Bachelor of Graphic Design Typography & Type Design 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: What typographic hierarchy technique uses size variation to guide the reader's eye through content?
- Color contrast
- Scale contrast (Correct answer)
- Texture contrast
- Shape contrast
Correct answer: Scale contrast
Scale contrast uses varying type sizes to create a visual hierarchy, directing readers from headlines to subheadings to body text in order of importance.
Question 2: Which typeface style was designed to mimic handwriting with connected letterforms?
- Blackletter
- Script (Correct answer)
- Monospaced
- Display
Correct answer: Script
Script typefaces are designed to resemble handwriting, often featuring cursive or calligraphic letterforms with connecting strokes.
Question 3: What is 'tracking' in typography?
- Adjusting space between specific letter pairs
- Uniformly adjusting spacing across a range of characters (Correct answer)
- Changing the baseline shift of text
- Increasing the weight of strokes
Correct answer: Uniformly adjusting spacing across a range of characters
Tracking refers to the uniform adjustment of letter spacing across an entire block or range of text, affecting all characters equally.
Question 4: What is a 'widow' in typographic layout?
- A single short word or syllable at the end of a paragraph on its own line (Correct answer)
- An extra space after a period
- An orphaned column heading
- A line of text that falls below the margin
Correct answer: A single short word or syllable at the end of a paragraph on its own line
A widow is a single word or very short line left alone at the end of a paragraph, considered poor typographic practice.
Question 5: Which font format supports advanced typographic features like ligatures and alternate glyphs via OpenType?
- TrueType (.ttf)
- Bitmap (.bmp)
- OpenType (.otf) (Correct answer)
- PostScript Type 1
Correct answer: OpenType (.otf)
OpenType (.otf) is a font format that supports advanced typographic features including ligatures, alternate glyphs, and extended character sets.
Question 6: What does 'point size' measure in typography?
- Only the height of capital letters
- The total vertical space occupied by the font including ascenders and descenders (Correct answer)
- The horizontal width of the widest character
- The stroke weight of the letterforms
Correct answer: The total vertical space occupied by the font including ascenders and descenders
Point size measures the total vertical space allocated to the font, encompassing ascenders, descenders, and capital height within a single unit.
What typographic hierarchy technique uses size variation to guide the reader's eye through content?