ner (or feeling a bit rusty), go write down your observations. Writing will force you to slow on to the next section, where I down, notice the details, and practice your vocabulary. show you step-by-step how to build the page above. For each of the four versions of the word, ask yourself, “How do size, case, style, and font affect the meaning of this word?” Also ask yourself, “Have I chosen a font that overshadows the word itself?” A third question is, “Did other people have the same emotional associations with the word as I did?” Objectives 1] Practice using font, size, case, and readers “read” the solutions. 5] Write your first HTML and CSS documents with a focus on type. If you are already HTML/CSS savvy, feel free to jump right in. If you are an HTML/CSS beginner (or feeling a bit rusty), go on to the next page. 20 Copyright © 2010 by Laura Franz H O W TO C H O O S E A F O N T Does the Font Convey the Right Message? Aesthetics and Emotions 21 www.typographicwebdesign.com F O R H T M L A N D C SS BE G I N N E R S Writing your first HTML and CSS files; naming conventions; organizing files and folders; introducing common IDs and elements: <div><h1><h2><h3><h4> Getting Started Before starting the lesson, you’ll need a text editor to write Your homepage should always be called index.html. A your files. For the lessons in this book, I used TextWrangler. browser will look for and open up the index.html file in any The software is free, works across platforms, gives more folder you send it to. text editing control than bbedit or notepad, and is not And finally, name your files and folders something mean- Lesson Resources weighed down by a lot of bells and whistles. If you are ingful. You won’t remember what the heck new_page2.html Compare your syntax to HTML working with another program, such as DreamWeaver, you is tomorrow morning. and CSS files available on the. can still do all of the lessons and follow along with my If your syntax doesn’t work, notes. Simply work in “code” view. Organizing Files HTML files reference other files. They link to images, other check out the HTML/CSS FAQ Naming Conventions HTML documents, PDFs, CSS files, etc. These links only work troubleshooting section of A few things you need to know: if the HTML file knows where to find the other files. File names need to be consistent, and HTML is case sensi- For now, we’ll be working in a kind of closed system. Our the site. Your word connotation tive. I always use lowercase letters (no caps), so I know HTML files will only reference other files on our desktop. It’s solutions may require CSS exactly what case I used for each file name. still important we keep everything organized so links don’t syntax I don’t cover in this lesson. My favorite site for looking up syntax is htmldog. HTML balks at spaces. If you create a file, folder, or image get broken. name with a space in it, any links to that file, folder, or Start by creating a main folder for all of the lessons you’ll image may break. I always use an underscore “_” instead do from this book. Let’s call it web_typography of a space. Thus, I would name a folder word_connotations instead of Word Connotations. In that folder, create a folder for your first lesson. Let’s call it 2_word_connotations. We’ll include the lesson number, so To keep file names simple and links working, I recommend folders stay in numerical order (easier to more complex). using only letters, numbers, and the underscore character. This might come in handy later if you want to review HTML Periods (dots) should only be used with the suffixes (.html, .css, etc.) or CSS you wrote in earlier lessons. If you were creating a web page with images, you’d also need to make an images folder. But since we aren’t incorporating any images at this time, we’ll skip that step. Copyright © 2010 by Laura Franz H O W TO C H O O S E A F O N T Does the Font Convey the Right Message? Aesthetics and Emotions 22 www.typographicwebdesign.com F O R H T M L A N D C SS BE G I N N E R S Start Writing the HTML File Tags In your text editor, create a new document and save it as HTML uses tags to define elements. Tags come in pairs: index.html in your 2_word_connotations folder. they open and close. If this is your first time writing HTML and Before we put content into the file, we need to type in a For instance, look at the HTML closely and you’ll see an CSS, I recommend you follow along with few things. Type in the text below, making sure not to skip <html> tag and an </html> tag. The first tag opens the my example. Periodically, you’ll save your any characters or spaces. I’ll explain it when you’re done. definition. The second tag (with the /) closes the definition. <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN” The <html></html> pair