A pet hate of many designers - orphans are single words that appear on their own line at the end of paragraphs.
Most designers will adjust the width of the text area or add/remove text to avoid this occurring.
A widow is similar but relates to when it happens at the start of written content.
In short, a vector is a scalable element that doesn't lose quality when stretched to any size. Primarily used for simple logos and icons, they have a small file size, making them quick to load on websites and apps.
In contrast, a photograph is a raster image, which uses individual pixels to display colour. As these square pixels are stretched, the blocks become bigger, producing fuzzy edges and a reduced quality.
It is not possible to make a vector out of a raster photo (jpg, png, or gif image), as the pixels are already defined; converting these to a vector file format (sgv, ai or pdf) will not fix this. You can save vectors as a raster, as this flattens the image into pixels.
A slightly more technical term for 'line-height' leading is the space between the top of words to the bottom of the written text above.
This keeps copy grouped together but also spaced so it is easy to read and digest.
Kerning is the space between letters in typography. Designers often adjust the distance to improve readability, avoiding characters and punctuation blending into each other.
In publications, this is usually added across all the copy in an article, whilst the letters in many logos are often adjusted separately for a balanced, more bespoke appearance.
Serif and Sans Serif terms describe a type of font styling. Serif is the extra stroke, curves or kicks on the end of letters. "Sans" means 'without' - so it simply indicates the letters don't have the extra detailing.
Serif fonts are usually more traditional publications - whilst the 'clean' Sans Serif fonts are generally found on websites.
“Typography is the visual component of the written word,”. All visually displayed text, whether on paper, screen or billboard, involves typography.
