Abstract

Typography is a critical tool in visual communication. Selecting the appropriate typeface to express and communicate a message is very important. Since most studies on typeface design concentrate on typeface legibility and readability, this thesis focuses on the visual expression of typefaces and their design characteristics. The relationship between typefaces and their personality traits including legible, cheerful, fearful, creative, attractive, formal, sloppy, relaxed, friendly and confident are investigated. A font survey about twenty four typefaces and ten personality traits is conducted and a series of statistical analyses are performed to discover the correlation between typefaces and their personality traits. As a result, the number of studied typefaces is reduced from twenty four to fifteen and these fifteen typefaces are categorized into four groups according to their personality traits and typographical features. Typeface design characteristics, such as x-height proportion, ascender and descender proportion, font weight, stroke design, counter design as well as character space of these fifteen typefaces are studied in depth. Typeface design characteristics of four different groups are summarized. In addition, the aesthetic design characteristics of studied typefaces are analyzed. The appropriate uses of each of the four groups are discussed.