Typography is the part of design that deals specifically with text. It is primarily concerned with the size and style of typeface. Typography is an area that people might not think much about, but the way words look greatly affects the reader’s enjoyment as well as the likelyhood of a message getting read.

Size
Typographers measure the size of typeface in points. A point is 1/72 of an inch. The number of points of a typeface is measured from the bottom of the letters that drop below the line, such as p, q, and y, to the top of the tallest letters like l and k.

Readers usually prefer a 12 point font in standard 8.5×11″ documents. If the font is much larger, the reader feels like the print is shouting through the entire message. It’s okay to have headings and subheadings in a larger font because they are only a few words long, and the larger font adds contrast, making the headings stand out. 

On the other hand, if the font is much smaller than 12 point, readers tend to avoid reading it all together. The saying about fine print is true – stuff does get hidden in it because few people actually read it. If you were doing a catalog printing, for example, you wouldn’t want to put contact information in a 9 point font because people are likely not to notice it.

Style
The style of the typeface is the font. In the print world, font refers to a complete set of type that has the same size and style. In the digital world, font refers only to the style.

There are four broad characteristics of fonts. A font is either a serif font or a sans-serif font. And a font is either a variable-width font or a fixed-width font.   

• Serif fonts – Serifs are the little lines at the ends of letters, such as in Times New Roman. Serifs help the reader to distinguish between letters, and they also help to draw the reader’s eye forward. For these reasons, serif fonts are generally easier to read, and most people prefer them over sans-serif fonts.
• Sans-serif fonts – These are fonts that don’t have serifs. Arial is one example. Reserve sans-serif fonts for large-sized text, such as headings.
• Variable-width fonts – These fonts vary the distance between letters depending on what letters are next to one another. For instance, two l’s (ll) next to each other are usually closer together than the other letters. Readers usually find variable-width fonts easier to read than fixed-width.
• Fixed-width fonts – These fonts have the same distance between each letter, causing a uneven look. This can be adjusted manually, though, using the kerning/tracking options in your software program.

Which font you use has a lot to do with the type of project you are doing. For a college text book, which has a lot of text, you may want to stick with a serif, variable-width font for ease of reading. But in a project like a catalog printing, you could use a sans-serif, fixed-width font for the headings and a serif font for the product descriptions to add contrast.

Attributes
Style attributes of fonts are any differences from the regular look of the font, such as italics, underlining, and bold print. These attributes help to draw attention to the parts of a message that you want readers notice and remember. 

Just don’t use too many of these or they will lose their effect. For example, in catalog printing, you would want to use bold typeface for words like SALE and FREE to get people’s attention, but if you made all the typeface in the catalog bold, then these words would not stand out.

One more tip for adding attributes: for professional printing projects, such as the catalog printing mentioned above, don’t use the bold or italic options in the font toolbar, otherwise these style attributes may not translate in the printer’s software program. Rather, choose the bold or italic version of the actual font you are using, such as Arial Black.

If the font you are using doesn’t have a bold or italic version, simply use a different font for that group of words. Just be careful to not use too many different fonts, otherwise you’ll end up with a cluttered look. The general rule of thumb is about three fonts per document.