Typography, Headlines and Infographics

150 Pages·2010·2.67 MB·English

Chapter 16
Typography,
Headlines and
Infographics
Graphical excellence is that which gives to
the viewer the greatest number of ideas in
the shortest time with the least ink in the
smallest space.
—Edward R. Tufte, professor of graphic design
at Yale and president of Graphics Press
354
After completing this chapter, you will be able to: In this chapter, you will learn
the meaning of these terms:
• identify the two major type families,
• use good typography to make a publication more readable, typography
typeface
• create five different kinds of headlines,
font
• design an infographic.
serif type
sans serif type
leading
It’s one thing to visualize the big picture. It’s quite another to sweat tracking
the details. In the previous chapter, you learned about page design, kerning
or combining large elements such as stories, headlines and photo- set width
graphs into a complete layout. In this chapter, you’ll be asked to pull flush left
out your magnifying glass to see what’s going on inside the design. In justified
particular, you’ll be introduced to the nuances of lettering styles and
flush right
arrangements.
widow
You’ll learn about typography and printing specifications. You’ll
orphan
also learn how to write and design different kinds of headlines. You’ll
banner
become familiar with one of the most interesting features in journal-
kicker
ism—the infographic. Along the way, you’ll gain some valuable tips on
scale
how to take advantage of desktop publishing technology.
skew
layer
reverse
M G T C
AKING OOD YPOGRAPHIC HOICES slammer
raw wrap
Unless you’re a musician, you probably don’t analyze every note hammer
you hear; you simply settle back and listen. When you read a story, you
tripod
probably don’t scrutinize every letter, either. Like most readers, you surf
sidesaddle head
across those waves of words, oblivious to typographic details. But those
fever chart
details, like notes to a musician, are critically important to the successful
pie graph
communication of a message.
bar chart
Typography is the art of arranging letters in a pleasing and appropri-
table
ate manner. Readers don’t worry much about how the letters of the alpha-
bet look, but designers do. They fret over the size, shape and spacing of
their letters as they seek just the right look. Designers worry for a reason.
typography
Good typographic design makes the difference between attractive, read-
the art of choosing and
able type and type that looks like a ransom note from a kidnapper.
arranging letters in a pleas-
ing and appropriate manner
Typefaces and Fonts
Letters can have many different appearances. The letter A, for exam-
ple, can look like A, A, A, A or A. Over the years, designers have produced
thousands of different typefaces, which are sometimes even named after
them—Bodoni or Zapf, for instance. Typeface refers to a distinctive typeface
set of letters, both uppercase and lowercase. The set is distinctive in the a distinctive set of letters
same sense that your handwriting is unique. No two sets of letters, or (both uppercase and lower-
typefaces, are exactly alike. case)
TYPOGRAPHY, HEADLINES AND INFOGRAPHICS 355
Designers often talk about typefaces as if they had personalities.
FIGURE 16.1 Times, for example, is thought to be conservative, traditional and for-
FONT FOR 14-POINT HELVETICA
mal, while Biffo is funky, bizarre and unpredictable. Your computer is
likely to have a good sampling of some of the more popular typefaces.
These may include Times, Avant Garde, Helvetica and Palatino, to name
just a few.
In a particular typeface and size, a complete alphabet plus numbers
and punctuation marks is called a font. Figure 16.1 shows the font for
14-point Helvetica.
Most typefaces can be grouped into two main families: serif and sans
serif. Serif type (type “with feet”) has tiny strokes, or serifs, at the tips
of each letter. Inspired by the letters chiseled in granite by the ancient
Romans, type designers have used serif styles to create some of the
world’s most elegant type families, including Times and Palatino. Serif
type tends to create a feeling of tradition and conservatism. It seems to
say, “We’ve been here a long time; you can trust us.” Most newspaper
and magazine stories are set in serif styles.
Sans serif type (“type without feet”), on the other hand, has no
serifs. These typefaces tend to have a more modern feel. They say to the
reader, “Look at us: we’re fresh and new.” Helvetica is a popular sans
serif typeface with school publication staffs. It is most often used in
headlines, bylines and cutlines.
You won’t have to look very long in magazines or newspapers to find
an enormous number of typefaces. It’s easy to see from that intimidat-
ing variety that typography can be a complex subject. Practically speak-
ing, however, good design is a straightforward matter of judgment and
taste. Your artistic intuition, combined with knowledge and skill, makes
typography work. Like any other art or craft, you can master it through
practice and trial and error.
