I often envy the people who create the stunning visualizations we share on this site. I wish I had an eye for design, but it’s never been there. When it comes to fonts, I’m fine with Times New Roman and Arial pretty much always.
I’ve always known there were a lot of fonts, but I had no idea the process of picking one could be so complicated. Most of us have probably heard of serif fonts, but did you know that you can judge a font by whether it has a ball terminal? (Fun fact: The ball terminal is the curve at the end of any character that doesn’t have a serif.)
In a similar vein, a terminal is the end of a stroke not terminated with a serif. Lost yet? Typography is an quite simply the art and technique of arranging type. I think of it as art using computers.
Another interesting point this infographic shares is kerning. There’s a whole community on Reddit dedicated to poor kerning. Kerning is the spacing between characters in a word.
Now that you know the technical terms and could impress any typography nerd, it’s time to explore some do’s and don’ts. Click here for the 10 commandments of typography.