Type Rules!: The Designer's Guide to Professional Typography, Third Edition

Chapter 11. NONPRINT TYPOGRAPHY

In today's digital age, typography no longer solely refers to black ink on white paper, or variations thereof. Type can be seen in many other mediums and forms, including on the Internet as static or moving type, as well as other motion graphics applications, such as movie titles, sequences and credits, television intros and commercials, video games, and even mobile devices.

While each of the above-mentioned applications and mediums has varying characteristics, features as well as technological capabilities and limitations, the fundamentals of good typography still apply to all, just in differing ways, depending on the medium.

TYPE ON THE WEB

Type on the Web–what exactly does this mean? Most traditional definitions of typography refer to the style, arrangement, and appearance of type on the printed page. But more modern definitions have been expanded to include other uses of typography, one of the most widespread being type in electronic media, the primary one being the Web. We all know that type on the Web is vastly different from printed matter, but how and why it differs and how this affects the ways in which a Web site is designed as well as viewed is somewhat mysterious and often misunderstood. It is actually not as complex as it might seem once one understands the basic principles.

Characteristics of Web Typography

Although the basic principles of good typography in print also apply to the Web, these principles often have to be reinterpreted due ...