Journal of Technical Writing and Communication Jan 2004

What Technical Writing Students Should Know about Typeface Personality

Jo MacKiewicz

Abstract

Typeface personality impacts the rhetorical effect of students' documents, yet it receives little attention in textbooks. Technical writing students should stand the definition of “appropriate” in relation to typeface selection, the difference between type's functional and semantic properties, the difference between type family and personality, the effect of a typeface's history, and the contribution of a typeface's anatomy to its personality. Understanding these, students can make informed decisions about typeface appropriateness.

Journal
Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
Published
2004-01-01
DOI
10.2190/nmdq-xbvh-q79j-m749
Open Access
Closed
Topics
technical communication

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (3)

  1. Zhang (2016)
    Illustrating Beauty and Utility
    Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  2. MacKiewicz (2008)
    Comparing Powerpoint Experts' and University Students' Opinions about Powerpoin…
    Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  3. MacKiewicz (2005)
    How to Use Five Letterforms to Gauge a Typeface's Personality: A Research-Drive…
    Journal of Technical Writing and Communication

Cites in this index (4)

  1. Rosner (2001)
    Theories of Visual Rhetoric: Looking at the Human Genome
    Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  2. Kumpf (2000)
    Visual metadiscourse: Designing the considerate text
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  3. Kostelnick (1996)
    Supra-Textual Design: The Visual Rhetoric of Whole Documents
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  4. KOSTELNICK (1994)
    From Pen to Print:
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
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  7. MacKiewicz J., What Technical Writing Students Do Know and Should Know about Typography, in IPCC 2003: The Sh…
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  8. 10.1109/TPC.2003.813163
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  9. 10.1177/108056990306600202
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CrossRef global citation count: 10 View in citation network →

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