Ligatures are where two letters are combined together to make printing easier. Explore your computer keyboard to find some of the other characters. You will need to use your shift, alt and cntrl keys.
I tried different letter combinations to see which one forms into a ligature and I noticed that the lower case ‘f’ was the most effective in doing this, the crossbar of the letter f connects to many characters, it also connects with ascending points of letters like ‘L’ and descending points of letters such as ‘J’, I have attached the examples below.
Choose a magazine, for example the Big Issue or Heat, and look at the main typefaces they use for the body text and headlines. Go to http://www.identifont.com and use the programme to identify the fonts. Look at the ranges of typefaces all around you and try to identify their distinguishing characteristics. Make notes in your learning log.
For the second section of the exercise I tried to find a magazine cover with a range of different fonts to examine. The first thing that caught my attention was the phrase ‘Shock Divorce’, I decided to use identifont to pinpoint the exact font but the process was very lengthy, this is when I began to explore other options and I found an app called ‘WhatTheFont’. I was very impressed with this app, it gave me the exact font (integral CF Regulator) and a collection of similar fonts.
I then searched up the font which read ‘Adeles’ and once again it gave me a very accurate match, the font is called “Chamberi Display SemiBold Italic”. The word ‘Adeles’ is placed in italics with thin lines and serifs – this font has a very feminine look, then below this word is a very contrasting font written in caps lock and bold writing. “. I liked the way the two fonts caused a juxtaposition.
Final Thoughts
I am extremely happy with what I have learnt in this piece of research. I had no idea that it was possible to scan fonts so easily. This will definitely be my go to app when I am trying to figure out the name of a font.
OCA Graphic Design 