Math of Typography
Mathematics Being Present Everywhere: Golden Ratio and Typographical Scale
“Math is everywhere” — a very cliché mathematics phrase, but it is per se true because math is indeed everywhere. In this article, you will discover very sturdy evidence for the phrase “math is everywhere” and “math is not all about numbers”.
While reading this, you’re comprehending the characters commonly known as the “English Alphabet”. Each character is uniquely selected to be organized into words, then into larger paragraphs of text, that is after printed on a page to be looked through by readers. You are reading this article in cyberspace, hence these letters appear uniformly distinctive with the exact size, color, style, and overall appearance — this is also known as typography.
In the world of design and digital art media (a world stereotypical for its ‘no maths’ nature), typography stylizes and uses design elements to give artistic elegance to writing and print content (Indeed, 2020). As much as typography is a vital component of graphic design’s communication, typography has also been useful in communicating mathematics. In fact, typography essentially embodies mathematical principles. Do you also often wonder how the fonts you use in word processing software such as Microsoft Word are measured? When you increase or decrease the font size, what mathematical algorithms and what systems of measurements are utilized? Does the software use the metric system or are the fonts randomly enlarged or reduced without specific measurements? Stay on this page to find the answers to these questions.
How is Math exactly present in typography?
As a science, typography is the fitting of text(s) within a particular physical or digital context (Pearson, n.d.). Mathematics has made it easier for typefaces to be established with a type system that is scalable and adaptable. The typographic scale is utilized in the process of producing a well-balanced and user-friendly font sizing, which makes use of a variety of type sizes that are related to each other in the sense that they increase by the same ratio. In a nutshell, a typographic scale is a progression of font sizes. Designers and typographers are never perceived to use mathematics in their field of profession. However, did you know that the typographic scale used by most designers follows the Golden Ratio? So we can rectify that mathematics isn’t an exclusive field that’s only used by geniuses and mathematicians. Mathematics is used in everyday life, everywhere in spacetime — that includes digital texts and design typography. The photo below illustrates the font size progression of a Serif font from small to large. The Golden Ratio is utilized as a defining factor that allowed typographers to progress from the base size to the next.
In Week 1 Lesson 1, the Fibonacci sequence was introduced in relation to the Golden Ratio where the series of numbers progress accordingly, following a ratio that is very close to the Divine Proportion which is 1:1.61…
It was also discussed in the lesson that the Golden Ratio is prevalent everywhere in every visual field like Architecture. Well, guess what? The Golden Ratio is also present and essentially used in typography. From the headline to the subtitles up to the smallest font there is that you can read on this page — all of their sizes progress in accordance with the Golden Ratio.
Typographers also use different rationalizing methods in their font size progression. In Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) programming language, they use the Perfect Fifth Ratio (1:1.5) to scale the typefaces that appear in certain browsers. Here, they use rem units, a unit system useful for scaling CSS elements in relation to the size of the root element — even if the default font size is unknown (Winter, 2022).
Mathematics is not merely all about numbers as you can conclude after knowing that it is also present in texts and typography. Indeed, there is no such animate or even inanimate matter with no mathematics present in it. Mathematical concepts are found in the most boring and lifeless objects — even in fonts. As much as it is useful in Engineering and STEM fields, mathematics is essential in Design and even Art — take typography as an example!
References
Indeed (2020, February 26). What Is Typography? Terms, Rules and Why It’s Important. Indeed.com https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/what-is-typography
Pearson. (2018, August 24). The Math Behind Golden Ratio Typography. Golden Ratio Typography (GRT) Calculator. Retrieved November 8, 2022, from https://grtcalculator.com/math/
Purdila, A. (2018, December 14). A Beginner’s Guide to Using Typographic Scales — What Is a Typographic Scale? Web Design Envato Tuts+. Retrieved November 8, 2022, from https://webdesign.tutsplus.com/courses/a-beginners-guide-to-using-typographic-scales/lessons/what-is-a-typographic-scale
Winter, R. (2022, August 23). What Are Rem Units? (& How to Use Them in CSS). What Are Rem Units? (& How to Use Them in CSS). Retrieved November 8, 2022, from https://blog.hubspot.com/website/css-rem
