Non-Designer’s Type Book, The, Second Edition

What Makes “color”?

The color of a typeface is determined by a combination of details: the space between the letters and between the lines, the space built into each character, the x-height, the thickness of the strokes, the serifs or lack of serifs, etc. A light, airy typeface with lots of letter spacing and linespacing creates a very light color (and texture). A bold sans serif, tightly packed, creates a dark color (with a different texture). You can clearly see the contrast of colors in the samples below.