Responsive Typography

Chapter 1. On the Merits of Letters

Let’s talk just a bit about typography, its history, and its impact on design. From the first written words, letters have been the vehicle through which meaning and knowledge have been conveyed. That job is performed in more than one way: the words the letters form impart meaning, but the shape of the letters themselves can make an important contribution.

First, a Few Terms Explained

While this book isn’t meant as a complete stand-in for a true typography textbook, I’d be remiss if I didn’t explain some of the key terms and concepts before we dive in:

Typography

Quite simply, the theory and practice of selecting and setting type for printed or digital matter. In practice, it refers to typeface selection and setting the type for a given piece of content. Typography also ensures that the correct letterforms are used and proper punctuation marks are shown, generally finessing the final output to produce the highest-quality end result.

Typeface

A specific design of letterforms, numerals, and punctuation that generally includes a complete set of letters, numbers, punctuation, and special characters of a specific weight or variant (such as Regular, Bold, Italic, etc.).

Typeface family

A set of typefaces of a common design that includes a variety of weights and variants, often ranging from Light to Heavy in both standard and italic variants.

Font

Technically, the font is the actual computer file that contains the information to define a single weight ...