Chapter 1:
Introduction
In everyday life, people spend quite some time reading. Even those who do not devour novels are continually confronted with printed text on signs, posters, forms, instruction manuals, and other kinds of print they need in daily life. Moreover, the amount of text that is printed, is still growing! At the same time, the number of people that produce print is growing as well. This is largely due to the increase in the use of computers. Word processing and desktop publishing have become common practice in many offices over the last decade. In effect, many people have gained access to tools that allow sophisticated design with text. Since most people have no formal training in the use of these tools or design, the probability increases that print with a low level of effectiveness will be produced. From a more general perspective, one should realize that the massive and increasing amount of information around us in this age of mass-communication forces us to be selective in which information we decide to use. This means that only information that is ‘packaged’ effectively will be noticed and used.

When a printed message should have an impact, attention should be paid to its quality. This is exactly what professional typographers do. Others also try to contribute to the product of the typographyers’ craftsmanship by trying to define the optimal conditions high quality print should meet. However, the practical and the scientific do not always lead to the same conclusions. Practical assumptions have been made about how to optimize design quality, based on experience, without having been tested or challenged. One would find this careless if investigation would point to more effective ways of designing. As a matter of fact, assumptions have sometimes been in conflict with research results. Research findings occasionally also contradict each other. This results in a complex situation for designers who would like to apply those findings in practice. Because of the lack of consensus and the fact that many designers are not familiar with the scientific study of design, designers often continue working in the same way as they did before.

The aim of this paper is to provide an overview of all the issues related to the selection of typefaces in a design. To this end, typographic research is reviewed and discussed in its relationship with the design practice. The review is intended for those who are new to typographic research, both applied psychologists and interested graphic designers. The basic factors that have to be considered in the graphic design of text will be presented as well as design guidelines which have evolved from the confrontation of research with design practice. The suitability of type to present information or to express meaning beyond the text content (atmosphere, emotion) is the main theme of this paper.

It should be noted that there are a number of topics which are related to reading and writing, but are not a part of typography. Therefore, they will only be mentioned where necessary in this paper, but not discussed in detail. These are topics such as psycholinguistics, executive control processes, and semiotics.

Typography itself can be divided into two general areas of application; hardcopy and CRT’s (cathode ray tubes). Hardcopy refers to information on paper and was the original focus of typography. Since the introduction of the computer, traditional typography has been joined by design for CRT’s such as television screens or monitors, also called video display terminals. Whereas the ‘old’ visual displays such as paper have stationary surfaces and reflect light, CRT screens are dynamic and emit light. This has a different effect on the reader’s eyes. Moreover, because information can be displayed dynamically on screen, its content can be updated such as is the case with Teletext. CRT-typography may have a lot in common with hardcopy- typography, but is still a different area with its own problems. Reading from screens, for instance, is generally slower and the demands on character size are different. Therefore, this recent field within typography will not be discussed here. However, static information displays other than paper, such as metal or plastics are implicitly included in the traditional typography.