Evaluating typography and typesetting

by Paul Baker

Attractive, well-executed typography adds elegance and improves communication. Poor type can seriously degrade otherwise inspired design.

The following is a brief basic guide to evaluating type quality, whether the type is produced by an outside typesetter or designer or done in-house.

It is impossible to illustrate examples about typography in HTML without using many GIFs. Please excuse the downloading. We have tried to keep the images small. We’ve also made the backgrounds white to better show typographic detail.

Contents

Letter spacing (and kerning and tracking)

Word spacing

Leading

Typeface selection and usage

Formatting

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