graham greene: November 2009

For some reason, I am having problems downloading the Mac is not a Typewriter pdf, but I'll do my best to try and answer the questions anyway. Here goes:
The reason multi column grids are used in design is so that the designer has an easy way of maintaining order in his or her work. By aligning everything to a grid, spacial differences will make more sense to the viewer and distances that would otherwise feel random become more relevant to the composition.
The next question, I am rather unaware of the answer. However, if I had to guess, I would say that the ideal number of characters to have in a line would be somewhere around 45-75 forming about 6-8 words.
The baseline grid can be used to establish optimal line spacing in relation to leading and help avoid text to appear as if it is floating.
Rivers are series of spaces that line up vertically and distract the eye from traveling left to right by suggesting a vertical directon down the text body.
One can incorperate white space into desigs by leaving marginal space, or space between text objects which should be givin a visual seperation.
type color/texture- differences between text fields of the same font. (can be done with tracking)
the x-height is the hieght of the character x in a typeface.
minimum, optimum, and maximum refer to word spacing, optimum being best possible.
There are many ways by which to indicate a paragraph, some include indenting, a larger line spacing, or indication of the first phrase, sentence, or line by changing font, color, or size. To my knowledge, there are no rules to what can be done to indicate a break. However, one should never indent the first paragraph.
Hyphens are specifically used for line breaks or contracted words. en dashes are used for periods of time or to indicate a range of numbers. Em dashes are used for a change in thought or a passing of time usually in conversation.
ligatures prevent certain cahracters such as f and i to interfere with eachothers space. fi (notice how the kerning is just enough for the terminal and the dot to satay distinguishable).
cmyk are the standard print colors which all other colors on printed medium are derived from. RGB are the comors that can be transfered through the web.
Hanging punctuation is exactly what it sounds like. It may be most commonly used when hanging a quotation so that the text body within the quote remains flush.
A footmark is a straight mark that hangs above the x-height used to indicate units of measurement. An apostrophe has a slight curve to it and is used in words to indicate posession or contractions. Inch marks and quote marks share the same difference, only there aretwo of them.
Hyphen em and en dashes were previously described.