The Anatomy of Type

This afternoon we had a lecture on the Anatomy of Type. This I find will be useful when it comes to crit sessions and when I begin to work on designing my 10 final modified letters.
I created a  Glossary of typographic terminology so that I can eventually learn and refer to: 

• Aperture: The opening of a counter to the exterior of a glyph.
• Bracket: A curved or diagonal transition between a serif and main stroke
• Counter: Any interior shape of a glyph. It can be completely enclosed by strokes, such as the eye of an 'e', or have an opening to the exterior, such as the lower counter of an 'e'
• Ascender: The upward vertical stem on some lowercase letters, such as 'h' and 'b', that extends above the x-height is the ascender. 
• Axis: An imaginary line drawn from top to bottom of a glyph bisecting the upper and lower strokes is the axis. 
• Bowl: The curved part of the character that encloses the circular or curved parts (counter) of some letters such as 'd', 'b', 'o' is the bowl.
• Bracket: The bracket is a curved or wedge-like connection between the stem and serif of some fonts. Not all serifs are bracketed serifs. 
• Baseline: The imaginary line upon which the letters in a font appear to rest, you also have a x-height and cap-height
• Font: A collection of glyphs. The font is the delivery mechanism, represented by a digital file or a ser of a metal pieces, for a typeface. 
• Glyph: The graphical representation of a character.
• Humanist: A method of a letter construction tied to handwritten strokes made with a pen or brush
• Sans-serif: A character or typeface without serifs 
• Serif: A small mark or 'foot' at the end of a stroke. Serifs are lighter than their associated strokes
• Slab serif: A heavy serif, typically rectangular in shape, with a blunt end.
• Weight: The thickness of a stroke 
• Typeface: The design of a set of characters. In simple terms, the typeface is what you see and the font is what you use. 
• Stroke: An essential line or structural element of a glyph. 

I found typing this out useful because it has give me something to refer to and given me a greater understanding of type. I will begin to research what sort of type is suited to what type of work and why this is the case. I bought a book, suggested by our tutors, The Geometry of Type (Thames and Hudson) to further my understanding of typography and terminology. So far it has been really helpful. 

Book cover

The Anatomy of Type

The Anatomy of Type

Type Classification

Also in the session in groups, after we had a basic understanding of font we were given two serif letters which we had to modify into san serif whilst keeping the rough letter form.

Here, we were manipulating our letters by adjusting the line-weights to make it one thickness and removing the serifs and filling in the colour. I found the session really useful and I feel I have learnt a lot to take on board for my 10 final letters.