Typography

Typography is the element of design that encompasses everything about type: how letters are arranged, the fonts designers choose, and how they are styled. Making the right choices about type can help convey emotion and meaning, enhance legibility, create visual hierarchy, and shape brand identity.

Users often rely on words to make sense of a product, so effective typography is a vital component of an interface. When incorporating typography in digital products, considerations include color, size, style, readability, and spacing.

In discussing type, it’s common to encounter the terms “font” and “typeface.” In common usage today, the term font is broadly used to describe a set of characters of the same style. Historically, typeface referred to an entire family of fonts, such as Helvetica, Futura, or Times New Roman, while font referred to a specific size and weight of that typeface, such as “Helvetica Bold 12 pt.” Today, the terms font and typeface are often used interchangeably.