Questions Answered

- The margin is the space around the printed or written matter on a page.  The column is a vertical row or list.  The module is a separable component, frequently one that is interchangeable with others, for assembly into units of differing size, or function.  The gutter is the white space formed by the inner margins of two facing pages in a bound book, magazine, or newspaper.  The folio is the number of each page.

- Multiple-column  grids contain several spatial intervals, which provide endless compositional options.  They are flexible and accommodate a range  of visual elements. Multiple-column grids are suitable for complex projects, including books, magazines, and publications that contain diverse content.  The quantity of textual and visual content, as well as the page format, will help the designer determine the ideal number of intervals.

- Most of the fonts you'll use on your Mac are proportional; that is, the characters each take up a proportional amount of space-a typical letter i takes up about one-fifth  the space of the letter m.  So you no longer need extra spaces to separate the sentences. 

- A character a mark, symbol, or sign, including letterforms and numbers, in language systems.

-The amount of words per line has nothing to do with characters. Characters should be used when necessary and not by amount of line length or words per line.

-A typographic river is a series of inconsistent word spaces that creates distracting open lines running vertically through the justified paragraph.

-A flow line is a horizontal measure that divides the page into spatial divisions and creates additional alignment points for the placement of the visual elements.

-Allowing some white space into a design allows the composition to "breathe" enough so it doesn't appear overwhelmed or over designed.  You can incorporate white space into your designs by following the modular grid and allowing the white spaces to happen between texts and images.

-Type color in typographic terms, color refers to the density of typographic elements and their perceived gray value. It is the overall feeling of lightness and darkness on the page. Typography is just one element of a design, used in combination with images, diagrams, photography and other graphic elements. Type forms part of a larger visual and informative scheme. The vast array of typefaces available means that type can be used to add a great deal of texture to a design.

-X-Height is the height of the lowercase letters without ascenders and descenders. 

-Tracking is the typographic technique used to adjust (open and tighten) the overall spacing of words, lines, and paragraphs to improve the readable appearance of text.

-Kerning is the typographic technique, also known as letterspacing, used to adjust (open and tighten) the slight distances between letters to avoid character collisions, as well as irregular and unwanted spaces.  The pairs of letters that are usually kerned are H and L, H and O, O and C, O and T, and A and T.

-Justification uses three values for type setting: minimum, maximum and optimum values. 

-The optimum spacing between words is as far as the letters need to be spaced out to reach the end of a justified line and still appear to be a legible word.

-When indicating a new paragraph one can indent using the traditional em spacing to do so.  You could also place five spaces or half an inch to show a new paragraph.  To indicate a new paragraph to a reader, you need to use either extra spacing between the paragraphs or an indent but do not use both.

-If you have room to add the full word then don't hyphenate.  Avoid more than two hyphenations in a row because this looks confusing and unprofessional.  Never hyphenate words in a headline.

-A ligature is a specially designed character produced by combining two or three letters into one unified form.

-CMYK stands for cyan, magenta, yellow and key (black).  These are the four colors of ink used in the traditional method of printing hardcopies of images called offset printing. RGB stands for red, green and blue.  The main purpose of the RGB color model is for the sensing, representation, and display of images in electronic systems, such as televisions and computers.

-The purpose of a hanging punctuation is to hang it off the aligned edge to eliminate any visual interruption of the text.

-An apostrophe is a punctuation mark used to mark omissions and it assists in marking the possessives of all nouns and many pronouns. A foot mark (') is called "prime" marks, and they are slightly slanted. Inch marks are also known as ditto marks on a typewriter (''). 

-A hyphen is one third of an em rule and is used to link words. It serves as a compound modifier where two words become one, such as 'x-height'; breaks syllables of words in text blocks like geo-graphy; and serves to provide clarity such as re-serve rather than reserve. An en dash is half of an em rule and is used to separate page numbers, dates and to replace the word 'to' in constructions implying movement. Em dashes are used to form lines and house nested clauses. A standard, joining em dash can cause spacing issues as it has no side-bearings and fills its bounding box so that it touches the surrounding characters. A row of these em dashes would form a solid line. Punctuating em dashes are slightly shorter, providing space for surrounding characters to breathe. A row of punctuating em dashes form a punctuated line.

-A widow is one or two words that are left over at the end of the paragraph, which should be corrected to avoid drawing attention to the extra space.  An orphan is the same concept as a widow except there is only one word left over at the end of the paragraph. 

