Ch. 2 Reading Response

In reading Chapter 2 in the textbook, I discovered many interesting things about typography which I was previously unaware of. I’ve been taking design classes since high school (although back then, I was studying Computer aided design in the branch of engineering). It was fascinating to see how much effort and exact measurement is put into the development of a typeface. I immediately related to it, because it is so similar to the engineering design that I spent 3 years in high school doing.

I’ve never been much of a fan of the arbitrary measurement system in the US eg: Inches, feet, etc, and although typographic measurement is just as easy to follow,( “point” and the “pica” as units of measurement; Seventy-two points in an inch, twelve points per pica etc), I’m still unsure as to whether or not I’ll appreciate it. It still seems pretty arbitrary, unlike metric units.

The optical relationships within a font was equally enthralling. Not entirely unlike how a good work of art utilizes white, or negative space, there is spacing and gaps within typefaces that either hinder or help them to express themselves to the fullest extent. Because of the meticulous nature of fonts, but also of my previous design experience, it makes sense how specific aspects of fonts are distorted, just the slightest bit, so that they do not appear lopsided or incorrect to the casual observer. A strong example of this point is how top halves of capital characters are ever so much narrower than the bottom half, giving the character almost a pyramid effect, so that it looks more bottom heavy, and therefore is more pleasing to the eye.

This chapter was a good read. I learned things that I was surprised to know, and I also made an important connection with Typography that will help me to enjoy this particular style of art even more than I currently do.