Elements of Type
Although typefaces and fonts constitute the primary variables in designing with type, the bag of tricks does not end there - far from it! This link will give you a list of further type elements, the usage of which can be extremely effective, especially in establishing further contrasts.

Type Size is referred to as points. Recently type sizes have also started being specified by their web sizes, i.e. the sizes used in specing html documents. Thus websize "1" will be tiny (10 pt's Arial, "2" will be small (12 pt's Arial) and so on... If you are using a bitmap application such as Adobe Photoshop you will only be able to see the correct point sizes if your image resolution is set at 72 pixels per inch. Larger image resolutions will give you erroneous point sizes. Thus, it is usually a good idea to design your type in a vector application such as Adobe Illustrator or Macromedia Freehand.

Different typefaces will have completely different sizes at the same point measure. This is a very important factor which needs to be taken into account, especially when aligning type belonging to different typefaces. The length of a given text will aiso vary considerably, depending upon the typeface and the font used, even though the point sizes may be identical.

You can achieve contrasts simply by playing with point sizes:

Initials and dropcaps can be very effective tools for accentuating body text. Initials are also an excellent venue for using non-generic typefaces: The typeface Hiroshige has definite Far Eastern overtones and is thus a non-generic font. Using it as an initial and an for an end line (link 04) gives the design an "oriental" flavour, while maintaining solid typographical structure.

Kerning/Tracking is the amount of distance we put between letters (link 01). Normally, kerning is used to increase legibility and also when text has to be shortened to fit a given space. Condensed or compressed typefaces will usually benefit from a certain amount of added kerning, both in terms of looks as well as legibility (link 02) while heavy non condensed sans-serifs will look very good with reduced kerning. However another way of using kerning is to add typographic contrasts and more importantly rythm (remember, type has sound) to a design, as a separate design element. In the two posters designed by graduate student Fatih Polat, you can see that the spaces between the letters in most of the words is wider than we would normally expect it to be (link 03, 04). This usage of kerning establishes a magnificent visual rythm. Additionally while some of the words have wide kerning others (in fact whole sentences) are tightened. This combination of loose and tight also gives us a very strong contrast. The typeface used is the same, contrast is largely achieved by means of kerning and leading, which is our next topic. Thus these two posters can and should also be examined for the usage of leading.

Leading is the amount of space we put between sentences in multiple sentenced type. Just as is the case with kerning, leading can be a very powerful design tool that adds rythm and contrast to layouts (link 01). However, again, the primary usage of leading is to increase legibility in small sized body text (link 02). The third poster by Fatih Polat, again gives us a very good idea how leading as well as kerning can be used to achieve rythm and contrast (link 03).

Uppercase and Lowercase are the terms for majiscule and miniscule letters respectively. Uppercase type has one height and no ascenders or descenders (link 01). Lowercase type has two heights as well as ascenders and descenders (link 01). Thus, type that is used all uppercase will give you very clean sentence lines which can greatly fascilitate type design, allowing us to "stack" sentences (link 02), whereas lowercase words and sentences will have a more varied rythm due to the two separate heights. The linked magazine cover's title design, by graduate student Zeynep Günel, is a very good example to lowercase type as well as font contrast usage (link 03).

Designing with the Turkish alphabet becomes very complicated and far more difficult at this very juncture: The Turkish alphabet has characters that have very pronounced ascenders as well as descenders, which are also used in uppercase type (link 01), thus making design with exclusively uppercase words and sentences along the lines mentioned above virtually impossible. When designing with the Turkish language there are certain things, those things unfortunately being amongst the great fascilitators in typographic design; that you simply cannot do: You cannot stack sentences (link 02) and you do not get clean uppercase lines (link 03). Thus, Turkish graphic designer students that willl be working with the Turkish alphabet and its restrictions in their professional lives, need to be given their projects and assignments in the Turkish language in order to be able to cope with the language founded typographic demands that will face them in their careers.