In this article, we're going to reveal some typography tips and tricks that you can use to boost your design skills and impress friends and colleagues. But before you even begin getting into the intricacies of setting type in the likes of InDesign, it's important to know the basics.

1. 10 typography tricks every
designer should know
MD. SHAHADAT HOSSAIN

2. 01. Kern upside down
In this article, we're going to
reveal some typography tips and
tricks that you can use to boost
your design skills and impress
friends and colleagues. But
before you even begin getting
into the intricacies of setting
type in the likes of InDesign, it's
important to know the basics.

3. 02. Blur it
Another tested technique is to
either blur (perhaps take a
screenshot and blur it in Photoshop
– or more likely squint a little bit)
Like Brian Hoff says in this excellent
article (See more expert kerning
tricks in this brilliant article from
Brian Hoff.) "I like to blur my
eyesight a bit by squinting or
crossing my eyes.

4. 03. Kern with balloons
Another, perhaps more abstract
kerning tip (and one designer
Tom Sewell taught us a long time
ago) is to imagine that between
each letter there are balloons of
equal size and volume, forcing
the letters apart. As Tom told us,
"aim to space the letters so that
the balloons fit exactly between
them without being squeezed out
above and below"..

5. 04. Use 'o' to space words
Another tip is to always consider the spaces
before and after the word you’re working on and
ensure that they are spaced correctly visually. A
good rule of thumb is to imagine that the
character 'o' sits between each word (thanks
again to Tom for that one).

6. 05. Rough out headlines
In headlines, kerning and tracking is
most obvious – so it's essential to get it
right. And sans serif fonts can
accentuate your mistakes.
When working with sans serif headlines,
make sure you get a rough tracking
before you kern. If you have to put -10
kerning between almost every character
combination, you should be using
tracking at -10 before you do your
individual character spacing.

7. 06. Forget about small caps
John D Berry knows his stuff –
after all, he's written several
books on type and typography,
including 'Type & Typography'
published by Mark Batty. His
top tip? Unless you know the
difference between true small
caps and fake ones, it's best to
just forget that your design
app's Small Caps command
exists.

8. 07. Keep the font count low
It's important to think of your type as
a whole in your project. When you
use more than three fonts – maybe a
slab, a serif and a display in your
project – it can sometimes be difficult
to read and understand; the project
can lack order. Usually, one font has
different weights and you can create a
stunning,

9. 08. Rental revolution
There's a new rental service in
town – and it rectifies the age-
old problem of trying fonts to
their full capacity before you
pull the trigger and purchase.
That service is called Skyfonts
from Monotype and enables
you to try any font from its
library for five minutes, for free.

10. 09. Don't push it (unless you really want/need to)
Unless you're after a specific
effect (or working on an
illustrated piece) don't stretch,
skew or otherwise alter fonts
by messing with their
dimensions after turning to
outlines. You wouldn't stretch a
photo or refined vector piece
and you can often end up with
an ugly, amateurish result.

11. 10. Think of type as a voice
Here's an interesting tip we picked up from Hoon Kim (of
Why Not Smile: "To deal with type is much the same as
to control one's voice: [think of] selecting typefaces as
voice quality; having a relationship with type in size,
amount and degrees as vocal tone; and setting layouts
of type as voices in space and time. Typographic design
is visible as well as audible. If you have a great scenario,
now it is time to cast good actors."

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