Text Information and Media

• Text is a simple and flexible format of presenting information or conveying ideas whether hand written, printed or online.
• Text is very powerful in disseminating information, providing and giving suggestions.
• Text is available in different sources. It could be:

  1. Formal text-based materials
  2. Informal text-based materials
  3. Text can be as short
  4. consumer or a producer
• As a producer of text media and information, we need to review the media and information design framework:

  1. target audience
  2. author or sender
  3. key content
  4. purpose
  5. form/style and format
• The three Common Types of Text:

  1. Plain Text
  2. Formatted text
  3. Hypertext
• Plain Text - essentially fixed-sized character with the same style.
• Formatted text - text appearance varies using various typefaces, colors, and font sizes.
• Hypertext - this highlights and links certain words in electronic documents that will redirect you to browse another webpage or another document.
• There are two types of messages that you can find in media text:

  1. Explicit Message
  2. Implicit Message
• Explicit Message refers to the literal sense of the message. What you see and read is the direct meaning of the text.
• Implicit Message pertains to the type of media that requires one’s analytical and interpretative reading skills to grasp the underlying meaning of the text.
• Typeface is also called font, font type, or type
• typeface refers to the representation or style of a text in the digital format
• typeface is usually comprised of alphabets, numbers, punctuation marks, symbols and other special character
• In the absence of images or drawings, text is the easiest way of communicating to your audience.
• Types of Typeface:

  1. Serif
  2. Sans serif
  3. Slab serif
  4. Script
  5. Display or Decorative
• Serif connotes formality and readability in large amount of texts
• Examples of Serif:

  1. Times New Roman
  2. Garamond
  3. Baskerville
• Sans serif brings a clean or minimalist look to the text. It gives a modern look and is used primarily in webpage design.
• Examples of Sans serif:

  1. Arial, Helvetica, Tahoma, Verdana, Calibri
• Slab serif carries a solid or heavy look to text. It can be used for large advertising sign on billboards.
• Examples of Slab serif:

  1. Rockwell, Playbill, Blackoak
• Script draws much attention to itself because of its brush-like strokes. It's usually used in wedding invitation cards or other formal events.
• Examples of Script:

  1. Edwardian, Vladimir, Kunstler
• Display or Decorative caters to a wide variety of emotions (such as celebration, fear, horror, etc.) or themes (such as cowboys, circus, holidays, summer, kiddie, etc.)
• Examples of Display or Decorative:

  1. Chiller, Jokerman, Curlz MT
• Emphasis refers to the importance or value given to a part of the text-based content.
• Appropriateness refers to how fitting or suitable the text is used for a specific audience, purpose or event.
• Proximity refers to how near or how far are the text elements from each other.
• Alignment refers to how the text is positioned in the page. This can be left, right, center or justified.
• Organization conscious effort to organize the different text elements in a page.
• Organization ensures that while some text elements are separated from each other (based on the principle of proximity), they are still somehow connected with the rest of the elements in the page.
• Repetition concerns consistency of elements and the unity of the entire design. Repetition encourages the use of repeating some typefaces within the page.
• Contrast creates visual interest to text elements. It is achieved when two elements are different from each other.
• REMEMBER! it is strongly advised to used CMYK color model or cyan, magenta, yellow and key (black) model when you are producing printed materials.
• Design Principles and Elements of Text:

  1. Emphasis
  2. Appropriateness
  3. Proximity
  4. Alignment
  5. Organization
  6. Repetition
  7. Contrast