Typography

Member lesson

Web type versus print type

Lesson 23 of 34 in Typography.

Web Type for Designers — Lara McCormick & Justin Beaudry · TypeCon
Lesson

Print is fixed and screen is not. A printed page has a known size, a known measure and a known resolution, and a web page has none of those, since the reader chooses the window, the text size and sometimes the typeface.

print · one measure,fixedweb · the measure movesset the size in the reader's terms
The same letter fixed on paper and reflowing at three screen widths.
A printed page lying on a desk beside a phone, a tablet and a monitor showing the same article rearranged into different numbers of columns.
A printed sheet has one fixed layout, while the same article reflows into one, two or three columns on different screens. On the web you design for a range of sizes.
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Members answer these 3 questions and keep the ticket for this lesson. Every lesson has one.

  1. Question 1, locked

    Which of these words means this? “Turning an outline into pixels. Where screen type gains and loses things.”

    • Incunabula
    • Movable type
    • Rasterisation
    • Type
  2. Question 2, locked

    Which of these words means this? “Instructions telling a renderer how to snap a letter to the pixel grid.”

    • Punchcutter
    • Incunabula
    • Movable type
    • Hinting
  3. Question 3, locked

    Which of these words means this? “Text rearranging to fit. The fundamental difference from a printed page.”

    • Script harmonisation
    • Reflow
    • Abugida
    • Kana and Hangul

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