Helvetica the Movie

 I was pretty shocked to see how much of the Helvetica typeface is used everywhere.  Its so weird to think about how often a person would see this type in public and not notice but that's the point of this particular type.  Its supposed to fit in where ever its shown but not stand out.  Helvetica has a quality to it that makes it feel professional but also something that people relate to and aren't turned off by it.  The typeface was made in the 50's in Sweeden.  The typographer responsible for making this typeface was trying to find a new type that would be refreshing to the public.  Now over 50 years later its still used just as often as it was when it first came out.  Many companies have stuck with the same logo because the Helvetica font represented the companies so well.  People have thought about trying to change the font but no one could figure out a way to improve upon the font because it is amazing how it is now.  When the typographers first came up with the font they cared about how the negative space looked as well as the letters themselves making any types of changes to the font not as good as the original. 

Giambattista Bodoni Final Paper

Giambattista Bodoni was an avid typographer who greatly contributed to the typography industry. He was born 1740 in Turin, Italy and died 1813 in Parma, Italy. Bodoni moved to Parma, Italy to become the appointed printer to the Parma court. One of Bodoni's greatest achievements was the typeface that he named after himself.

Born in Turin, Italy, Giambattista Bodoni became a printer like his father. To make ends meet as a printer Bodoni worked for the Propaganda Fide as a compositor for the Church printing house in Rome, for eight years. Bodoni wanted to move to England to find more work but fate would have it that he would contract malaria and remain in Turin. By remaining in Italy, Bodoni was more influenced by previous Italian typefaces. While Bodoni remained in Italy he moved to Saluzzo to recuperate at his families house. He began to experiment with cutting his own typefaces.

Before Giambattista Bodoni became a famous typographer another artist paved the way for him. John Baskerville created a Transitional type that had a greater contrast in thickness to thin within the strokes. This new typeface was ridiculed in Baskerville's time and it wasn't until after his death that it became popular. Bodoni applied part of Baskerville's typeface but changed aspects of it to make them his own. He kept the contrast between thick and thin within the strokes. Then Bodoni transformed the flat serifs into virtual hairlines. Between the letters there are plenty of white space and Bodoni also created long descenders.

Although Bodoni's typeface was considered modern it clearly played off of an already existing typeface called 'Romains du Roi.' This type was specifically designed for the French king Louis's printing. This type boasted flat, unbracketed serifs. the use of the type was

forbidden for anyone but the king to use to typographers created various versions of this typeface for the more commercial use.

While staying with his father in Saluzzo, Italy, Bodoni learned how to do wood cuts. He began to restore typefaces that had not been in use for many years. Bodoni restored these oriental typefaces for the Propraganda press. wen Bodoni turned twenty years old he was placed

as the head of a printing house. this printing house was a model of other printing presses in Paris, Madrid and Turin. It was Don Ferdinand, later known as Duke of Parma, who established this printing house in 1760. Ferdinand saw the work of Bodoni and placed him the head of the establishment.While working at the printing house he re-wrote the Homer manuscript with his modern typeface. Bodoni also wrote with his modern typeface in Greek, Latin, Italian and French. These typefaces are considered highly elegant and extremely remarkable for his accuracy. This became Bodoni’s big break and started his great career as a typographer.

In the year 1770 Bodoni opens his own type foundry. After working ten years as the head of the printing house set up by Duke of Parma, Bodoni had enough experience to set up his own type foundry. Not many typographers during this time period could afford to live solely off of this occupation. Bodoni however broke into the industry at an early age and was able to progress to the head of his peers. With the money he earned working as the head of the printing house he could finally started his own foundry.

While working at his printing house he made his real contribution to the type industry. Bodoni published his first typographical book “Fregi e Majuscole.” After publishing this work Bodoni received a lot of recognition for his typographic prestige. Noticing this, Charles the third of Spain named Bodoni his court typographer. All the typefaces Bodoni created for the king were only allowed to be used by the king and his royal court. In 1788 Bodoni produces the book “Manuale Tipographical.” This book contained 100 Roman, 50 Italic and 28 Greek minuscule fonts.

The Duke of Parma after seeing Bodoni progress even further into the typography business he released him from the Duke’s printing house. He allowed Bodoni to open his own printing works, called Tipi Bodoni. The first books that were published in this new printing house were volumes of Greek, Roman and Italian classics. In the year 1806 “L’Oratio Dominica in CVL lingual versa” is produced. The new typeface book contained 215 typefaces.

Bodoni was very talented not only as a typographer but also as a business man. He found financial support in a noncommercial way, nowadays we’d call “smart sponsoring.” Bodoni found support with the Duke of Parma, the Spanish royal family, the Vatican and ultimately the French Empire. Bodoni alone established himself and Parma as the premier center for typographic design and printing of typefaces.

Bodoni’s fame lasted due to the Nationalists and the Fascists. A century after his death the Nationalists and the Fascists hailed him as “one of the greatest Italians, with the vision of a great, unified, strong Italy” along with other great and accomplished figures such as Verdi. Unlike John Baskerville, Giambattista Bodoni’s work was never underrated.

