A relatively straight forward concept maybe, but there were some pieces of information I learnt in today’s session which I had not thought of before when it comes to type. In publishing, even the smallest mistake such as misusing a semi colon is criminal; it is an error which simply should not occur so it was beneficial for me to distinguish all the forms of grammatical errors that can be made in order for me not to make the embarrassing errors myself in the future.
One area which was covered in the session was the impact of font and how even this can say something about the title of a book. Experimenting with font was therefore a useful exercise as I could see some fonts really did suit certain themes more than others. Becky Chilcott discussed the difference between font, typeface and typography since there is a misconception for everything type to be seen as ‘font’.
* Font – A font is the combination of typeface and other qualities, such as size, pitch, and spacing.
* Typeface – The typeface represents one aspect of a font. The two general forms are serif and sans serif.
* Typography – Typography is, quite simply, the art and technique of arranging type. (Creative Bloq).
Every designer needs to understand typography. All three definitions intertwine and are reliant upon one another when it comes to book design. A good, stand out font for the book in question is essential, to the degree that books are recognised by that font. An example of this is the Twilight books; its font automatically associates itself to the book and in the last few years, that font has been discouraged for all books.
I now realise how font is essential in book design and can be the difference between making a sale and staying on the bookshelf, forgotten. I will take careful steps into deciding the font type for my own book design for the assignment in this module.
Seán Cassidy - MA Publishing 