10 text & typography stumbles

Yesterday's posted graphic was concrete evidence that my typographic skills are weak.

Today, I came across an example of a book cover that made it past the editing stage (note the subtitle). I'm quite sure that publisher had not intended for that to happen. This example gave me pause to think about improving my text skills, too.

I found some stumbles that will help address that lack of expertise. Here's an open invitation to come learn along with me.

TEXT
- proofreading and editing for spelling, grammar, punctuation and capitalization
Dictionary
Grammar

TEXT & FONT USAGE
I Love Typography: contrast, size, hierarchy and space
Pro Blog Design: improve readability

FONTS
- free for personal use
Dafont
Fontspace

ONLINE TOOLS
Typetester: compare fonts for the screen
TypeNavigator: visual font search system

TYPOGRAPHY
- text based, graphic creation
Webdesigner Depot: web typography rules
GraphicMania: Photoshop text effects tutorials

Wordle

The word cloud above was done with the online tool called Wordle. If you aren't a graphic artist, it is an easy way to create typographical art.

I input my blog address and it selected the highest ranking words and assembled them into a editable cloud of words. You can also input your own words.

Wordle provides font, language, layout and color choices. The language menu selection has the capability to eliminate all common words so you don't have a whole bunch of 'thes','ands', etc. The colour menu gives options of colour palette for the fonts and the background, plus the option to create your own.

Have fun playing with it.