Almost everything we read, including ads, marketing collateral, web sites, product packaging, billboards, and books, is designed by a graphic designer. If you’re like most people, when you think of graphic design, you think of desktop publishing — or someone sitting at a computer putting together colorful pictures accompanied by text.

While the images themselves are important in piquing a reader’s interest, it’s typography that actually aids the reader in understanding and retaining the information presented.

In very general terms, typography is how text is presented on page. Good typography will aid reader comprehension — just as bad typography will hinder it.

Typography is especially crucial when it comes to designing marketing communications material. Because you’re selling a product or service, you want typography that aids readability. Yet, many times businesses unwittingly hamper their marketing efforts with typography that creates obstacles for the reader.

In the next two newsletter issues, I’ll show you a few of the elements that can dramatically reduce reader comprehension — and thus decrease sales. This month I cover “rivers” of white space and holes in your text; next month I’ll discuss using serif and san-serif typefaces.

Double spaces and justified text

If you’re of a certain age (ie: pre-computer!), you took typing in high school where it was drilled into you to put two spaces after the period. Because typewriters use a monospace (each letter takes up one space) typeface, the extra space was needed for the eye to pick up the beginning of a new sentence.

And that habit carried over to word processors and computers, even though the software automatically sets the spacing for us (an “m” is wider than an “l,” for example).

The trouble with a double space after a period is that it creates blank spots or holes in the text, making the text visually unappealing and difficult to read. (See Figure 1.) Designers normally remove the extra space when laying out text, so you never see it.
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Figure 1: Note the white hole after the word “designer” on the fifth line. Also note the large spaces between words on the first and third lines. Rivers of white space are easier to see if you squint your eyes at this text.

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Another design element that can create obstacles for the reader is justified text. Justified text gives a neat appearance to columns of copy as it eliminates the ragged right edge. However, justified text can also create rivers of white space or large gaps in the text that are repeated on consecutive lines. (See Figure 1.)

To remedy this situation, a good designer will even out the spacing of justified text by manually adjusting the kerning and letter spacing. Text that has been justified well has “even greyness.”

Too many spaces and justified text handled poorly are just two elements that can hinder readability. Next month I’ll discuss serif versus san-serif typefaces.

© Enrico Design, Inc. 2002

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Hope you enjoy the last weeks of summer.

Happy August,

Linda E.

For more information on our results-oriented
marketing communications services,
log on to http://www.enricodesign.com/ or
call (781) 631-2520 or contact us by email.