If you are someone from a creative background, you must be aware of the term Typography. And this article is definitely for you.
To give you a clear understanding , what typography is, let’s understand the basic elements of Design first.
Any Graphic (Visual Identity) consist of:-
- Image or Illustrations
- Text/Typography
- Colours
If you have a skill to balance the three, in sync with the concept/ idea your project requires- you have the spark of being a Graphic Designer.
At first glance, typography appears to be a simple art form: select a typeface, experiment with the size, and possibly change the colour, right? Wrong. The fact is that successful typesetting entails far more than that.
Now, particularly talking about Typography. Typography helps to convey the right message, if placed correctly. The font, font combinations, font size and its combinations is what strikes a right balance to catch your eyes. .
Today, we are at a place where we are competing for attention (in seconds), so one cannot afford to make mistakes with Typography.
To Sum up,typography must accomplish a great deal without all of the bells, whistles, and accolades. As a result, it’s not unexpected that it’s frequently misinterpreted and exploited by designers who haven’t been formally schooled in how to manage and set type.
Here We’ve compiled a list of the most common typographical errors made by designers, as well as tips on how to avoid them in your own work…
1. Using too many faces and weights
One of the most common mistakes made by graphic designers, particularly those who are new to the subject, is to utilize too many typefaces and weights in a single design.
As a general rule, a piece of visual art/content should have no more than three different typefaces. You should also select typefaces that compliment each other.
Of course, there will be times when you require more than three, but using too many fonts can unnerve the reader and make the design appear disconnected. This impact can also be noticed by using too many distinct weights within the same typeface
However using the same font with various weights is more acceptable.
2. Too much positive tracking
The gap between letters through a full word or phrase is referred to as tracking.
The higher the tracking, the more room the letters that make up a word will have on either side.
Designers frequently use tracking to exactly match to a certain line length and other design settings.
While tiny tweaks are acceptable in most cases, adding too much tracking might affect the legibility and readability of the visual.
Generally speaking, leaving tracking (Extra spacing between letter or phrase) at its default setting will provide the optimum readability for a given typeface. When using a font as a headline or show face, it’s typical to drop the tracking to a value of up to -20 to make it seem heavier and more like a headline than it would otherwise.
3. Poor Kerning
If you are a Graphic designer, you must have at some point of time explored Kerning. Designers do spend hours perfecting their typography’s tracking and kerning.
Kerning is the alteration of the exact space between two letters. Kerning is frequently used to bring characters with a lot of empty space surrounding them closer to their neighbours.
A notable example is the pairing of the letterforms W and A, which, due to the complementing angles that make up their shapes, may sit closer together than most typefaces will naturally position them.
4. Bad Leading
Leading is a key design element that governs line spacing. Leading is the vertical distance between the baselines of each line of text. It is usually pronounced “ledding.”
The distance from one baseline to the next is represented by the leading point, rather than the actual spacing between the lines of text. The term set solid’ refers to type that has no additional leading. Leading used to be 20% larger than the font size, however distances might change depending on personal styles or preferences.
5. Poor Contrast
Insufficient contrast between the text colour and the backdrop, as well as letter spacing, size, and form, lowers the user experience and reduces readability.
This can be due to the text being set in a colour that is too tonally similar to the background colour, or to it being put on top of a tinted semi-transparent backdrop that sits above an image.
In either case, you can simply prevent this error by scrunching up your eyes and confirming that you can still make out the characters of your type.
6. Stacking on Top
Placement of text and its orientation options are numerous. One of them is stacking on top.
Stacked typography often relies on multiple sizes. The right words in your messaging must carry a lot of weight.
Anyway, choosing the vertical and horizontal layout is tricky.
Do not stack letters in a queue as in the image. This is a great mistake that you are making.
Conclusion
In essence, typography is utilized to bring the text to life.
Altering some of the finer aspects of typography may appear to be going too far. Regardless, they may make a significant impact in the quality of your typography.
There are many other things like Uneven paragraph edges, inconsistent alignments, getting too gimmicky, crowded lines and letters and proofreading the content.
While you are busy creating content, do not forget the importance of the brand tone of voice, which should be consistently and effectively utilised for best digital marketing results.
If you have enjoyed learning about typography mistakes, let us know in the comments below.
Thank you for Reading!
