After a really long time, I am back to my blog. Moving to Silliguri from Chennai has brought in a lot of changes to my life. What i would like to write here is about the artistic resourcefulness of this place.
Of the many things which intested me here Pottery, Cane furniture and teak wood carving are the most intresting. Very close to Ranidanga where i stay is a place called Matigara, here one will find a row of thached shops on either side of the road with some very intresting and intricate pottery work. Thery have a wide range of products from the common flower pot designd to the most amazing terracotta stuff.One piece which you would find in almost every house here is the winding bell, the wind chime.
Go further down towards Baghdogra airport, again a row of shops with men crafting the best of teak wood furniture.
My next postings will concentrate more on these.
Thursday, September 28, 2006
Wednesday, March 15, 2006
Who Designed the font…?
Verdana was designed by Matthew Carter to be used and read on screen. Carter co-founded Bitstream Inc. in 1981, one of the first digital type foundries, where he worked for ten years. Designed with an eye for both function and aesthetics, Verdana's characters have a large x-height and are widely spaced to ensure that letters don't run together. The font was first released when shipped with Microsoft's Internet Explorer in 1996.
Baskerville is a transitional serif typeface designed by the English gentleman printer John Baskerville in 1757. Baskerville had also mastered the craft of engraving headstones, a knowledge that influenced his design process. His letters are sharply detailed with a vivid contrast between thick and thin elements. During his lifetime, Baskerville's letters were denounced as extremist, but today we think of Baskerville as a classic, elegant, and easy to read font. Baskerville's lifestyle was also regarded with suspicion: he was a professed agnostic living out of wedlock (see Mrs Eaves).
Bodoni , created by Giambattista Bodoni in the 1790s, is known as a modern typeface. It has nearly flat, unbracketed serifs, an extreme contrast between thick and thin strokes, and an overall vertical stress. Compared to Garamond, which is based on handwriting, Bodoni is severe, glamorous, and dehumanized. Similar typefaces were also designed in the late eighteenth century by François Ambroise Didot and Justus Erich Walbaum.
Caslon is named for the British typographer William Caslon, whose typefaces were an eighteenth-century staple and a personal favorite of Benjamin Franklin (who also enjoyed the racier innovations of John Baskerville). The U.S. Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were first printed in Caslon's types. Classified as transitional, Caslon has strong vertical elements and crisp serifs. Adobe Caslon, designed by Carol Twombly in 1990, transports Caslon's solid Anglo pedigree into the digital age.
Centaur was designed by Bruce Rogers between 1912 and 1914, inspired by the work of the fifteenth-century Venetian printer Nicolas Jenson. Emphatically calligraphic, Centaur is paired with the italic Arrighi, designed by Frederic Warde. Centaur was commissioned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art for printing the museum's ephemera. It is called Centaur because it was used in a 1915 publication of Maurice de Guerin's poem of the same name.
Century Expanded was created in 1900 by Morris Fuller Benton, who was trained as a mechanic and engineer and became a leading designer during the early years of the American Type Foundry. The Century family is so called because it was initiated by Morris's father, Linn Boyd Benton, for Century magazine. Classified as Egyptian owing to its slab serifs, Century Expanded maintains its substance and openness at small sizes. It is often used in children's books.
Clarendon, named for The Clarendon Press that commissioned its design in 1845, is classified as an Egyptian typeface. It has heavy, slab serifs and ball terminals on the arms of some letters. This stocky, functional, Victorian face can be seen in early advertisements as well as in dictionary entries.
HTF Didot was created by Jonathan Hoefler in 1992, inspired by the late eighteenth-century designs of Francois Ambroise Didot. It has an overall vertical stress, extreme contrast from thick to thin, and unbracketed serifs. Hoefler created different styles for use at different sizes, enabling the typeface to maintain its distinctive character across wildly divergent scales, from enormous letters on the side of a bus to tiny text on the pages of a magazine. Each font is represented by a number that lets the user know the smallest point size at which it should be used.