Here is one tip, though, that may make your life as a designer less
crazy. Stick to a few typefaces. Choose one for text (preferably a serif
typeface) and one for headlines and cutlines (preferably a sans serif
typeface). You can add a third typeface for the flag, standing heads,
font column titles and other special uses. By limiting your type choices to a
reasonable few, you can spare yourself time for other design tasks and
a complete alphabet plus
avoid creating a publication that looks erratic.
numbers and punctuation
marks in a particular typeface
and style such as bold, italic Changing Type to Fit Your Needs
or bold italic
Using type right out of your computer software is like wearing a shirt
right out of the dryer—it won’t look its best until you iron it a bit. By
serif type
modifying type, you can adjust your letters to particular design needs
type with tiny strokes, or
and improve the readability of your publication in the process. As a
serifs, at the tips of each letter
designer, you have the option of changing type in two different dimen-
sions: vertically and horizontally.
sans serif type Changing Type Vertically Changing the point size of
type without tiny strokes, or a typeface changes the height of the letters. The greater the number of
serifs, at the tips of each letter points, the taller the letters (see Figure 16.2). Small type sizes are used
for copy. Many schools use 12-point type for stories, although 10- or
356 PRODUCING THE NEWS
FIGURE 16.2
Aa LETTER HEIGHT (POINTS)
Aa
Aa
30 Point Type 60 Point Type 90 Point Type
11-point type is also a reasonable choice. Headlines require larger sizes,
ranging from 18 to 72 points or more, to achieve a dramatic look.
The space between two lines of type is called leading (pronounced leading
“ledding”). The term comes from the days of hot-metal typesetting,
the space between two lines of
when thin bands of metal, usually lead, separated the rows of type.
type; pronounced “ledding”
Leading can greatly affect the readability of your publication.
Leading can be loosened by adding more space between lines or tight-
ened until the letters nearly touch or even overlap. Tight leading saves
space, but it also tends to make a page looked cramped and uninviting.
Designers for alternative magazines and Nike ads have used overlapping
type to suggest an attitude that breaks the rules. Note that leading, like
type size, is measured in points.
The following example is 24-point type with 18 points of leading (it
is tight):
Neck massage may zap
pain of headaches
This is 24-point type with 26 points of leading, which is normal:
Neck massage may zap
pain of headaches
Here is 24-point type with 42 points of leading (it is loose):
Neck massage may zap
pain of headaches
TYPOGRAPHY, HEADLINES AND INFOGRAPHICS 357
Portrait of a Young Journalist
Dennis Ortiz-Lopez, Type Designer
Y
" ou have maybe two & Associates as a designer. these faces and then licens-
seconds for someone In 1979, Rolling Stone hired ing them for sale. Rather than
to see something that him on staff for hand let- scanning and tracing the old
catches her eye and pick up tering. Two years later, he characters, he often redraws
the magazine.” That’s the chal- switched to full-time freelance the entire alphabet from
lenge Dennis Ortiz-Lopez and work, specializing in maga- scratch. In the process, he cor-
other professional typographers zine logos and custom fonts. rects type problems that have
face when they design special Ortiz-Lopez regards type stymied other designers.
lettering for a magazine cover. as “an ornamented glyph that As a career-long perfection-
Ortiz-Lopez has created spe- makes a thought into a graphic ist, Ortiz-Lopez has come to
cial cover letters (often called that other people can translate appreciate the precision of
logotypes) for many popular into a thought.” He says he computerized design tools.
magazines, including Parade, favors serif fonts and hates any But he also worries about the
Premiere, Rolling Stone, Spy, gimmick that draws attention unprecedented typographic
Self, Texas Monthly and US. to the type itself rather than to control they put in the hands of
Most of his lettering styles the words. “Words on a page art directors. Ortiz-Lopez says
are specially adapted for one- should flow smoothly into the he flinches when he sees type
time use on a cover. As such, mind of the reader, not stutter taboos broken or his own fonts
they are typically condensed as barely decipherable knots handled in ways he never imag-
and tightly kerned, although passing for letters,” he said. ined. These are, he notes, “the
some can be adapted for use Many of the older, elegant best of times and the worst of
as a copy style inside the typefaces that fell out of use times for type fanatics like me.”
magazine. Trained at Compton in the 1970s and 1980s have
Source: Adapted from “Dennis Ortiz-Lopez,”
College and California State– come in for some retooling.
