Guidelines for Typography in

New Brunswick Computing

Services
Author: Charles Hendrick
Rutgers State University of New Jersey. January 17, 2008.

A. Schweighardt
Information Design
J. Bass
Presentation
 FUNDEMENTAL

TYPE TERMINOLOGY
 SERIF TYPEFACES
EXAMPLES:
FROM THE AUTHOR
BASKERVILLE
“The most readable fonts are
BODONI straight-forward serifed fonts.”
GEORGIA
GARAMOND
 SANS-SERIF TYPEFACES
EXAMPLES:
FROM THE AUTHOR
FUTURA
“Fonts that are good for printing
GILL SANS may not necessarily be good
HELVETICA online.”

CENTURY GOTHIC “Most displays have so little

resolution that serifs don’t come
out well. Thus many people
believe sans-serif fonts work
better online. I disagree. For low
resolution screen display, I prefer
serifed fonts with fairly ‘blunt’
forms, such as Georgia.”
TYPE ANATOMY

Courtesy of:
Ellen Lupton’s book
Thinking with Type
(A critical guide for
designers, writers, editors
And students)
 Units for Type
Most common unit: The Point.

Pica = 12 points
S PA C E I N G I S C R U C I A L
 FUNDEMENTAL

SPACEING TERMINOLOGY
 White Space
“White space is an important element of the
overall design of the page. It there is too
little white space, the page looks cramped.”

Example of the use of whitespace by the design group

Experimental Jetset
 Leading

FROM THE AUTHOR

Leading = Line spacing
“If line spacing is too small, your
Line spacing = Leading
eye may end up on the wrong
line when you go from the end
one line to the beginning of the
next. ”
Kerning

Kerning is the amount of

spacing between letters/
characters.
 Justification
No Justification
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 it, and to institute new
Government, laying its foundation on such principles and
organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem
most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence,
indeed, will dictate that Governments long established
should not be changed for light and transient causes; and
accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are
more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to
right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are
accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and
usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces
a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is
their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government,
and to provide new Guards for their future security. —
Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies;
and such is now the necessity which constrains them to
alter their former Systems of Government.
With Justification
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 it, and to institute new
Government, laying its foundation on such principles and
organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem
most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence,
indeed, will dictate that Governments long established
should not be changed for light and transient causes; and
accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are
more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to
right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are
accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and
usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces
a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is
their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government,
and to provide new Guards for their future security. —
Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies;
and such is now the necessity which constrains them to
alter their former Systems of Government.
 THE AUTHOR’S SINS OF DESIGN

- Avoid underling, except for URLs

- No more than 3 hyphenations per paragraph
- Heading should never have a period at the end
- If a heading is all caps, it isn’t necessary for it to be bolded
 THE AUTHOR’S KEY POINTS ON TYPOGRAPHY

“The purpose of typography is to get your point across.”

“It is important to allow enough space between lines. Some
readability research shoes that people are more likely to
read documents that have generous (but not excessive)
spacing.”