I also am enjoying this discussion. Stating the obvious: Photography is a visual medium. Therefore, most photographers are Visual People (or become so, as they progress in their craft). If you see a photograph that you like, it is is partially for the content but also for the way that content is presented (composition, angle, angle of view, lines, color, contrast, depth-of-field, etc). One can learn a lot by doing an analysis of any photography beyond "I like that" and make it "WHY do I like that" (or the converse).
The same is true of Graphic Design. One can turn the same critical eye on magazine layouts, print ads, billboards, book covers (etc.). Analyze everything, including the negative space, fonts/typefaces used, linespacing, letter-spacing. It is all a part of developing one's Eye. This may be poo-poo'd by "real" graphic designers, but one could do worse than to start with the Non-Designer's Design Book by Robin Williams. Before and After examples help you to see the real difference that applying the principles (that I call C.R.A.P.) of Contrast, Repetition, Alignment, and Proximity in communicating through the placement of things on the page. Once you understand those principles, you can apply most of them to Typography (not only in how the type is used, but in the difference between a professionally designed vs amateur font). There are a ton of free font sites out there and good free fonts can be found, but there is a lot of crap out there, as well. In breaking down a font, the letter forms themselves might be fine, but the leading may be inconsistent as you type them on the computer. You can fix this by making the editable type into a graphic in Photoshop and doing your own leading (putting letters or groups of letters on their own layers so you can manipulate the spacing) but obviously this would not be practical for a longer block of text. As with anything, your education only STARTS with Knowing the Rules. You also have to know When to Break the Rules (and have a purpose in doing so). Darren Addy Kearney, Nebraska -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