Aldus Magazine, March/April, p. 28.
Long Beach, Ortiz-Lopez left Ortiz-Lopez has been produc-
school early and joined Gould ing computerized versions of
Changing Type Horizontally You can also adjust the
tracking horizontal spacing between letters. This adjustment is called track-
ing. Tracking enables you to squeeze copy to fit it into a single line or
adjusting the horizontal space
to stretch it out to cover a large area. Be sure to exercise caution, how-
between letters
ever. Even slight changes in tracking can affect the type’s readability.
Take this example of normal tracking, with no extra spacing between
characters:
Grandmother of eight makes hole in one
Here is the same example with loose tracking:
Grandmother of eight makes hole in one
The following has tight tracking:
Grandmother of eight makes hole in one
Note that the example of normal tracking is easiest to read.
358 PRODUCING THE NEWS
Tight tracking is often used when a designer needs to conserve
space—for example, by making a six-line paragraph fit on five lines.
Loose tracking is sometimes used to help cover some undesirable white
space.
Designers use a special version of tracking called kerning when they kerning
want to bring a particular pair of letters together. This sometimes is neces- a special kind of tracking that
sary in headlines when an unsightly gap appears between certain pairs of brings pairs of letters closer
letters (for example, A and W). If the two letters look like this: together to prevent unsightly
A W gaps
the designer could kern them (reduce the distance between them) to
look like this:
AW
Kerning is not done on body copy, but it makes large headlines look
much better.
A third way to control letter spacing is by controlling the set width. set width
The set width control changes the width of the letters, stretching or a means of scaling the width
squeezing them as though they’re made of rubber. The set width con- of letters. A line of type could
trol actually changes the shapes of the letters themselves. It is usually be slightly condensed by
expressed as a percentage of the font’s original width. For example, here choosing a set width of 95%.
is a headline with normal set width (100 percent of the font’s original
width):
Wind whips, strips, tips through town
Here is the same headline in a narrow set width (70 percent of normal):
Wind whips, strips, tips through town
The following shows the headline in a wide set width (130 percent of
normal):
Wind whips, strips, tips through town
Set width control is most useful for headlines, especially unusual
ones you might want to use for feature stories. If you change one line
of a headline, however, be sure to change the others in that same
headline.
Alignment
flush left
Let’s turn our attention from letters, words and lines to larger chunks the alignment of type that
of copy. Copy in the hands of an unimaginative designer can be gray and runs flush with the left edge
dull. Fortunately, you can give your copy personality by the shapes and of the column; also called
contours it fills on the page. For example, a designer can vary the sides ragged right
of a story, or alignments, to create three different looks. The three types
of alignments are: justified
• Flush left. Flush left type runs flush with the left edge of a description of copy with
the column. It is also called ragged right, because the right straight margins at both the
edge of the column is uneven. Flush left alignment is typi- right and left column edges
cally used for headlines.
• Justified. Justified copy has straight margins on both the
right and left edges. It is the usual alignment setting for flush right
most stories. the alignment of type that
• Flush right. Flush right type runs flush with the right runs flush with the right edge
edge of the column. It’s often used for photo credit lines. of the column
TYPOGRAPHY, HEADLINES AND INFOGRAPHICS 359
Dateline
UNITED STATES, 1970–1990—A rev- page. By the mid-1980s, photos were
olution in newspaper production began being placed directly on the page either
when the computer began replacing from the wire or from scanned photos.
type writers in newsrooms in the 1970s. Color graphics soon followed.
The television-like screen sitting Newsrooms today are completely
atop a keyboard allowed reporters to computerized. From the time a story
type, edit and store their stories in a is composed at the keyboard until it
central file. From another computer, comes off the press on the page, it is
the editor could retrieve the story, edit processed electronically. In addition to
it and send it to the typesetter. interviewing and writing skills, report-
By the early 1980s, pagination pro- ers must have editing and pagination
grams and photocomposition machines skills. Editors must be able to solve
made it possible to set copy in type on computer problems as well as spot
photographic film and send the nega- misspellings and grammatical er rors.
tives directly to the platem aker, thus Photographers work with digital cam-
eliminating the need to paste copy onto eras, crop photos on screen and write
page layouts by hand. cutlines at the keyboard.