Fedra Sans was designed by Peter Bilak in 2001. Bilak was commissioned by Reudi Baur Integral Design to develop a corporate face for the German insurance company Bayerische Rück. The design brief required a "de-protestantized Univers." Bilak, a Czech-born designer working in the Netherlands, sought to create a face that would work equally well on screen and on paper, and at both small and large sizes. The Fedra type family includes at least 35 variations.
Franklin Gothic, designed in 1902 by Morris Fuller Benton for the American Type Founders , is one of the most popular sans-serif types ever produced. Named after Benjamin Franklin, it is a weighty sans-serif font often used for headlines. ATF later gave ITC permission to create additional weights for the Franklin Gothic family. Matthew Carter created a refined version of Franklin Gothic for use in the graphic identity of the Museum of Modern Art, New York.
Futura was designed by the German typographer Paul Renner in 1927. This geometric sans-serif font embodies Bauhaus ideals in a practical, commercially viable typeface. Futura has round O's and a capital M, N, and W with sharply pointed peaks and valleys. Renner, who viewed Futura as an appropriate typeface for the machine age, streamlined the alphabet by eliminating the tail from lowercase t and j.
Georgia, designed by Matthew Carter in 1996, is the serif companion to his sans serif font Verdana. Commissioned by Microsoft and created specifically for on-screen reading, it maintains clarity at small sizes and at low screen resolutions. It has a more vibrant character and open quality than Times, another common default face for Web designers.
Gill Sans was created by the English designer Eric Gill in 1928. Its forms are more humanistic, less geometric, than its German contemporary Futura. Note how the lowercase a relates to the a in Garamond (in contrast to the circular a of Futura). Additionally, Gill Sans is recognized by its flared capital R and the closed descender of the lowercase g. Gills Sans has been called Britain's Helvetica; it remains today an overwhelmingly popular typeface across the United Kingdom.
Garamond is the name for typefaces based on pages printed by Claude Garamond in sixteenth-century France. Many versions of Garamond were created in the twentieth century, including Adobe Garamond, designed by Robert Slimbach in 1989, and ITC Garamond, a distinctly 1970s version with a grossly enlarged x-height. Adobe Garamond honors the proportions of its Renaissance source while translating the face for modern use. Note the elegant, three-dimensional bowl of the lowercase a and the gap in the uppercase P.
Helvetica was designed in 1957 by Max Meidinger. This deliberately anonymous typeface is one of the world's most commonly used fonts, with variations created for both Latin and non-Latin characters. Its solid, upright forms are tempered by surprising curves in the lowercase a and the uppercase R. Helvetica has a generous x-height and is available in numerous weights and styles. It was called Neue Haas Grotesk before getting its current name, Helvetica, in the early 60s, which is the Latin word for "Switzerland."
News Gothic is a solid sans-serif face designed by Morris Fuller Benton in 1908. It is similar to Benton's other sans serifs, Franklin Gothic; and Alternate Gothic. The caps in News Gothic have a relatively uniform width, and the lowercase forms are compact and powerful.
Trade Gothic was designed by the American designer Jackson Burke between 1948 and 1960 for Linotype. Similar in character to nineteenth-century grotesques and twentieth-century staples like News Gothic, Trade Gothic has a large x-height and excellent condensed variants. Often used for newspaper headlines, Trade Gothic is tough, direct, and generic.
Baskerville is a transitional serif typeface designed by the English gentleman printer John Baskerville in 1757. Baskerville had also mastered the craft of engraving headstones, a knowledge that influenced his design process. His letters are sharply detailed with a vivid contrast between thick and thin elements. During his lifetime, Baskerville's letters were denounced as extremist, but today we think of Baskerville as a classic, elegant, and easy to read font. Baskerville's lifestyle was also regarded with suspicion: he was a professed agnostic living out of wedlock (see Mrs Eaves).
Bodoni , created by Giambattista Bodoni in the 1790s, is known as a modern typeface. It has nearly flat, unbracketed serifs, an extreme contrast between thick and thin strokes, and an overall vertical stress. Compared to Garamond, which is based on handwriting, Bodoni is severe, glamorous, and dehumanized. Similar typefaces were also designed in the late eighteenth century by François Ambroise Didot and Justus Erich Walbaum.