means: everything between these If your files don’t work, you’ll be able to “http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd”> two tags is html. view my HTML and CSS files online at the <html> Typographic Web Design web site. You’ll be <head> able to double-check your syntax character <meta http-equiv=“Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8” by character, and find errors. You can also /> use the HTML/CSS FAQ troubleshooting <title>Title of the document</title> section of the site. </head> Once you’ve worked out the lesson using <body> my example, go back and re-do it using </body> files and view the web page in a browser. your own word connotations. </html> OK, so what the heck does all that mean? You’ll also see three other tag pairs (e.g. elements). <head></head> <title></title> <body></body> An HTML document has both a head and a body. The head element defines information about the document (what the title is, the link to the CSS file, meta data, scripts, etc.). The body element contains the content. The last pair of tags is the <title> element. The tag pair <title></title> lives in the head element, so the tags always go between the <head></head> tags. The first lines If DTD and validation make <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN” your head swim, don’t worry “http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd”> about it. Just put that line at the start of your HTML files and you’ll be fine. Allows your HTML to be validated against a Document Type Definition (DTD). The DTD you’ve typed in is HTML 4.01 Strict DTD. Your HTML will only be valid if you’ve used accepted elements and attributes, and if you have not used There is also some meta data in the head element (right before the title element). This meta data defines the character encoding. The character encoding tells the Web browser what set of characters (e.g. letters, numbers, etc.) to use when converting the bits to characters. You don’t need to understand how it works... just know that html 4.0 requires this line in the file, and it should live in the head framesets. element. Notice how the meta data closes with “/>”. Since I’m not going to show you any deprecated (e.g., no View your web page longer acceptable) elements or attributes, and we are not going to use framesets, this is the correct DTD to use. Take a moment to save your document. Drag the document (icon) into a browser. Copyright © 2010 by Laura Franz H O W TO C H O O S E A F O N T Does the Font Convey the Right Message? Aesthetics and Emotions 23 www.typographicwebdesign.com F O R H T M L A N D C SS BE G I N N E R S What do you see? Add line breaks A blank screen, with “Title of the document” at the top of Usually, you’d use the paragraph element <p></p> to the browser window. Perfect! define paragraphs and break the lines. But since we aren’t Let’s start putting in some content. First, give the page a title Between the title tags, change “Title of the document” to “Lesson 2: Word Connotations” Next, add the content Between the body tags, add your word four times. It will look something like this <body> yes yes yes FIGURE 1: Headline elements yes (h1-h6) have default values. </body> You need to describe elements differently in CSS if you don’t View your web page want items to be displayed Save your HTML document, and either drag the icon back using default settings. into your browser, or (if your browser is still open) hit the really using whole paragraphs of text here, and I want you to set each of the four words differently, I’m going to have you use a variety of heading elements to define each word. Define your headings Put the following tag pairs into your HTML, using one pair around each word <body> <h1>yes</h1> <h2>yes</h2> <h3>yes</h3> <h4>yes</h4> </body> View your web page Save your HTML document and view the changes. You should see your word in a column along the left edge. The words are bold, and get smaller as they go down [1]. refresh button. You’ll see the changes. Why does each word look a little different? The heading Now your web page has a meaningful title at the top of the display the headings — unless you describe the elements browser window. And it has your word written four times. Unfortunately, the word runs across a single line, like this: yes yes yes yes. Why? Browsers translate the HTML. Your browser will only show what you’ve given it. You haven’t told the browser where to put in line breaks, so it didn’t do it. elements (h1-h6) have default values the browsers use to differently. That is exactly what we are going to do. Start Writing the CSS File The CSS document is where you describe how elements defined in HTML should look. For this assignment, you are going to tell the browsers what the h1, h2, h3, and