Skip to Main Content
Typographic Design: Form and Communication, 6th Edition
book

Typographic Design: Form and Communication, 6th Edition

by Rob Carter, Philip B. Meggs, Ben Day, Sandra Maxa, Mark Sanders
September 2014
Intermediate to advanced content levelIntermediate to advanced
352 pages
13h 27m
English
Wiley
Content preview from Typographic Design: Form and Communication, 6th Edition

4

The Typographic Grid

A grid is a skeletal framework used by designers to organize information within a spatial field. It is a system characterized by the dualities of freedom and constraint, simplicity and complexity. It provides a strategy for composing text and other visual information in two- and three-dimensional space, including those of printed materials, film, computer screens, built environments, and typographic installations. Grid systems aid designers in making information clear and optimally accessible—highly desirable traits in a world increasingly inundated by visual noise. When used effectively, typographic grids provide form and space with proportional harmony and aesthetic beauty. The final result is clearer and more accessible communication.

BACKGROUND

The grid as we know it today is rooted in the earliest written forms, from columnar cuneiform tablets impressed by the Mesopotamians as early as 3000 BCE, to hieroglyphic writing on papyrus (see Figs. 1-5 and 1-8).

The mechanization of printing in Europe during the fifteenth century led to structural conventions and typographic principles that have survived for centuries. The architecture of movable type and the mechanics of letterpress printing yielded rectilinear structures—text set into blocks framed by margins. Gutenberg's forty-two-line Bible was Europe's first typographic book; other similarly structured books were created during the Renaissance in Germany, France, and Italy (see Figs. 1-38, 1-49, and ...

Become an O’Reilly member and get unlimited access to this title plus top books and audiobooks from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers, thousands of courses curated by job role, 150+ live events each month,
and much more.
Start your free trial

You might also like

Design Elements, 2nd Edition

Design Elements, 2nd Edition

Timothy Samara
Graphic Design Process

Graphic Design Process

Nancy Skolos, Thomas Wedell

Publisher Resources

ISBN: 9781118715765Purchase bookOtherOther