Caslon is named for the British typographer William Caslon, whose typefaces were an eighteenth-century staple and a personal favorite of Benjamin Franklin (who also enjoyed the racier innovations of John Baskerville). The U.S. Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were first printed in Caslon's types. Classified as transitional, Caslon has strong vertical elements and crisp serifs. Adobe Caslon, designed by Carol Twombly in 1990, transports Caslon's solid Anglo pedigree into the digital age.
Centaur was designed by Bruce Rogers between 1912 and 1914, inspired by the work of the fifteenth-century Venetian printer Nicolas Jenson. Emphatically calligraphic, Centaur is paired with the italic Arrighi, designed by Frederic Warde. Centaur was commissioned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art for printing the museum's ephemera. It is called Centaur because it was used in a 1915 publication of Maurice de Guerin's poem of the same name.
Century Expanded was created in 1900 by Morris Fuller Benton, who was trained as a mechanic and engineer and became a leading designer during the early years of the American Type Foundry. The Century family is so called because it was initiated by Morris's father, Linn Boyd Benton, for Century magazine. Classified as Egyptian owing to its slab serifs, Century Expanded maintains its substance and openness at small sizes. It is often used in children's books.
Clarendon, named for The Clarendon Press that commissioned its design in 1845, is classified as an Egyptian typeface. It has heavy, slab serifs and ball terminals on the arms of some letters. This stocky, functional, Victorian face can be seen in early advertisements as well as in dictionary entries.
HTF Didot was created by Jonathan Hoefler in 1992, inspired by the late eighteenth-century designs of Francois Ambroise Didot. It has an overall vertical stress, extreme contrast from thick to thin, and unbracketed serifs. Hoefler created different styles for use at different sizes, enabling the typeface to maintain its distinctive character across wildly divergent scales, from enormous letters on the side of a bus to tiny text on the pages of a magazine. Each font is represented by a number that lets the user know the smallest point size at which it should be used.
Fedra Sans was designed by Peter Bilak in 2001. Bilak was commissioned by Reudi Baur Integral Design to develop a corporate face for the German insurance company Bayerische Rück. The design brief required a "de-protestantized Univers." Bilak, a Czech-born designer working in the Netherlands, sought to create a face that would work equally well on screen and on paper, and at both small and large sizes. The Fedra type family includes at least 35 variations.
Franklin Gothic, designed in 1902 by Morris Fuller Benton for the American Type Founders , is one of the most popular sans-serif types ever produced. Named after Benjamin Franklin, it is a weighty sans-serif font often used for headlines. ATF later gave ITC permission to create additional weights for the Franklin Gothic family. Matthew Carter created a refined version of Franklin Gothic for use in the graphic identity of the Museum of Modern Art, New York.
Futura was designed by the German typographer Paul Renner in 1927. This geometric sans-serif font embodies Bauhaus ideals in a practical, commercially viable typeface. Futura has round O's and a capital M, N, and W with sharply pointed peaks and valleys. Renner, who viewed Futura as an appropriate typeface for the machine age, streamlined the alphabet by eliminating the tail from lowercase t and j.
Georgia, designed by Matthew Carter in 1996, is the serif companion to his sans serif font Verdana. Commissioned by Microsoft and created specifically for on-screen reading, it maintains clarity at small sizes and at low screen resolutions. It has a more vibrant character and open quality than Times, another common default face for Web designers.
Gill Sans was created by the English designer Eric Gill in 1928. Its forms are more humanistic, less geometric, than its German contemporary Futura. Note how the lowercase a relates to the a in Garamond (in contrast to the circular a of Futura). Additionally, Gill Sans is recognized by its flared capital R and the closed descender of the lowercase g. Gills Sans has been called Britain's Helvetica; it remains today an overwhelmingly popular typeface across the United Kingdom.
Garamond is the name for typefaces based on pages printed by Claude Garamond in sixteenth-century France. Many versions of Garamond were created in the twentieth century, including Adobe Garamond, designed by Robert Slimbach in 1989, and ITC Garamond, a distinctly 1970s version with a grossly enlarged x-height. Adobe Garamond honors the proportions of its Renaissance source while translating the face for modern use. Note the elegant, three-dimensional bowl of the lowercase a and the gap in the uppercase P.
