Michael Risser's List: Typography

• The Measure is the name given to the width of a body of type.
• One point = 1/72 of an inch
• One pica = 12 points
• One em = The distance horizontally equal to the type size
• A general good rule of thumb is 2-3 alphabets in length, or 52-78 characters (including spaces).
• A simple rule is your leading should be wider than your word spacing.
• Your leading should increase proportionally to your Measure. Small Measure, less leading. Wide Measure, more leading.
• When reversing colour out, eg white text on black, make sure you increase the leading, tracking and decrease your font-weight. This applies to all widths of Measure. White text on a black background is a higher contrast to the opposite, so the letterforms need to be wider apart, lighter in weight and have more space between the lines.
• The general rule of thumb in tracking your words (not the characters) is that the shorter the line length the tighter the tracking, the opposite is also true.

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