h4 elements should look like. In TextWrangler, create a new document and save it as word_connotations.css in your 2_word_connotations folder. Copyright © 2010 by Laura Franz H O W TO C H O O S E A F O N T Does the Font Convey the Right Message? Aesthetics and Emotions 24 www.typographicwebdesign.com F O R H T M L A N D C SS BE G I N N E R S YES yes YES yes Four versions of the word “yes.” (Impact, Georgia italic, Georgia, Verdana) How to describe an element Describe the first element: h1 CSS descriptions are made of three parts: For this example, I am using the word, “yes.” I want 1] the selector (the element/ID you want to describe) my top version of yes to be 48/48 Georgia italic, regular 2] the property (the attribute you want to affect) weight, centered on the screen. I’ll write the syntax 3] the value (the value you want to assign to the property) Written together, they look like this selector{property:value} So, if you want to set your h1 in Georgia, you would write it like this h1{font-family:georgia} If you want to set your h1 in 24px Georgia, you would write it like this h1{font-family:georgia;font-size:24px} Notice the two properties (font-family and font-size) are separated by a semi-colon. Also notice there are no spaces anywhere in the syntax. If you ever need to type in a value font-family:georgia; font-style:italic; font-weight:normal; font-size:48px; line-height:48px; text-align:center; } Try typing in the CSS syntax above. Now save the CSS file. And let’s look at the web page in the browser again. Wait! Nothing changed! What went wrong? with two words (e.g. sans serif), put that value in quotation Tell the HTML file to reference the CSS file. marks. (e.g. font-family:”sans serif”). The browser doesn’t know to use the CSS file. You need to If you want to set your h1 in 24/32 Georgia, and remove Spaces are not necessary and the bold (default) setting associated with the h1 element, not recommended. Some web your syntax is going to get longer. To make the CSS easier authoring software (e.g. to read, it’s customary to put one property:value pair on DreamWeaver) add spaces into each line, separated with a semi-colon, like this the syntax automatically. You like this h1{ h1{ tell it to do so. Add the following line in the head element (e.g., between the <head></head> tags) of the HTML file: <link href=”word_connotations.css” rel=”stylesheet” type=”text/css” /> You’ll put this syntax in the head element of any HTML file that references a CSS file. Notice we are telling the HTML can leave them in if they don’t font-family:georgia; file to reference “word_connotations.css” which is the CSS cause problems. font-weight:normal; file you just created. This file name is a variable. Use the font-size:24px; correct name of the CSS file for each project. line-height:32px; } Save the html file. Reload the file in the browser window. It worked! Copyright © 2010 by Laura Franz H O W TO C H O O S E A F O N T Does the Font Convey the Right Message? Aesthetics and Emotions 25 www.typographicwebdesign.com F O R H T M L A N D C SS BE G I N N E R S Describe the second element: h2 h4{ I want my second version of yes to be 60/60 Georgia, font-family:verdana; regular weight, all caps, 5 pixels of letterspacing, and font-weight:normal; centered on the screen. I’ll write the syntax like this font-size:24px; h2{ line-height:24px; font-family:georgia; text-align:center; font-weight:normal; } font-size:60px; line-height:60px; text-transform:uppercase; letter-spacing:5px; text-align:center; } Type in the CSS syntax above. Save the CSS file, and view the web page in the browser again. Describe the third element: h3 I want my third version of yes to be 120/120 Impact, FIGURE 2: Headings (h1-h4) regular weight, all caps, and centered on the screen. I’ll after we’ve described them in write the syntax like this CSS. Notice the white spaces h3{ between each word. These are font-family:impact; caused by default margins in font-weight:normal; the elements. Leave them for font-size:120px; now, we’ll set margins in the line-height:120px; next lesson. text-transform:uppercase; text-align:center; } Author’s Note You might need to use other properties to describe your Type in the CSS syntax above. Save the CSS file, and view words. htmldog and Cultured the web page in the browser again. Code have typographer-friendly resources for finding and setting properties and values. Type in the CSS syntax above. Save the CSS file, and view the web page in the browser again. We’ve described all four elements. Looks good, except the words have unexpected white spaces between them [2] caused by default margins in the h1-h6 elements. We are going to leave these margins alone for now (I’ll cover them in the next lesson), and move on to creating