Helvetica was designed in 1957 by Max Meidinger. This deliberately anonymous typeface is one of the world's most commonly used fonts, with variations created for both Latin and non-Latin characters. Its solid, upright forms are tempered by surprising curves in the lowercase a and the uppercase R. Helvetica has a generous x-height and is available in numerous weights and styles. It was called Neue Haas Grotesk before getting its current name, Helvetica, in the early 60s, which is the Latin word for "Switzerland."
News Gothic is a solid sans-serif face designed by Morris Fuller Benton in 1908. It is similar to Benton's other sans serifs, Franklin Gothic; and Alternate Gothic. The caps in News Gothic have a relatively uniform width, and the lowercase forms are compact and powerful.
Trade Gothic was designed by the American designer Jackson Burke between 1948 and 1960 for Linotype. Similar in character to nineteenth-century grotesques and twentieth-century staples like News Gothic, Trade Gothic has a large x-height and excellent condensed variants. Often used for newspaper headlines, Trade Gothic is tough, direct, and generic.
Friday, March 10, 2006
Ideal Line Lengths - a core usability issue
I happened to browse through one of the blogs today. The subject was pretty interesting, but there was no column separation whatsoever. The text runs from the extreme left to the right making the reading experience quite tiring. It is importance to understand the benefits of having a ideal line length for the content.
Well I am again comparing the print and the web. In print, be that magazines, books or newspapers the column width is maintained for comfortable reading. This has scientific reasons. At normal reading distances, your eyes can comfortably span an acute focus of only about 3 inches width. A 30-40 character per line is considered to be ideal in print layouts, so that you have a comfortable eye span focus.
In web, there is no fixed screen width. When the design is a fixed width layout, things are easier to control to a certain extent. But when you have a liquid layout, the alignment changes with the resolutions the user sets in his computer. Imagine a 1024 resolution with your content running from left to right! Not very interesting right?. A designer can control the width in a liquid layout using css. But its not foolproof.
The discussion about fixed vs. liquid layout has been going on for a long time with each on having their merits and shortcomings, with browser compatibility being one of the major concerns.
http://www.maxdesign.com.au/presentation/liquid/
http://www.stopdesign.com/log/2003/12/15/fixedorliquid.html
Lets be conscious of how we display our the content and make online reading a pleasant experience.
Well I am again comparing the print and the web. In print, be that magazines, books or newspapers the column width is maintained for comfortable reading. This has scientific reasons. At normal reading distances, your eyes can comfortably span an acute focus of only about 3 inches width. A 30-40 character per line is considered to be ideal in print layouts, so that you have a comfortable eye span focus.
In web, there is no fixed screen width. When the design is a fixed width layout, things are easier to control to a certain extent. But when you have a liquid layout, the alignment changes with the resolutions the user sets in his computer. Imagine a 1024 resolution with your content running from left to right! Not very interesting right?. A designer can control the width in a liquid layout using css. But its not foolproof.
The discussion about fixed vs. liquid layout has been going on for a long time with each on having their merits and shortcomings, with browser compatibility being one of the major concerns.
http://www.maxdesign.com.au/presentation/liquid/
http://www.stopdesign.com/log/2003/12/15/fixedorliquid.html
Lets be conscious of how we display our the content and make online reading a pleasant experience.
Monday, March 06, 2006
Typeface in the New Business Line
First it was the Hindu redesign on April 14th last year, Mario Garcia has now proved it again with the redesign of Business Line. The financial daily by the Hindu, unveiled its new design on Feb 14, 2006.And Frontline, a bi-weekly magazine published by The Hindu, gets its new look on March 2. And what is of interest to us besides the design aspects is the typeface used.
Mercury Display, Mercury Text, various weights of Griffith Gothic and Big Caslon are the type faces used by Mario Garcia and his team for the news paper.
Mercury as research suggests uniquely suits to the demands of editorial typography.
Griffith Gothic An interesting fontface with 18 styles, Griffith Gothic is recommended for Newspapers, Magazines and Branding & Identity.
