James Felici

The Merits of Uneven Leading

Just because your page-layout program says your leading is consistent doesn’t necessarily mean it looks that way. Here’s how to spot the problem and how to fix it.

Spacing Out

Exaggerated spacing between characters may be eye-catching, but controlling it can be a tricky business. Here's how to do it in InDesign and QuarkXPress.

Type Effects: The Ins and Outs of Inlines and Outlines

Adding rules to normally invisible character outlines can add novel--and historical--effects to your type. Here's how to do it in InDesign, QuarkXPress, and Illustrator.

Marrying Types: All in the Family

For many designs, the typographic variety afforded by a single typeface family is enough. And maybe more than enough.

The Typographic Style Bible, 75 Years Later

A look at the 1937 Manual of Style shines a fascinating light on the origins of today's typographic trends and practices.

Kerning: A Master Class

Five tips from the trenches for the devotee of hand-kerning. Take this advice and you'll have a visually harmonious page that will please the designer's eyes and be easier for the reader to comprehend.

Centering Lines of Type? Don't Trust Page-Layout Software

A print ad shows that centered lines don’t always look that way. Learn the source of the problem and the fix.

Logos Are Type Too

Paying attention to the fine points of typography pays big dividends in logo design.

The Joy of Ornaments

Create your own typographic ornaments and decorative rules to use in many designs.

First Baseline Blues

Don't let frames dictate your layout. Here's how to make sure you have precise control over the position of your type on the page.

Good Things in Small Packages

When you're setting type, small capitals have two important roles to play: one graphic and one editorial.

Take Advantage of InDesign's Nesting Instinct

Using InDesign's nested styles isn’t only time-saving, it’s habit-forming.

Type History: What a Difference a Century Makes

A guide to advertising types from 1909 casts a light on what makes a classic display face.

Easy as Pi

Symbol fonts don't just offer hard-to-find characters, they open whole graphic worlds at the tap of a key.

Shifty Behavior

Raising and lowering individual characters is the job of the baseline shift, an important part of your typographic toolbox with a thousand uses.

The Taming of the Skew

Backslanting may be considered a form of type abuse, but sometimes a little outrage can be a good thing.

Marrying Types: Five-Part Harmony

A new magazine strikes a wonderful balance between typography and cartography that's a treat for the eyes.

Dot Dot Dot . . .

Spellbinding . . . Subtle . . . Mind-Boggling! They're points of ellipsis, and here's how to make them pretty.

Free Fonts Are a Myth

Fonts are like lunches -- it's hard to find a free one.

10 Typefaces from the '80s

Some typefaces deserve to be buried by the sands of time, but others undeservedly fall by the wayside. Here are ten from before the age of desktop publishing that merit your consideration.