The Complete Guide to Digital Type: Creative Use of Typography in the Digital Arts

This comprehensive guide to creating and using digital type, both in print and for the web, is an essential reference for students and practicing designers alike. An introduction offers a brief history and discusses font classification, software, and the ways in which the computer has revolutionized typography. A section on good typographic practice provides expert advice on issues such as legibility, contrast, size, line length, line spacing, and justification, as well as guidance on how to lay out type and construct grids.

Step-by-step explanations are provided for creating a wide range of type effects: drop shadows, wood block style, bevel and emboss, gradients, fading type, type on curves, perforated type, and more. Designing type for the screen presents a new set of challenges and topics covered include editable HTML, type as an image, and how to choose fonts, type size, and color. A chapter on creating your own fonts discusses how to get the most out of industry -- standard software -- Fontographer and FontLab -- and describes how to build up letterforms and refine them in Photoshop or Illustrator. Numerous creative approaches to font design discussed here include amending existing typefaces, combining typefaces, and creating fonts out of found objects.

With clear, authoritative text and over 400 diagrams and full-color illustrations, The Complete Guide to Digital Type will inform and inspire designers of all levels of experience.

Andy Elision is a lecturer in the Graphics and Design department at Staffordshire University. He has a first class honors degree in Typography and Editorial Design and a Master's degree in Communication Design from Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, London.