Big Caslon Caslon’s text types have often been revived, but the display sizes, forceful and a touch eccentric, have had no digital version until Matthew Carter’s Big Caslon. The face is meant for use at eighteen point & above.
Among other uses this fontface is highly recommended for magazines.
Welcome Change for good!!!
Hopefully I get sometime during this weekend to ponder into the design aspects and usability of this new avatar :)
Mercury Display, Mercury Text, various weights of Griffith Gothic and Big Caslon are the type faces used by Mario Garcia and his team for the news paper.
Mercury as research suggests uniquely suits to the demands of editorial typography.
Griffith Gothic An interesting fontface with 18 styles, Griffith Gothic is recommended for Newspapers, Magazines and Branding & Identity.
Big Caslon Caslon’s text types have often been revived, but the display sizes, forceful and a touch eccentric, have had no digital version until Matthew Carter’s Big Caslon. The face is meant for use at eighteen point & above.
Among other uses this fontface is highly recommended for magazines.
Welcome Change for good!!!
Hopefully I get sometime during this weekend to ponder into the design aspects and usability of this new avatar :)
Friday, February 10, 2006
Type Classification
Trying to understand the charecteristics of a font face, i've been going through a lot of books and sites. Though there are innumerable classifications, there are 9 broad categories which give a better understanding of the subject. I am not going to dwell in detail about them here, rather will give few useful links.
1. Humanist
2. Garalde
3. Transitional
4. Didone
5. Slab-serif
6. Lineale
7. Glyphic
8. Script
9. Graphic / Decorative
http://jeff.cs.mcgill.ca/~luc/britishstandards.html http://www.typography-1st.com/typo/classtyp.shtml
http://www.redsun.com/type/classification/
1. Humanist
2. Garalde
3. Transitional
4. Didone
5. Slab-serif
6. Lineale
7. Glyphic
8. Script
9. Graphic / Decorative
http://jeff.cs.mcgill.ca/~luc/britishstandards.html http://www.typography-1st.com/typo/classtyp.shtml
http://www.redsun.com/type/classification/
Monday, January 16, 2006
Web Typography - Part2
FONT-FAMILY: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
How convenient, css has made our life!. Define the font face in the style sheet and just keep attaching the css in all the pages.
Hold. But why Verdana, Arial, Helvetica forever? For a change-can we use some other font face?
For the first question, most of us know the answer. These are web safe fonts and are legible in sizes used in the web. The comfortable x-height, line spacing and character spacing make these fonts a good choice for web. Finally if none of this font face is available, the viewer will be provided with the default sans-serif option in their system.
Serif – A font face with small extensions, which guide the user’s eyes from one character to the other. Our own “Times New Roman” is a good example of serif font face.
Sans-serif – A font face without a serif, or without any extensions. In print sans-serifs are used for headers, which has bigger font size and serifs are used for the content.
There are a whole lot of characteristics with which we can group font faces, besides just the serifs and sans-serif. Typography as a subject offers a great scope for this. Besides there are legibility studies which try to understand the best type face that can be used for a print/web purpose. http://psychology.wichita.edu/surl/usabilitynews/3S/font.htm, http://www.alexpoole.info/academic/literaturereview.html.
Well, these are just two links I came across about legibility studies. There is ofcourse a lot of argument, for and against a particular type face.
But as always - "Change is inevitable"
So are we ready for a change of type face for the web? Let’s discuss.
How convenient, css has made our life!. Define the font face in the style sheet and just keep attaching the css in all the pages.
Hold. But why Verdana, Arial, Helvetica forever? For a change-can we use some other font face?
For the first question, most of us know the answer. These are web safe fonts and are legible in sizes used in the web. The comfortable x-height, line spacing and character spacing make these fonts a good choice for web. Finally if none of this font face is available, the viewer will be provided with the default sans-serif option in their system.
Serif – A font face with small extensions, which guide the user’s eyes from one character to the other. Our own “Times New Roman” is a good example of serif font face.
Sans-serif – A font face without a serif, or without any extensions. In print sans-serifs are used for headers, which has bigger font size and serifs are used for the content.
