Thursday, February 12, 2009

10 COMMANDMENTS: HOW TO MAKE AND BREAK THEM

How to make them:
1. Thou shalt not apply more than three typefaces in a document
2. Thou shalt lay headlines large and at the top of a page. 
3. Thou shalt employ no other type size than 8pt to 10pt for body copy.
4. Remember that a typeface that is not legible is not truly a type face.
5. Honor thy kerning, so that white space becomes visually equalized between characters.
6. Thou shalt lay stress discreetly upon elements within text.
7. Thou shalt not use only capitals when setiing vast bod copy.
8. Thou shalt always align letters and words on a baseline.
9. Thou shalt use flush-left, ragged-right alignment.
10. Thou shalt not make lines too short or to long.

How to break them:
1. Break the letters imposed by the use of only three typefaces.
2. Let thine eyes be seduced by the hiearchy of type.
3. Do not forsake smaller or bigger sizes.
4. Be seduced into trying new and expressive typefaces.
5. Treat kerning and tracking with total irrevence. 
6. Entice the reader to sample the delights of your text.
7. Do not forgo the liberal use of capitals within your text
8. The Lord designed letterforms to stand side by side, but there is no harm in their being lured away from one another.
9. Yield to the temptation to align text in unusual ways.
10. Lure the reader down unfamiliar paths.

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