OUGD403 Study Task 04 - Typesetting

We use a grid to help organise content and provide an orderly look that gives consistency to the design. With regards to legibility, it is all about the quality of being clear enough to read. Then there is readability which is the ease with which a reader can understand written text, the way in which words and blocks of type are arranged in a layout have an effect on this. We usually stick to no more than two type sizes on a printed page, although there are exceptions. Alignment must also be taken into account and can be flush left, flush right (although these can show an uneven rag), centred or justified. Within justified text it can produce rivers which are the lines of spaces that appear to run down the body of text. What can also appear is orphans and widows, which are short lines at the beginning and end of a paragraph retrospectively.

To demonstrate the different typesetting effects we had to find a takeaway menu that was badly designed and reset the type. Within my new design I generally stuck with a two column grid to improve the layout and create more space to improve readability. I also shortened the line length and changed the typeface and size to improve legibility.