a “div.” Creating a “div” DIV is short for DIVision. Think of a <div></div> as a container (or layout box) you can use to create structure in your web page. It basically looks like this: border of div margin padding content Describe the fourth element: h4 I want my fourth version of yes to be 24/24 Verdana, regular weight, and centered on the screen. I’ll write the syntax like this Your div will take up the entire space, even if the content or bordered area looks smaller. Copyright © 2010 by Laura Franz H O W TO C H O O S E A F O N T Does the Font Convey the Right Message? Aesthetics and Emotions 26 www.typographicwebdesign.com F O R H T M L A N D C SS BE G I N N E R S We’ll become more acquainted with margins, padding and margin-left:auto; borders later, but for right now, let’s add and describe a background-color:#ffffff; simple div. } Add a div in your html The div ID selector looks different from the h1 selectors. We want the four words to live inside the div, so add the div That’s because we’re dealing with an ID. We are describing tags around your content. Type the following syntax inside a specific ID applied to a div, so we create and describe the your body element, and before your h1 element: ID #main_container, not div. To create and describe an ID <div id=“main_container”> in CSS, you must proceed the name with a hashmark (#). Notice we didn’t just type in <div>. Why? There are also some new properties in this syntax. Most web pages contain more than one div to structure the content (just like most magazines have more than one column of text). Unlike headlines where you have 6 (h1-h6) different tags to work with, you only have one div tag to use. This means you need to identify (ID) which div you want to use when you add a div to your html. We still have to close the div. FIGURE 3: We set the left and right margins to auto. This After your h4 element, still inside your body element, type: </div> We’ve set the size of the container to 400px wide, and put a solid, 1px border around it. We’ve also set the margins of the main_container. The margin is the space between the container and elements next to it. The only element next to our main_container is the browser window. We’ve put 20px between the top edge of the main_container and the browser window. We’ve put 0px between the bottom edge of the main_container and the browser window. Most importantly, we’ve told the keeps the main_container Describe the div ID browser to automatically calculate the amount of margin to centered in the browser. If you were to save and view your index.html file in the put between the sides of the main_container and the browser, you wouldn’t see any changes. Why? You haven’t browser window. described the div ID in CSS. I want my main_container div to be a white rectangle (400px wide) with a black border (1px), centered in the browser. I’ll write the syntax like this: #main_container{ width:400px; border-width:1px; border-style:solid; margin-top:20px; margin-right:auto; margin-bottom:0px; This keeps the main_container centered left to right, regardless of the width of the browser window [3]. Finally, we made the main_container background color white. CSS uses hexadecimal color codes to represent RGB colors. #ffffff means white. There are plenty of color charts available online. Two of my favorites are The Hues Hub, and Color Schemer 2. We’ll use color later. We are almost done. Let’s add the gray background. Copyright © 2010 by Laura Franz H O W TO C H O O S E A F O N T Does the Font Convey the Right Message? Aesthetics and Emotions www.typographicwebdesign.com F O R H T M L A N D C SS BE G I N N E R S Add a Background Color to the Page Once you learn syntax for a property, it will work across selectors. For example, we just gave main_container a white background by adding a line to the syntax describing the #main_container: background-color:#ffffff To add a background color to the page, we will use the same property syntax, but apply it to the body element. In the CSS file, type in: body{ background-color:#999999 } Save the CSS file, and view the web page in the browser again. It should look like the thumbnail at left [4]. FIGURE 4: We used the You have now created and described four heading elements, background-color syntax to described the body element, and created and described an change the background color ID for a div. of the body (the whole page) to gray. Congratulations! Now go back and re-do the lesson using your own word connotations. If you need to use syntax for a property I haven’t covered, both htmldog and Cultured Code have typographer-friendly resources for finding and setting properties and values. In the next lesson, we’ll work with more text. 27
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