What's the point?
In this lab, you'll learn a practical strategy for coming up with a good font selection. It's also a good way to get more tuned into the whole issue of font choice and to develop your own judgment about how to use fonts well.
Step 1: Inventory the fonts
a. Download this file
It contains an infographic by Nigel Holmes on a layer called "model"
Step 2. Analyze uses of text
Mostly, this lab is focused on the formatting of text, but it makes sense to also consider how text is used since formatting is often used to distinguish different uses of text (e.g. there may be one format for labels and another for annotations).
a. Study the info graphic to see how text is used (look for the three uses we've talked about: annotation, identification labels and precision labels).
If you forgot these terms, please refer to step 4a in the Biofuel Lab
b. Create a new layer called "comments". Following the model below, list the three uses of text and write some comments about whether you see each type of usage in this infographic (* note the model text is a generic example - it sin't referring to the visual about water quality that you're working with right now):
ANNOTATION: Your description of how annotations are used in a visual might start something like this "There is one annotation in this visual - a paragraph describing..."
LABELS: Your description of how labels are used in a visual might start something like this: "The circles are labeled to indicate what each represents (e.g. ..."
PRECISION LABELS: Your description of precision labels used in a visual might start something like this: "The circles are also labeled with numbers to indicate exactly how much ... they represent...."
Step 3: Inventory the font variations
a. Identify all of the font variations used in the text accompanying the graphic. Look for different sizes, different colors, different weights, different styles (e.g. italic), different font faces.
b. Write a summary of the font variants and when they're used:
SIZE: Your description of font sizes used in a visual might start something like this "There are # different sizes of type. The largest size is used for the title. A medium size is used for labels..."
COLOR: Your description of colors used in a visual might start something like this "There are # 'colors' (black, and white). Black is used when..."
FONT FAMILY: Your description of font families used in a visual might start something like this "All of the variants seem to use the same, sans-serif font...."
c. Make a note about what strategy/ies are used to make it clear which visual element a piece of text is referring to (some common strategies are proxmity, pointers and using the same color for the label as the visual element). Example:
ASSOCIATION STRATEGY: Your description of how text is associated with visual elements might start something like this "The labels are placed on top of the elements they're labeling...."
Step 4. Legibility
Various qualities of text determine how easy it is to read. Most of those qualities come from the design of the font itself, but an important one is the level of contrast between the font color and the background color.
a: Make a copy of the model visual and use Edit -> Edit Colors -> Convert to Grayscale to make it black & white:
b. Make a note about whether any of the text becomes illegible:
LEGIBILITY: Your comments about text legibility in a visual might start something like this "The one bit of text that is slightly difficult to read in grayscale is..."
Step 5: Copy this style
a. Download this copy of the biofuels pie. I've adopted background and pie colors from the water quality visual, but made all of the text generic (i.e. Times Roman, 12pt) so you can modify it.
b. Change the colors and the font styles to match the water quality visual. Consider all of the elements you identified above (i.e. make an effort to match how text is used in the water quality visual by considering all of these):
ANNOTATIONS
LABELS
PRECISION LABELS
SIZE
COLOR
FONT FAMILY
ASSOCIATION STRATEGY
LEGIBILITY
NOTE about matching font families: Don't spend too much time trying to get this perfect - chances are you won't have exactly the same font family in your list anyway (designers often use fonts they've purchased separately rather than those than come with Illustrator). It's good to develop an eye for how fonts differ and trying to match fonts is a good way to do this).
Example:
my effort at matching this font:
(it's not quite right - mine is heavier and a little wider, but it's close).
b. You'll find many options for tweaking text in the Character panel:
...but do this with caution - it's not really a good thing since it distorts the fonts which have been carefully designed.
c. Make notes in the file telling me what you've done and why (and tell me if you like the result).
FINAL PRODUCTS: fontAnalysis.ai, biofuelsPieTextFormatting.ai
Some cool font-related resources:
http://www.myfonts.com/WhatTheFont/ - upload a font and have it identified
http://www.identifont.com/index.html - identify a font by answering a series of questions
http://www.juiceanalytics.com/writing/simple-font-framework/ - great video that goes over the basics of choosing fonts