WhatFontIs Blog

Principle #6: ascenders and descenders

Imagination made us wonder: are humans and letters similar? If you really think about it, you might find lots of similarities. Some are tall and some are short. Some are round and some are slim. And, surprisingly, both humans and letters have ups and downs. People have good days and bad days, while …

Are the oldest fonts still alive?

Fonts have been around for as long as people have mastered the art of using together pen and paper. Initially created and written by hand, they became widely spread alongside with the invention of the printing press. However, some fonts that date way before the 15th century are still considered litt…

Principle #5: is it a leg or a tail?

As you probably noticed already, there are a lot of typographical terms that are alike. The difference between them might be imperceptible in most of the situations. We learned this in one of our previous articles when we talked about apertures and counters. Today, we’re going to move our atte…

Let’s talk about Gestalt’s principles

If you’re new in the world of graphic design, you might not know very much about Gestalt’s principles and their major importance. Based on certain psychology laws that date back in the ’20, these principles explain how humans perceive chaotic stimuli around them and how they group …

Principle #4: apertures and counters

We’re four principles into this life of typography and we are already feeling that we learned a lot of interesting new things. Today we’re going to move our attention towards two new elements: apertures and counters. Let’s define them and understand they’re particularities!

Principle #3: Meet typographical contrast

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, contrast is the difference or the degree of difference between things having similar or comparable natures. Not far away from this definition, we can come across a different type of contrast: the typographical contrast. Want to know more about it? Then ke…

Principle #2: body height and glyph width

As some of you might know, there are a few ways you can measure up the size of a character. The most common one implies two different aspects that you must take in consideration: body height and body width. Today, we’re going to spice things up a bit and move our attention to another way of de…

The most recognisable fonts

After long hours of thinking about fonts, we have come to a significant conclusion: fonts are ubiquitous. They really are everywhere. We see them on books and movie posters, on clothing and school papers. We even see them on food. Remember the Alphabet soup, right? All in all, some fonts are easier …