Why the same words look expensive or cheap

Take one sentence, set it two ways, and one looks like a bank and the other looks like a flyer taped to a pole. The words are identical. Everything that changed was typography, and this is the fastest improvement available to anybody who makes things people read.

Most of it is not the typeface. Beginners believe the answer is finding a better font, and the answer is almost always spacing, size relationships and consistency, using a perfectly ordinary typeface.

The vocabulary is small. A typeface is the design, a font is the file. Serifs are the small strokes at the ends of letters. The x height is the height of a lowercase letter and it matters more than the point size for how large text looks. Leading is the space between lines, tracking is the space across a run of letters, and kerning is the space between two particular letters.

Serif or sans serif is not a quality question. Serif reads as traditional, editorial and formal; sans serif as modern, plain and neutral. Both are used at the highest level for body text, and the claim that one is more readable than the other does not survive the evidence.

Start noticing. Look at a page you think is well made and ask how many typefaces, how many sizes, and how much space. The answer is usually fewer and more than you expected.