Rules and Terms

-- Parts of the grid: what are the following: margin, column, alley, module, gutter, folio. Margins are the spaces surrounding the grid that are typically left blank. Columns are the areas in a grid that text is placed to give order. A module is a single organizational or divisional element element (a little box) in a modular grid. Gutters are the inner two margins of facing pages. Folios are page numbers and are usually placed on the outer edge of a page to aid navigation.

-- What are the advantages of a multiple column grid? Multiple column grids allow the designer more freedom and provide a more flexible format.

-- Why is there only one space after a period? The characters on a computer are proportional, not monospaced.

-- What is a character (in typography)? Characters are any letter, number, space, or punctuation mark.

-- How many characters is optimal for a line length? words per line?

-- Why is the baseline grid used in design? So all text, no matter what its size, lines up.

-- What is a typographic river?

-- What does clotheslining or flow line or hangline mean? These terms refer to an imaginary horizontal line running through the top of a page. Most of the top blocks of text, pictures, etc. should “hang” off of the line. This line helps lead the reader across the page and creates stronger designs.

-- How can you incorporate white space into your designs?

-- What is type color/texture mean?

-- What is x-height, how does it effect type color? The x-height is the height of the main part of a lowercase letter. When the x-heights of a font are smaller, they create the impression of a condensed black line crossing the page whereas fonts with larger x-heights tend to look greyer.

-- Define Tracking. Tracking is the process of adjusting the spacing between letters.

-- Define Kerning. Why doe characters need to be kerned? What are the most common characters that need to be kerned (kerning pairs)? Kerning is the process of removing small spaces between letters to create visually-consistent letterspacing. The most common kerning pairs are: H and L, H and O, O and C, O and T, and A and T.

-- In justification or H&J terms what do the numbers: minimum, optimum, maximum mean?

-- What is the optimum space between words?

-- What are some ways to indicate a new paragraph. Are there any rules? To indicate new paragraph you can either add a few points in a box usually called after or you can indent the paragraph. Don’t do both; it’s redundant.

-- What are the rules associated with hyphenation? Avoid more than two hyphenations in a row. Avoid too many hyphenations in a paragraph. Avoid stupid hyphenations. Never hyphenate in a heading. Break lines sensibly.

-- What is a ligurature? Liguratures are the combinations of two letters. A common one is the & symbol which is made of the letters E and T.

-- What does CMYK and RGB mean? They are different color systems. CMYK stands for cyan, magenta, yellow, and black and is used when preparing for print. RGB stands for red, green, and blue and is for on-screen use.

-- What does hanging punctuation mean? Hanging punctuation is useful when there are quotes separated from the main body of text or other situations where punctuation can look a little “off.” The program adjusts the format slightly so the text beneath the first line is lined up with the text above and not the quotation mark.

-- What is the difference between a foot mark and an apostrophe? What is the difference betweenan inch mark and a quote mark (smart quote)? Foot marks and inch marks are straight up and down. Apostrophes and quote marks curve or angle slightly.

-- What is a hyphen, en dash and em dashes, what are the differences and when are they used. Hyphens are the shortest of the dashes (1/3 of an em) and are used for hyphenating words (duh) and for line breaks. En dashes are ½ an em and are used between words indicating a duration. They are used where the word “to” could go. They are also used in compound adjectives when one of the two elements is already made of two words or is already hyphenated. Em dashes are used in a similar manner as colons or parentheses or it indicates an abrupt change in thought. There should be no spacing around the em dash.

-- What is a widow and an orphan? A widow is a lone word at the end of a paragraph (or seven or fewer characters). An orphan is created when the last one or two lines of a paragraph are separated from the main body by the creation of a new column.