1^st task

A sign

Project

Put together a »nice set of shapes«.

First look how the letters of the Latin alphabet are similar to each other. For the exercise, limit yourself to capital letters only. Write with a free hand. Draw 10 mm high rows and another in between. So write on a three-stoke line. Look what moves you need. First, notice signs composed only of upright and horizontal strokes: »I«, »H«, »L«, »F«, »E« and »T«.

Next comes characters with inclined strokes: »N«, »M«, K«, »A«, W«, »X«, »Y« and »Z.

This is followed by characters with oval strokes: »O«, »Q«, »C«, »G«, »D«, »U«, »P«, »B« and »S«.

But the numbers are yet another own story.

It is possible that the product will be of dubious quality. We could have a special subject just for this task. The purpose is only to develop a sense of the unified structure of the group of characters – the system.

Due to next meeting

Write 22 characters or so of the alphabet without diacritics. The letters should be about 10 mm in size. Take a photo of or scan the paper and submit it in the online classroom.

Write one A4 page of the text from a novel in your mother’s tongue.

»Reading«

Bill Boley: Basiks of Lettering, 1952

Daniel T. Ames: Ames’ Book of Flourishes, 1890

Instructions

Pay attention to the widths of the individual letters; that they all have the same »transparency«. Pay attention to the spaces between the letters, which must be of the same »transparency« as the spaces inside the letters. And finally, pay attention to the spaces between the words. So the letters, the spaces between the .

The inner spaces of both letters are of the same »transparency«.
They both look the same.

1_0.27

Inner spaces of both letters are of the same »airness«.
Both have on the sight the same surface.

Razmak

»Transparency« the space between the letters is seemingly equal to the »transparency« of the inner spaces.

It is not posible to calculate the area of the space between the letters and inner spaces exactly.
It is more or less a feeling that has to be developed with practice.

It is not posible to calculate the area of the space between the letters and inner spaces exactly.
It is more or less a feeling that has to be developed with practice.

Poor image of the word and two possible solutions.

A good example at this size.
Example is suitable at smaller sizes.

»Ligatures«: when two or more characters are connected.
With this approach it is possible to solve difficult letter pairs.
However, the readability of the text is worse.

Težave 2 Left: Linearly spaced letters result in an arrhythmic image. We see »O« as a hole because the letters are too close.
Right: The distances must not be linearly equal, but must be of equal surface.

Left: too tight.
Right: Correct spaces between letters.

Left: The space between »T« and »H« is not large enough. As if bar of the letter »T« is leaning on the »H«.
Right: The space between »T« and »H« is appropriately widened.

Left: There must be larger space between »L« and »A«.
Right: All spaces in the word are spaced appropriately to make the image of the word uniform.

Left: The letters are too close together. A very common mistake.
Right: Suitable spacing.

Usually, the most appropriate width of the space between the words is the width of the letter »I«.

Left: Wrong.
Right: Correct.

Left: Correct spaces between the words and between the lines.
Right: Word spacing is too large.

Left: Too dense.
Right: Correct.

Left: Too dense. that’s why »W« is floating.
Right: Correct.

Left: Correct.
Right: Wrong.

]

Left: Too short »ascendants« and »descendants«.
Right: »Ascendants« and »descendants« of correct lengths.

Left: »Ascendants« and »descendants« of correct lengths.
Right: Too short »ascendants« and »descendants«.

Left: Wrong. The spacing of letters of the same size should be the same.
Right: Correct. Both lines are equally spaced.

Left: Too tightly spaced letters and lines.
Right: Clear and beautiful because the spaces between the letters and between the lines are correct.[/rt-img]

»Severely« recommended exercise

KERNTYPE a kerning game
Practice spacing the letters. Professionally, the space between the letters is called »kern«, and the space between the lines is called »leading«.