Color refers to the appearance of a mass of type on the page, the shade of gray that is created by the visual mixture of black type and white paper, and the visual texture of that mass. The basic feature of good typesetting is consistent color. This consistency is largely determined by the evenness of the spacing between lines, words, and letters.

Every aspect of a font’s design affects its color. The thickness of the basic stroke weight itself is the primary factor that determines the lightness or darkness of the type mass. If the stroke weight of a typeface is very thin, the overall appearance of the mass will be light gray. A typeface with a heavy stroke weight, such as a bold face, produces a very dark mass.

The evenness of the stroke, that is, the degree of contrast between the thickest and thinnest parts of the letter, affects how active the overall texture may be. A typeface with an even stroke weight and even distribution of internal spaces will produce a smooth texture, while a face with a strong thick/thin contrast will produce a rough texture.

Other aspects of the font design are also very important in their effect on color. The distribution of the internal and external spaces within the letterform is crucial in determining the evenness of the texture. The proportion of x-height to ascender and descender also influences the lightness or darkness of the color.

x-height

A relative type measurement based on the lower case “x” of any given type family because it sits directly on the baseline and has no ascenders or descenders.

The x-height effects the reader’s perceived size of type: a large x-height type appears larger than type of the same size with a smaller x-height. An awareness of point size and its relationship to x-height will effect visual size, and a large x-height may appear friendlier and make reading easier for children as well as those with poor vision.

Line spacing for a face with a large x-height: In faces with large x-heights, like Bookman, there is less white space above the lower-case letters and more line spacing is required to help horizontal eye movement.

A face with a large x-height has large white spaces within the letters themselves, and more line spacing is needed to even out the overall color on the page.

Line spacing for a face with a small x-height: In faces with small x-heights, like Caslon, there is more space above the lowercase letters creating a horizontal channel that facilitates eye movement even when the type is set solid. Because of its small x-height, Caslon can be set to a larger point size and relatively less line spacing at wider line lengths.