Typography is the art and techniques in using type; from the design of the individual characters of a typeface to using the correct punctuation in a word processor.

In much the same way that information technology using computers has mimicked and adopted terminology from the paper based office, the art of typography has moved on from Gutenberg’s movable type printing press. (For example, we still use the term “leading” to refer to the space between lines of text, even though the strips of lead used in printing no longer have anything to do with the process.)

Before the word processor, typography was the domain of professional editors and typesetters. With the introduction of the word processor, users had much more control over the layout of the text; the distinction between a typewriter and a printing press became blurred. Todays word processors are closer to desktop publishing applications than electronic typewriters, with a wide range of font faces and sizes, page layouts, and even the ability to include images. Features that are available to pretty much anyone with access to a computer, but very few people are being taught how to use them.

Although basic English, such as grammar, spelling and punctuation are taught to everyone at school, the art of typography, which is increasingly becoming a part of day to day life, isn’t a subject which gets much attention. While an average school leaver could no doubt correct most of the spelling mistakes in a copy of the Guardian and probably point out the aberrant apostrophes in signs over market stalls, it’s a tiny minority who could point out where a hyphen has been used in place of an em-dash, or where an inappropriate font has been used for a particular purpose.

After all, in handwritten text there’s no discernable difference between a hyphen, an em-dash and an en-dash (“-”, “—” and “–”), so these fine distinctions don’t come into play when learning to read and write, but in the closely controlled text of websites, emails and MS Word documents, they each have different roles to play. (In the context of the semantic web, the difference becomes more important still— a machine can’t guess that you probably meant something different to what you typed.)

Typography is a tool that can be used to give the page a natural rhythm. When people read text on a screen, they tend to skim, rather than take in every single word. It’s very easy for a reader to click and move on to something else. That means that it’s even more important than on the printed page that anything disturbing that rhythm should only do so in a planned, deliberate fashion. If something needs to be emphasised as a part of the text, then there is a set of tools available to any writer to manipulate the rhythm of the text, drawing attention to certain words or phrases; punctuation. Typography offers ways to draw attention in different ways.

Changing the style of text— using a different size, different colours, different fonts, or even simply changing the margins— can make it feel as though the reader is being “spoken to” in a different voice.

Inset text or italics can be used to imply that a piece of text is a quotation, or being cited from a different source to the main text body.

Smaller text can also draw the readers attention to it— despite the smaller size indicating less importance in the hierachy of the text, the break in an established pattern and rhythm draws the readers attention to the text.

Like poor grammar, poor typography is rarely an actual impediment to communcation. However, coming across badly gramar in the middle of a sentence can be the literary equivalent to hitting an unexpected pothole in a road (yes, the mistake at the beginning of this sentence was a deliberate illustration of this point.) The sentence still makes it’s point, the meaning comes across fine, but the flow is disturbed. Also, there is the implicit suggestion that, as an author hasn’t bothered to properly proofread and correct the text that you’re reading, maybe it’s not worth your time to bother to read it? Or maybe the author simply doesn’t have the education to recognise the mistake that they’ve made; in a medium where an audience can jump away in the click of a mouse, it’s not a good idea to leave your reader asking themselves how much the author cares about the fundamentals of written English.