Typography notes 7 PDF

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What is a display font? And what is the best place to use a display typeface? Discover the answers to those questions and more in this article. As a budding designer, it's important to get familiar with the term and when it's used. In this article, I'll go through a display font definition, the typeface history of display fonts, and outline some essential tips and great examples from our Envato Elements library. Creating an atmosphere and a feeling on a page is not as easy as it sounds. As designers, we pay close attention to details and devote our time to choosing legible fonts that will make our readers comfortable. Clean designs can often neglect the creation of a feeling on a page. Follow along with us over on our Envato Tuts+ YouTube channel:

What Is a Display Font? If you've been looking for a display font definition, here it is: display fonts are designed to be used at large scale to convey a specific feeling. We see them in custom logos and beautifully laid-out editorial stories. Drop caps are another way to use them and enhance your design. The best display fonts can create an atmosphere in an instant and are great elements to include in your design.

In this article, we'll take a look at display fonts and their part in typeface history, and how they came to be popular. The digital era has made it easier for designers to create their own display fonts, so I'll show you a few great examples from our own Envato Elements library. Let's get started! Text vs. Display Text fonts are specifically designed to be read at smaller point sizes and in long blocks of text. Serif fonts used to be and sometimes still are the font of choice for long blocks of text. In the last few years, we've seen a rise in the popularity of sans serif fonts as a choice for text too. Designers have focused on making them legible at small point sizes.

To attract readers to the copy, designers use display fonts. By following a specific theme and choosing a display font accordingly, we can create an atmosphere on the page. Display fonts are used to stand out and perform at larger sizes compared to text copy. Currently, some serif typefaces are developed with a display version in mind, which is great news for serif lovers. The difference between serif text and serif display lies primarily in the x-height of the lowercase characters. Text serifs have taller x-height, and the serifs are more noticeable, so characters can be identified more easily.

Traditional display fonts are sometimes called decorative, and these fonts can help you carry a theme throughout a project. These fonts scream, “Look at me!” and are designed for specific purposes or with a theme in mind. Traditional display fonts don’t include a text size version because they are meant to be used sparingly at a large point size in headlines and advertising. Decorative fonts may incorporate graphic elements and details that make them illegible when scaled down. Often, you’ll see logos using customized display fonts that are unique and stylized. These aim to convey a specific personality that fits a brand. There's a wide range of display fonts to choose from, and with new technology, it is easier to create them.

Typeface History and Display Fonts In the 15th century, Johannes Gutenberg developed the printing press, which led to the mass production of printed publications in Europe. However, the Industrial Revolution accelerated the way type was produced through the invention of new processes and machinery. The Industrial Revolution had two major effects in typography: functional type design and the production of mass advertising. The Linotype Machine was invented during this time by Ottmar Mergenthaler. This new machine worked the same way as a typewriter and shortened the time that was needed to set type. While typesetting got easier, punch-cutting became faster. Linn Boyd Benton invented a pantographic device that could scale a drawing to any size. This is where many of the typefaces got stretched and compressed.

The invention of lithography in the 1800s made it possible to print large prints. By the end of the century, the ability to print large-scale posters with multiple colors helped start advertising. The Industrial Revolution also made room for signs, posters, and newspapers for the masses. The rise of these mediums called for large-scale characters that could attract attention in public spaces. Heavier, bolder, and stretched typefaces were the result of the need for awareness.

There are multiple categories within decorative/display fonts. Up to this day, we are still creating them, and we've seen a resurgence of many of them every 10–15 years. Here, we've gathered the most important categories to know: 

Slab serifs were introduced as display fonts at first. The block-like rectangular serifs commanded attention, and their sturdy serifs held up well during printing. Later on, they were added alongside Roman fonts as an alternative to italics to highlight text.

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Fat faces first appeared between 1810 and 1820 and were intended for display purposes. The anatomy was exaggerated, with thick vertical lines and the vertical serifs turned into a wedge shape.

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Wood Type was carved out of wood and cut perpendicular to the grain. The anatomy of wood type lacked fine lines and was unusually compressed and extended. Wood type has an “Old West” feeling as it was associated with America in the 1870–1900 period.

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Scripts and brush typefaces are based on handwriting—usually writing with a steel nib pen, brush, or regular pen. Some typefaces have a more traditional look, while others are now based on current handwriting.

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Art Nouveau brought ornamental typefaces that featured organic and intricate lines during the late 19th century. A revival occurred in the 1960s that brought the style back to popularity.

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Art Deco was the opposite of Art Nouveau. First appearing in the 1920s and 1930s, Art Deco found beauty in clean and geometric lines. Art Deco fonts can also be classified as sans serif

fonts because of the lack of serifs, but they can be extremely difficult to read in long-form text. Art Deco fonts also made a comeback in the 1970s and 1980s.

Lawless font Lawless is a great example of the style of fonts developed during the Industrial Revolution. Drawn in pencil and further developed in Illustrator, Lawless is inspired by Wood Type in the 1800s. Perfect if you are looking for an "Old West" style display font. With the popularity of digital fonts, the display font category is becoming larger and larger. Nowadays there are thousands of display fonts that can suit any theme for layout design, branding, and advertising. Envato Elements has a great library of display and decorative fonts that are useful for evoking a particular subject, mood, or historical period. Let’s take a look at a few: Circus Freak Font There's no question about what is the best place to use a display typeface called Circus Freak. It's a display font inspired by the old American wood type from the late 1800s. The font is chromatic, meaning that you can stack two or more styles from the same family on top of one another in different colors. There are four styles that can be layered for a vintage letterpress effect. Bonus points for the four highresolution textures this download includes!...