Drawing Type

The anatomy of the letter

The skill of a type designer lies in the art of subtlety. A smidgen of extra stroke thickness can result in a completely different impression of the heaviness of a body of text. Poorly designed letters can appear as blemishes in the text. Letter shapes that have been used for centuries cannot simply be altered without affecting the complete picture. And we have not yet mentioned the habituation – or actually the conditioning – of the letter. In the past, radical changes in typography (in newspapers, for example) provoked some very serious reactions from the readers. The designer of typefaces intended for use as body types should be aware of this and should design right down to the finest details in form and counter form, in the black letter and the white space around it.

Advertisement