Wire service stories could be called
up, edited and placed directly on the
Alignment adjustments can help avoid two major design problems:
widow widows and orphans. A widow is an unacceptably short line of type
an unacceptably short line of (often just a single word) at the end of a paragraph. The white space that
type (often just one word) at follows the widow looks unplanned and unnecessary. Conse quently,
the end of a paragraph most designers try to eliminate widows. An orphan is a partial line (end
of a paragraph) that appears at the top of a column or page. Both widows
and orphans can be quickly eliminated by a little tracking or rewording,
orphan
or even a slight bit of editing.
a partial line of type (the end
Some desktop publishing programs have their own built-in dam-
of a paragraph) that appears
age control. Damage in this case refers to widows and orphans. Adobe
at the top of a page or column
PageMaker, for example, has menu options for “Widow control” and
“Orphan control.”
Typographic Special Effects
Most desktop publishing programs are loaded with unique typo-
graphic features called special effects. Like photos and illustrations, spe-
cial effects can break up text-heavy layouts to enliven even the blandest
of pages. Special effects are often used to spruce up headlines and pull
quotes, but they can also add emphasis to certain letters or words within
the body of an article. Better yet, unlike journalists of old, today's design-
ers can view and alter their desired special effects on computers before
the publications go to print.
The most commonly used special effects thicken or transform the
appearance of the letters. In the last chapter we mentioned an effect
360 PRODUCING THE NEWS
called boldface, which makes letters appear darker and thicker than
regular text, and one called italic, which slants letters to resemble hand-
written ones. Another special effect feature is the skew tool. The skew skew
special effect allows more flexibility than the italicized effect. a special effect that slants
letters to the left and right
For example, italicized letters slant only to the right:
Spartans beat Cougars to become state champs
The skew effect can slant letters to both the left and right:
Spartans beat Cougars to become state champs
Almost all these effects can be combined. Bold and italic can be com-
bined as follows:
Spartans beat Cougars to become state champs
Another popular special effect is scale. The scale feature allows designers scale
to stretch the height and width of letters:] a special effect that stretches
Spartans beat Cougars to become state champs the height and width of letters
Many production programs also allow users to layer words, letters, or layer
blocks of text. When correctly positioned, layered text can produce a a special effect that layers
3-D effect: words, letters or blocks of
LLAAYYEERRSS texts to create a 3-D effect
Two other special effects help designers place words on top of pictures and
illustrations. If you want to place text on top of dark or black backgrounds,
you can use a reverse. With this effect, the letters appear white: reverse
a special effect in which white
This is a reverse.
text is placed on dark or
black backgrounds or over
It is often best to use these effects sparingly. Too many special effects can
pictures
clutter pages and distract readers from the body of an article.
Your Beat
1. Look through a magazine and find three different 2. Compare a font list in a word-processing program to
kinds of serif type and three different kinds of sans determine what typefaces are used in your school
serif type. Ads are a good place to look. Notice yearbook and newspaper.
whether serif and sans serif typefaces are used to 3. Create a new typeface by designing all the letters of
provide contrast with one another. Then find three the alphabet in a special style all your own. Compare
examples of special type effects. your work with that of other students.
TYPOGRAPHY, HEADLINES AND INFOGRAPHICS 361
Out Take WRITING AND DESIGNING HEADLINES
Headline Humor In the days before computer technology, most newspaper headlines
were quite narrow. That was partly because the printing presses used
Headlines are often written
metal type locked into blocks. Type that was set too wide tended to come
as if they were short telegrams.
loose and fly off the cylinder as the presses spun around. Consequently,
Because writers are so intent
headlines were usually centered inside a single column. Often, headlines
on compressing a great deal of
were printed with each word capitalized. Many were stacked in layers,
information into a very few words,
with one deck on top of another.
they sometimes forget to see
Today’s headlines, by comparison, are run as wide as possible, posi-
the forest for the trees. In other
tioned flush left and usually capitalized in normal sentence form. This
words, headline writers some-
is called down style in newspaper parlance. The old-fashioned up style
times create unexpected humor.