Bodoni finally settled down to marriage when he was fifty years old. Men during this era would normally marry much earlier because the normal life span is shorter then it is now in the twenty first century. Giambattista Bodoni obsession with his work kept him from a more “normal” life then his peers. Bodoni also did not do much work for a more commercial nature which led to tax breaks. Once Bodoni was accused of printing literary works of lesser quality then Didot. Bodoni’s wife countered that Milton printed by Didot contained 85 printing errors on 94 pages, while Bodoni’s Virgil containing 600 pages had only 37 errors. After this confrontation Giambattista Bodoni was seen as Europe’s best typographer and publisher of his time.

Giambattista Bodoni even at an early age was considered an expert in his field. His typefaces had the elegance of an expert with a clear view of the whole. He had a steady hand and an eye for typefaces and layouts. Bodoni was very picky when it came down to the pieces of paper he would print on. If the paper was not smooth enough to his standards he would create his own paper. The same concept applied towards the quality of his inks.

Bodoni once wrote: “The conept of beauty must not, of course, be confused with the concpt of ‘good’ or useful.’ But in the end these are simply three ways of looking at one and the same thing. The better printed a book is, the more often people will read it, the more they’ll enjoy it, the more useful it will be. The purer the effect of the types, the more exemplary the book. This is what the art of bookmaking is all about. And rightly so: the type stands on its own; everything else only exists through the typeface. No other art has more right to look forward to future centuries than typography. May this art, useful and beautiful as it is, praticed with the skill and love it merits, be promoted by good taste and judgement! But it would make me ill if I did more to promote my art through words than through deeds.” This statement made by Bodoni exemplifies what his typeface looked like. He wanted to present his readers a beautiful more modern typeface that would complement the subject the books were written on.

Bodoni created many different typefaces during his life. The most obvious was the one he named after himself, called Bodoni. All of Giambattista Bodoni’s fonts are all classified as modern because he was the artist to invent this new form of type. Modern type contrasted greatly with both Old Style and Transitional types. Giambattista Bodoni did not want his type to be weighed down by too much adornment seen in Old Style. He also wanted his typeface to have better legibility then the scripts of the Old Style. Transitional type have many similarities to Bodoni's modern style because he based his new style off of the Transitional one. When John Baskerville created the Transitional font he wanted to get away from the repetition of Old Style scripts. His Transitional fonts were later used for important documents and reading. Transitional type was bold and highly legible and therefore appeared more often in legal documents. Bodoni decided to make fonts that were also legible but had more sophistication to them. The type consisted of an aesthetic of plain, unadorned style combined with purity of materials. This contrasted greatly with the heavely adorned lettering of Old Style. Bodoni's fonts are used today to advertise expensive stores. His combination of legibility and beauty gave him success in his time through the 20th Century.

Giambattista Bodoni died in 1813 in Parma, Italy. His now widow finished her late husbands work, “Manuale Tipografico” in two volumes. It contains Roman, Greek, Gothic, Asian and Russian fonts, lines, borders, symbols, numbers and musical notation. This book was a complete compilation of Giambattista Bodoni’s work throughout his career. In 1963 the Bodoni Museum opened in Parma, Italy where all of Bodoni’s work can still be seen today.

Bibliography:

Book Typography by Ari Rafaeli, Oak Knoll Press, The British Library, 2005

Type, The Secret History of Letters by Simon Loxley, I.B. Tauris, London NY 1988

The Art of Typography by Martin Solomon, Watson-Guptill NY 1986

http://www.fontco.com/bodoni.php

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3992/is_200107/ai_n8978403/pg_3?tag=artBody;col1

http://www.linotype.com/683/giambattistabodoni.html

Part B: Giambattista Bodoni created many typefaces, Bodoni, LTC Bodoni 26, Bodoni Classico, Bodoni Stencil, Bauer Bodoni, ITC Bodoni Six, ITC Bodoni Twelve, ITC Bodoni Seventy-Two, and Linotype Gianotten.

The Bodoni Font, Modern Typeface, this particular typeface is very legible. Some of the letters have marks over them which I would assume are there for the Italian language.

Characteristics- 1) There is an obvious contrast between thick and thin stems. 2) The letters with ascenders and descenders are both very long 3) The letters with counters appear very geometric with the combination of rectangles and ovals 4) All the letters appear unadorned 5)The serifs are thin and perpendicular to the stems 6) There is a consistent x-height within all the lower and uppercase letters.

Part C: While Bodoni got his first break in 1770 working in the printing house, the United States was at war. America was fighting for its independence against Great Britian. The Boston Massacre in 1770 was the catalyst for the revolution. The artwork during this time period reflected the reality of war. Instead of making historical or religious paintings American artists painted scenes of the war. This is clearly reflected in Bodoni’s work because he also turned the traditional typeface and turned to a more practical and modern type.