How to Learn Typography
Learn about construction of the letter., Open Microsoft Office World or another text editing program., Get the basic supplies., Don't imagine that you'll make incredible designs from the start., If you want to do creative designs you will need to...
Step-by-Step Guide
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Step 1: Learn about construction of the letter.
Before you start practising, you have to know the theory.
Anatomy of letter is something you have to know.
Also terms such as X-height, baseline and cap height will help you a lot.
Basic concepts are bowl, tail, serifed and unserifed terminal, crossbar. -
Step 2: Open Microsoft Office World or another text editing program.
Write any word in different fonts and answer yourself few questions about them.
Does it have a serif? Wedge or rounded? How the crossbars look and what height are they? How the tails look? How the bowls are? Narrow or full? Is the letter thicker around the curves? , It's inexpensive hobby, so you won't need tons of supplies but there are few things that you can't start without them.
Firstly you will need some paper to write on.
Make sure it's not too thin and not to thick.
Artists sketch paper should be perfect! Second thing you'll need is a pen of course.
If you want you can buy an expensive one, but an inexpensive one can be better for your first works because if you will get bored with it you won't be like "Aawh, I spent so much money on this pen, what I'm supposed to do with it now? " Also your sketches won't be incredibly pretty at the start so you don't have to waste ink from expensive pen.
If you want to add a little bit of color to your design you can also buy coloring brush pens.
And last but not least you will need a ruler and a pencil so make sure you have ones. , First you have to practise by writing a lot of individual letters in different styles.
So grab your pen and some paper (at this point you don't have to use plain one, for practising letters checkered paper will be better) and choose a font that you want to practise this time.
You can print whole alphabet if you want, it will help you to accurately map them.
Then write every letter a lot of times.
Do it every second you have free time.
It's really important and don't stop doing it either if you will start to make complicated designs.
It will make your technique perfect. , For example arrows or frames makes your sketches a lot more interesting.
Grab some paper and draw every accent that can make your work amazing.
Be creative! , It can be a part of song, poem or just a quote that you like.
Also it can be a title of a movie, song or just a name of someone that you like.
It should be inspiring and not dumb ( I mean imagine an amazing typography art that says " I like potatoes" ... ). , You can choose only one to the whole design but it will look better if every part or every word will be written with different font.
It's your choice, which version will you choose. , Draw lines (cap height, baseline and X-height) that will help you make your letters same height.
Plan where every singe word will be.
Will it be straight or cursiveĀ ? Thin or thick? Plan all of these. , Carefully fill every letter with ink.
Don't hurry, patience is the key to great design.
Then when all of the letters will be filled up, decorate it with some accents.
It will make your design more personal and interesting. -
Step 3: Get the basic supplies.
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Step 4: Don't imagine that you'll make incredible designs from the start.
-
Step 5: If you want to do creative designs you will need to learn some cute accents.
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Step 6: Find a citation
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Step 7: quote or anything that you want to write down.
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Step 8: Choose a font.
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Step 9: Make a sketch with a pencil.
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Step 10: When your sketch is done
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Step 11: make the same thing with pen.
Detailed Guide
Before you start practising, you have to know the theory.
Anatomy of letter is something you have to know.
Also terms such as X-height, baseline and cap height will help you a lot.
Basic concepts are bowl, tail, serifed and unserifed terminal, crossbar.
Write any word in different fonts and answer yourself few questions about them.
Does it have a serif? Wedge or rounded? How the crossbars look and what height are they? How the tails look? How the bowls are? Narrow or full? Is the letter thicker around the curves? , It's inexpensive hobby, so you won't need tons of supplies but there are few things that you can't start without them.
Firstly you will need some paper to write on.
Make sure it's not too thin and not to thick.
Artists sketch paper should be perfect! Second thing you'll need is a pen of course.
If you want you can buy an expensive one, but an inexpensive one can be better for your first works because if you will get bored with it you won't be like "Aawh, I spent so much money on this pen, what I'm supposed to do with it now? " Also your sketches won't be incredibly pretty at the start so you don't have to waste ink from expensive pen.
If you want to add a little bit of color to your design you can also buy coloring brush pens.
And last but not least you will need a ruler and a pencil so make sure you have ones. , First you have to practise by writing a lot of individual letters in different styles.
So grab your pen and some paper (at this point you don't have to use plain one, for practising letters checkered paper will be better) and choose a font that you want to practise this time.
You can print whole alphabet if you want, it will help you to accurately map them.
Then write every letter a lot of times.
Do it every second you have free time.
It's really important and don't stop doing it either if you will start to make complicated designs.
It will make your technique perfect. , For example arrows or frames makes your sketches a lot more interesting.
Grab some paper and draw every accent that can make your work amazing.
Be creative! , It can be a part of song, poem or just a quote that you like.
Also it can be a title of a movie, song or just a name of someone that you like.
It should be inspiring and not dumb ( I mean imagine an amazing typography art that says " I like potatoes" ... ). , You can choose only one to the whole design but it will look better if every part or every word will be written with different font.
It's your choice, which version will you choose. , Draw lines (cap height, baseline and X-height) that will help you make your letters same height.
Plan where every singe word will be.
Will it be straight or cursiveĀ ? Thin or thick? Plan all of these. , Carefully fill every letter with ink.
Don't hurry, patience is the key to great design.
Then when all of the letters will be filled up, decorate it with some accents.
It will make your design more personal and interesting.
About the Author
Kelly Coleman
Brings years of experience writing about DIY projects and related subjects.
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