There are a whole lot of characteristics with which we can group font faces, besides just the serifs and sans-serif. Typography as a subject offers a great scope for this. Besides there are legibility studies which try to understand the best type face that can be used for a print/web purpose. http://psychology.wichita.edu/surl/usabilitynews/3S/font.htm, http://www.alexpoole.info/academic/literaturereview.html.
Well, these are just two links I came across about legibility studies. There is ofcourse a lot of argument, for and against a particular type face.
But as always - "Change is inevitable"
So are we ready for a change of type face for the web? Let’s discuss.
Tuesday, December 20, 2005
Web Typography - Part1
If i were asked one important reason why i enjoy doing a print design more that a web design, the answer will be "TYPOGRAPHY". You really get to play around with fonts and give life to the design in print.The type face slected by itself speaks a language, complementing the design.
What are the main bottlenecks in webdesign as far as typography goes.
1. You do not have control over the output. i.e. you never know which browser the user will view your file. Browser compatability is a mojor consideration to stick to conventional type faces.
2. Resolution - in your print output you can set your resolution to 300 dpi (dots per inch) to improve the quality. But in web you have no control over this (close to 76-96 dpi). So you stick to the legible sans-serif's.
3. In print its the subtractive color system (CMYK) and in web its the addditive color system(RGB). This is explained in detail in my previous posting. In the additive color system RGB is combined in full intensity to give white. This gives an overly luminous effect. (Remember most of us reduce the brightness level in our miniter for convenience, this is the reason). This might not directly influence the font face you use, but understanding helps.
In the next part i will be discussing about principles in web typography
Comments are welcome!!!
What are the main bottlenecks in webdesign as far as typography goes.
1. You do not have control over the output. i.e. you never know which browser the user will view your file. Browser compatability is a mojor consideration to stick to conventional type faces.
2. Resolution - in your print output you can set your resolution to 300 dpi (dots per inch) to improve the quality. But in web you have no control over this (close to 76-96 dpi). So you stick to the legible sans-serif's.
3. In print its the subtractive color system (CMYK) and in web its the addditive color system(RGB). This is explained in detail in my previous posting. In the additive color system RGB is combined in full intensity to give white. This gives an overly luminous effect. (Remember most of us reduce the brightness level in our miniter for convenience, this is the reason). This might not directly influence the font face you use, but understanding helps.
In the next part i will be discussing about principles in web typography
Comments are welcome!!!
Wednesday, December 07, 2005
Color: RGB and CMYK
Color is a very important mechanism used to develop and reinforce a concept or identity. Any color display you see on your monitor is a RGB combination or the RED, Green and Blue combination. RGB is a "additive color combination", i.e. when you add red, green and blue you get white. The printed color display is a CMYK combination or the Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black. This is also known as "4-color process" or "full color" printing. CMYK is a "subtractive color combination", when cyan, magenta and yellow colors are added it absorbs all the light and your eye perceives a black color.
Understanding of RGB and CMYK color space is very essential for designers and people who work in this field. This would clarify as to why some colors look different in a print as to seeing in a monitor.
http://marvin.mrtoads.com/rgb_vs_cmyk.html is a useful site for designers who work in the print media.
I find myself using more of the curves tool when working in the CMYK mode. This i guess is basically to balance the cyan and magenta values to bring the requiered shade of blue in the print output. Mac is any day preferable to work for print designs for the caliberation closeness between the screen and print. (I can still hear the mac guy cursing me for all the nagging i've done to caliberate my monitor to perfection)
Understanding of RGB and CMYK color space is very essential for designers and people who work in this field. This would clarify as to why some colors look different in a print as to seeing in a monitor.
http://marvin.mrtoads.com/rgb_vs_cmyk.html is a useful site for designers who work in the print media.
I find myself using more of the curves tool when working in the CMYK mode. This i guess is basically to balance the cyan and magenta values to bring the requiered shade of blue in the print output. Mac is any day preferable to work for print designs for the caliberation closeness between the screen and print. (I can still hear the mac guy cursing me for all the nagging i've done to caliberate my monitor to perfection)
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Verdana was designed by Matthew Carter to be used and read on screen. Carter co-founded Bitstream Inc. in 1981, one of the first digital ty...