capitalized each word in a headline:
Here are some classic head-
line bloopers. See if you can Attack Parrot Sends Thug Running for His Life
imagine what the actual story was
about. (All the headlines actu- Here is the same headline in today’s down style:
ally ran in professional papers.) Attack parrot sends thug running for his life
Dealers will hear car talk
Friday noon In an ideal world, designers would never have to worry about the con-
Salesman says he left four tent of headlines. They could leave that to section editors or copy edi-
large rings in motel bathtub tors. But the truth is that designers are often left with the job of writing
Rock star hit with sick child headlines, because they’re the last people who work on the paper before
Police discover crack in it goes to the printer. For that reason, we’ll digress briefly from the topic
Australia of design to discuss how headlines should be written.
Here’s how you can lick
Doberman’s leg sores
Headlines Tell and Sell a Story
Crowd keeps police from
stabbing victim
A savvy editor once gave a writer this advice: if you have 10 days to
Man with two broken legs
create a story, spend nine of them working on the headline. The edi-
saves one from drowning
tor meant that the headline is crucial, because it both summarizes and
Crook escapes by turning into
advertises the story. Too often, headline writers top a story with a “ho
drug store
hum” headline, thus burying the story on the page instead of saying
Calf born to farmer with two
“Please read me!” The challenge becomes how to write a headline that
heads
both tells and sells the story.
Ban on nude dancing on
Essentially, a headline is a short, telegraphic sentence giving the gist of
governor’s desk
the story. “Man jumps off building,” reads the headline, not “A man has
Computer center turns on
just jumped off the top of a building.” The grammar of the sentence—its
students
subject and verb—remains, but several words are missing. Headline writ-
Woman better after being
ers use a sort of Western Union–style shorthand to trim away nonessen-
thrown from high-rise
tial words. Headline writers also use present tense for past actions. That
Ritter, Silverman butt heads
strategy gives headlines more punch and immediacy.
Good headlines help readers find what they want to read. Headlines
should both catch the eye and guide the readers’ attention to the main
idea. For the headline writer, discovering the main idea shouldn’t be a
problem if the story is well written. The main idea should be located in the
362 PRODUCING THE NEWS
story’s lead, which is where the headline writer, who won’t have time to
read the entire story anyway, should look to find out what’s news.
Headlines can be creative and fun. Sometimes our favorite headlines
are the ones that break the rules. But for beginners, it’s probably best to
start with a few standard guidelines. Here are some commonly accepted
rules for headline writing:
• Give every headline an action verb: “Candidates debate
issues”
• Use present tense for past events: “Club chooses presi-
dent,” not “Club chose president yesterday”
• Use an infinitive for future events: “Governor to
sign bill”
• Use short, positive words: “Some like it hot: Spring Break
hot spots”
• Use a comma for and and a semicolon for a period:
“Learning moves out of school beyond U-High, across
oceans” and “Soccerdogs beat Edison; host Lodi
tomorrow”
• Use single quotation marks within a headline: “Critics say
‘malice’ rule puts public safety at risk”
Some rules warn writers about what not to do:
• Avoid forms of to be: “Teen boot camp—‘strictly’ a good
idea,” not “Teen boot camp is ‘strictly’ a good idea”
• Omit articles (a, an and the): “Habitat workers bring hope
to homeless”
• Avoid the use of negatives (no and not): “Athletic depart-
ment too lenient with drug offenders,” instead of
“Athletic department not harsh enough”
• Avoid excess abbreviation (one acronym per headline is
probably plenty)
• Omit a period at the end of a headline
• Most important, don’t use headlines to express the writ-
er’s opinion
Headlines should tell something specific and newsy. They should not
be mere labels. Watch out, too, for generic headlines that could fit any
of several stories: “Student meeting Wednesday,” “Committee plans
announced” or “Team seeks victory,” for example. These headlines could
be used over and over, but who would read those stories? Create a head-
line to fit one and only one story.
Finally, the headline should reflect the tone of a story. Use a serious
tone for a serious story—for example,
Storm flattens fields, rips roof
For less somber stories, headline writers can enjoy using puns and plays
on words:
Many possible ways to heal heel pain
Designer builds motorcycles wheely well
or
It isn’t easy being orange
TYPOGRAPHY, HEADLINES AND INFOGRAPHICS 363