Typography

A complete guide to the subject of typography is beyond the scope of this publication, and on many matters the advice of H.M.S.O. should be obtained. Some knowledge of typography will, however, help the forms designer to draft material which is practical to set up in type and which will not be unattractive in appearance.

The printer’s type required can be described fully by specifying the name of the type face, the alphabet required, and the size. These terms are explained below: Type Face

Each style of type face has a name (often the name of its designer), e.g. Gill Sans, Times Roman, Plantin, Garamond. There are hundreds of different kinds of type faces but they all fall into families or groups, e.g. those with bracketed serifs (small feet on the ends of the strokes); those with squared-slab serifs, and those without serifs, i.e. ‘sans serifs’ or ‘block letter’. This paragraph is set in a type face with bracketed serifs on the ends of the strokes (see page 119).