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December 05, 2005
On Letters
I just spent the evening reading about letters. Really interesting stuff. There's much more to the design of typefaces and fonts than I had realized.
When we talk about ubiquity in HCI classes, we think of it in terms of computers being in many places, but if you really think about it, letters are objects that are truly ubiquitous. Take a look around you right now. Notice the letters that surround you. There are thousands of letters looking directly at me right now. On mugs, boxes, cd cases, book bindings, computer screens, envelopes, tags...I could go on and on. How about you? Now think about the fact that the typeface for each of those sets of letters was laboriously designed by an individual, a designer whose job it is to instill meaning into a form that goes hugely unnoticed. Though I'd argue that we don't actually ignore the meaning in typefaces. We take meaning from the typeface, it's just something that is implied by the design and isn't meant to call attention to itself.
Behind each typeface, groups of which come together to form fonts, there is probably a long history...filled with stories about guys named Baskerville, Didot, Helvetica, Palatino. And even stories about their lovers, such as Mrs. Eaves (she and ol' Baskerville had a thing going on).
Anyway, I just thought it was interesting that there's much more to a font than its point size and serif or sans-serif nature. Gripping reading...I look forward to the next chapter, Text.
Hey, did you know that Italics are named as they are because they came originally from Italy? Now you do.
Posted at December 5, 2005 10:31 PM