10 Commandments of Typography

The rules of abiding & breaking the 10 Commandments of Typography

The 10 Commandments
(list is from Paul Felton's book)

1. Thou shalt not apply more than three typefaces in a document.
2. Thou shalt lay headlines large and at the top of a page.
3. Thou shalt employ no other type size than 8pt to 10pt for body copy.
4. Remember that a typeface that is not legible is not truly a typeface.
5. Honor thy kerning, so that white space becomes visually equalized between characters.
6. Thou shalt lay stress discreetly upon elements within text.
7. Thou shalt not use only capitals when setting vast body copy.
8. Thou shalt always align letters and words on a baseline.
9. Thou shalt use flush-left, ragged-right type alignment.
10. Thou shalt not make lines too short or too long.

So, if everyone follows these rules, everyone can be a good page-layout designer. Anyone can do it, so designers won't be needed. Instead, they'd be called lazy and boring people.
If this is true, why the evil-underground-place am I taking this second type class and expecting to take more later...
If there is God, there is always a Demon.

Here are the Type Heresy
(list also from Paul Felton's book... he must have both the angel and demon on his shoulders.)

1. Break the fetters imposed by the use of only three typefaces.
2. Let thine eyes be seduced by the hierarchy of type.
3. Do not forsake smaller or bigger sizes.
4. Be seduced into trying new and expressive typefaces.
5. Treat kerning and tracking with total irreverence.
6. Entice the reader to sample the delights of your text.
7. Do not forgo the liberal use of capitals within your text.
8. The Lord designed letterforms to stand side by side, but there is no harm in their being lured away from one another.
9. Yield to the temptation to align text in unusual ways.
10. Lure the reader down unfamiliar paths.


* Remember, one of the rules of rules is to break the rules—follow the rule.