Typography Reflection
Typography is an anatomy of typing or pressing letters or numbers for various purposes. I didn’t think typography was such a bigger thing than just typing out words; it’s all the various fonts, letter sizes, formats, etc. Such as the different pieces of how a letter is typed like, the senf, descender, ascender. There’re different types of strokes (thick, thin, variable). You can also measure metal typesettings through a 72-point system. For each inch there are 72 points. In class we used a stamp to type our names onto a piece of paper. We were put into groups and told to figure out and discuss how to use each metal letter to measure the point and point size.
One way I experienced typography is by the printing press with the metal type and stamp press. I was able to understand how to calculate the amount of points each letter had and what size font it was. Then I made my initials and last name. At first i printed them backwards, so i had to do it again but didn’t realize that the “K” was still upside down. I can understand how it might have been difficult for people to do the metal type and stamp press. Another way I learned about typography is by doing an assignment on Adobe Illustrator by using different fonts and sizes for various prompts. One prompt was, “How would a construction worker sign their name?” so I picked out a font that would represent what was written and I chose a size that also represents a construction worker.
I learned many different things in the typography activity like the anatomy of type and all the pieces that go with it such as the Strokes of lines, and different pieces of the lines and letters. I learned how to measure type which is the point system of metal typing. The point size is the height of the type and not the height of the letter. I learned how to do metal typing in a class activity, which then I translated into writing my name in different fonts and sizes on adobe. One way you can use this in the future is when writing documents or important letters. You can use the different fonts and sizes to emphasize important thoughts or things that MUST be read. Another way you can use the knowledge of typography is if you are doing an activity using one of the ways we used in class for a club or just for fun.
