Design Definitions

01 - absolute measurement – measurements of fixed values. Ex. A millimeter is a precisely defined increment of a centimeter. They are expressed in terms that can not be altered.
02 - relative measurement – measurement that is relative to the size of type that is being set. Leading is another measurement that is used here.
03 – point – the basic typographic measurement along with pica’s. It is used to measure the type size of a font.
04 – pica – the basic typographic measurement along with points. One pica is equal to 12 points and it is commonly used for measuring lines of type.
05 - em (and em dash) - a linear unit (1/6 inch) used in printing. It is used in typesetting to define basic spacing functions. It is used to define elements such as paragraph indents and spacing.
06 - en (and en dash – is half the width of an em
07 – legibility – typographic clarity comes in two forms, legibility and readability. It’s distinctness that makes perception easy.. the analysis of legibility involves a range of factors, perspectives, and methodologies.
08 – rag – occur when highly noticeable shapes form by the line ends of text blocks that distract from simple, uninterrupted reading.
09 - type alignments: flush left, flush right, centered, justified. list advantages and/or disadvantages
10 - word spacing: what is the ideal – adjusts the space between words.
11 – rivers – typically occur in justified text blocks when the separation of the words leaves gaps of white space in several lines.
12 – indent – first line indent, the text is indented from the left margin in the fist line. There are running, hanging, and on a point indents.
13 – leading – refers to the space between the lines of text in a text block.
14 – kerning – the design of text faces incorporates inbuilt automatic adjustments to the spacing of particular letter pairs.
15 – tracking – adjusting the overall space between letters, also known as letter spacing.
16 – weight – include single bold variant, which is common. There are intermediate weights, such as book, medium, and demi, or extremes such as black or ultra bold.
17 – scale – designers use scale to differentiate the content by increasing the size.
18 - typographic variation – differing typefaces, weights, and sizes, the intro of bold, italic or small-cap fonts.
19 – orphan – is the final one or two lines of a paragraph separated from the main paragraph to form a new column, and should be avoided at all costs.
20 – widow – a lone word at the end of a paragraph.