Text on the left that says, "Become a Letter Nerd With My New Book" and a photo of the book cover to the left.

Text on the left that says, "Become a Letter Nerd With My New Book" and a photo of the book cover to the left.

Letter Nerd

It is my ultimate evil plan to make everyone a letter nerd muwahahaha! But seriously, letters are pretty cool and I want to tell you all about them. I’m calling this education series “Letter Nerd” and so far I have a newsletter, book, and quick lessons for you to explore.

Letter Nerd Course

This email course takes you through the book content with weekly emails

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Letter Nerd Goods

Pen Tool Wizard Sticker

Letter Nerd Volume One

Letter Nerd Sticker

Quick Lessons

What are true italics

True italics actually have nothing to do with the truth. Perhaps they are called “true” italics because they are more closely related to historical italic styles.

The first italics were not created based on the roman designs like they are today. Instead, they were created independently and were based on informal cursive writing.

This gave italic typefaces properties found in cursive writing such as a slant, narrower proportions, and structural differences.

If the italic style is only slanted, we call that oblique. When we take that slanted style and add elements from cursive writing, we call it a true italic.

True or oblique, italics should be used to create emphasis when set in roman text, and they accomplish this through creating a particular sparkle with the letterforms. Some would argue that true italics pull off this sparkle better than obliques because of their cursive-inspired features.

The visual features of true italics help them stand out and create a special sparkle in the text.

Size Specific Fonts. Big and Small

Some fonts work better at large sizes and some are better at small sizes, but it's not a mystery why.

Type designers know what adjustments need to be made to make letters more readable and legible at smaller sizes or more refined and elegant at larger sizes.

In general, text-specific styles are wider, bolder, less contrasting, have more open apertures, and use structures that differentiate them from other similar letters.

Text made for very large sizes might also have adjustments, usually an increase in contrast and decrease in spacing (or tracking).

Changes to the shapes and spacing can help the letters perform better at different sizes.

The magic of overshoots.

Overshoots have to do with the way our eyes and brain work together to perceive alignment. Along with where the shape ends, the volume of the shape along the alignment line plays a part in whether we see it as aligned.

Square shapes have more volume along the alignment zone, circular shapes have less volume, and the point of a triangle even less.

We can trick our eyes into thinking that these shapes look aligned by overshooting the alignment line with our circular and triangular end points. We can also refer to this as making optical adjustments.

Most people don't consciously realize these subtle differences but type designers spend a lot of time making optical adjustments like these to the letters and spaces in between them.

The magic of overshoots is that you don't notice them when they are done well—the letterforms just look aligned.

How to use all those numeral sets.

Lining numerals are designed to go with the uppercase and are generally the size of the cap height. These are a shape option for the numerals.

Old style numerals are designed to go with the lowercase and contain ascenders and descenders. These are a shape option for the numerals.

Proportional numerals are spaced based on their shape, which means they all have their individual widths. These are a spacing option for the numerals.

Tabular numerals are spaced to line up across columns and end up each taking up the same width regardless of their shape. These are a spacing option for the numerals.

The numeral set you use is often categorized as two of these options—one shape and one spacing. Examples of lining proportional, lining tabular, old style proportional, and old style tabular.

Calligraphy, Lettering, or Type?

Calligraphy is a practiced for of writing that uses and instrument like a pen or brush. it it completes in one pass without editing the letters.

Lettering is more closely related to illustration where each piece is unique to its application. Lettering is usually sketched, revised, and refined until completion.

Type requires a holistic approach to drawing each letterform so that they can be arranged in any order. There is a focus on refining a collections of compatible shapes.

Calligraphy, lettering, and type each have their place in design and each express a different aspect of letterforms.

What is letter contrast?

Calligraphy, Lettering, or Type?

High contrast is when there is a large difference between the thick and thin and low contrast is when it appears more monoline.

An angled axis is a visual reference to a broad nib pen held at a consistent angle, sometimes called translation contrast.

A vertical axis is a visual reference to a pointed pen sometimes called expansion contrast.

Reverse contrast is when the thick parts are on the horizontals instead of the usual verticals. This can also be considered contrast along the horizontal axis.

How to spot good spacing & kerning.

Spacing is the amount of space between the letters. The default spacing is set by the type designer.

Kerning is an exception to this default spacing between two specific characters.

The space between the letters are as much a part of the letters as the drawings themselves. A well-spaced typeface is a sign of quality.

Use the Elevator test as a quick way to check a typeface's spacing and kerning quality.

Great kerning is essential in digital projects as there is no way to adjust the kerning in live text. If you feel confident in your abilities, you can adjust kerning in print projects when necessary.

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