Type Anatomy: Types of Strokes

Optical Volumes

The goal is to create and maintain even optical volumes between letters.

Type Arrangement

To better understand how to arrange type on a page you should first understand how people read. Most people read comfortably at an arm’s lengh in distance away from a page. The sizes of type that are most comfortable are 9 to 12 points. This number will vary depending on the typeface itself. The length of a line is most comfortable to read at 35 to 70 characters in length, which is about an average of 18 picas in length.

People are very conservative in their reading habits. We expect our reading to be top to bottom and from left to right. People do not like to be challenged when they are reading. Because of this most type should be set up to be read black type on white paper, roman typefaces, and with upper and lowercase characters. Below are some ways in which we read type effectively.

We first need to be accustomed as to what the difference is between Legibility and Readability.

Legibility
Legibility is the distinguishing between the individual characters.

Readability
Readability is how type is arranged on a page.