Typography and Lettering: How Letters Make Words Easy to Read

What is typography?

Typography means choosing letters and arranging them so words are easy to read and look right. It is used in books, posters, apps, signs and logos.

• Typeface: a family of letter designs, such as a plain style or a curly style.
• Font: one member of that family, for example bold, 12 point.
• Lettering: drawing letters by hand for one special job, like a poster heading.

Good typography is almost invisible: the reader just reads easily and gets the message.

Parts of a letter and guide lines

Before lettering by hand, draw light guide lines:

• Baseline: the line letters stand on.
• x-height: the height of small letters like x, a, e.
• Cap height: the height of capital letters.
• Ascender (the part of b, d, h above x-height) and descender (the part of g, p, y below the baseline).

A stroke is one line of a letter. Thick and thin strokes give a letter its character.

Typeface families

• Serif: small feet at stroke ends. Feels classic; common in printed books.
• Sans-serif (sans = without): no feet. Feels clean; common on screens and signs.
• Script: joined, like handwriting. Good for invitations, poor for long text.
• Display: bold, decorative letters for big headings only.
• Monospace: every letter has the same width, like typewriter or code text.

Roman and Devanagari lettering

Roman letters (used for English and many other languages) stand on the baseline. Capitals are all the same height; small letters have ascenders and descenders.

Devanagari (used for Hindi, Marathi, Sanskrit, Nepali) is different:

• Most letters hang from a top line called the shirorekha (headline).
• The headline joins the letters of a word into one unit.
• Vowel signs (matras) go above, below, before or after the letter, so leave extra room above and below the main band.

When you letter both scripts side by side (for example on a shop board), make their main bodies look the same height and weight, so neither script looks weaker.

Steps for neat hand lettering

1. Draw guide lines lightly in pencil.
2. Sketch the letters with simple strokes.
3. Check spacing; fix gaps that look uneven.
4. Ink or colour the letters, then rub out the guide lines.

Size, weight and hierarchy

Letter size is measured in points (pt). 1 point is about 0.35 mm, so 72 pt is about 2.5 cm. Body text in a book is often 10 to 12 pt; a poster heading can be 100 pt or more.

Weight means stroke thickness: light, regular, bold, black.

Hierarchy means order of importance. Readers look at the biggest, boldest, highest text first. A clear layout usually has three levels: heading, subheading and body text.

Use only 2 typefaces in one design (for example one for headings, one for body). Too many typefaces look messy.

Spacing, alignment and layout

• Kerning: space between one pair of letters (for example AV needs to be closer).
• Tracking (letter spacing): space across a whole word or line.
• Leading (line spacing): space from one line to the next; about 1.2 to 1.5 times the text size is comfortable.
• Alignment: left, right, centre or justified. Left alignment is easiest for long text.
• Contrast: dark text on a light background (or the opposite) is easiest to read.

A simple lettering layout: plan margins, put the heading at the top in the largest size, group related lines together, and leave empty space (white space) so the eye can rest.

Try it at home

Write your name three times on paper: letters touching, letters normal, letters very far apart. Ask someone which one they read fastest. Then write it once in Roman and once in Devanagari with a shirorekha.

Key formulas and definitions

• Typeface = a family of letter designs; font = one size and weight of it
• Baseline = line letters stand on; cap height = top of capitals; x-height = height of small letters
• Serif = with feet; sans-serif = without feet
• Shirorekha = the top line of Devanagari letters
• 1 point (pt) ≈ 0.35 mm; 72 pt ≈ 2.54 cm (1 inch)
• Kerning = pair spacing; tracking = whole-line spacing; leading = line spacing (≈ 1.2–1.5 × size)
• Hierarchy = order of importance made with size, weight, colour and position

Worked examples

Common mistakes

• Using many different typefaces in one design. Two are usually enough.
• Setting long text in a script or display face. Keep those for short headings.
• Forgetting room for Devanagari matras above and below the main band.
• Making all text the same size, so the reader cannot tell what is important.