by Runyu Xia

What are the most important typography terms?

Readability and personality.

Typography is to convey correct information to the audience effectively. To achieve this purpose, readability plays an essential role.

Readability refers to multiple aspects, including font size, font type, font weight, font color, leading and tracking. The key factor to improve readability is building clear hierarchy, which means creating strong contrast. In general, we make the most important information stand out most. For example, if we need to make the title stand out, we can make the contrast stronger by reinforcing the title or weakening the rest part visually (See image01). A lack of hierarchy ruins the reading experience and will be frustratingly noticeable for audiences (See image02). Great typography should be invisible.

Personality is more about the visual look of font. Everything needs to fit well each other to keep the whole style consistent. Picking the “right” font can bring the overall typography to a new level. For example, branding for an elegant luxury brand might make serif the best choice, whereas a technology company’s website might be better suited to sans serif.

imgae 01-Typography with clear hierarchy