I’ll split this into 2 parts. Mostly because it’s late and I want to go to bed at a reasonable hour.
There are a few words to know about typography before we get into the subject.
It is very subjective, but there are some rules that need to be followed. This may be confusing but I’ll try to make understanding the core concept easy.
Words I will be using:
Typeface: Often used incorrectly as an interchangeable word with font. Typeface is a family of fonts. Type face is every representation. Gill Sans is a Typeface, Times New Roman, and Adobe Caslon Pro are typefaces.
Font: Is a specific representation of a typeface. For instance, 9pt Gill Sans is a font, and so is 10pt. Each change is a different font. So Gill Sans Bold is a font of the Typeface Gill Sans.
San Serif - Or without a Serif. Without getting into the root of the word, It means a letter without a serif. A serif is a small ending stroke to the letter:
Serif - Has the small ending stroke.
Kerning: The spacing between the letters.
I’ll go into more detailed explanations in my 2nd lesson.
Now to some Type Pointers.
Don’t stretch your typeface.
It looks bad, and it will come across very unprofessional. (it also might offend those crazy type-purests like me.)
Always Kern.
It really makes a difference between a good large text heading and a bad one when you look at kerning. To kern in photoshop and inDesign hold down the alt(apple on mac) key and use the right and left arrows to move the letter.
Always kern your numbers!!!
Adjust Rag
When you are typing a paragraph. Always adjust the rag.
Rag is the shape that a paragraph makes when it is displayed on a page.
The Rag is the right edge when text is aligned left( or left edge when aligned right).
This shape or line should create a nice smooth wave, not a jagged one.
Try not to use to many hyphens, and never have one word on a line, try dropping down a
a few words to adjust it. Rag takes a little time to perfect, but in the end you will have a better product.
With the rag adjested
Line things up.
It’s always good practice to line things up. Whether it is something farther down on the page, or a graphic or what not. If you line things up, it will look more organized. This sometimes can be disregarded when doing a design that has to be “spontaneous” or look “grungy”, but even then lining things up might not be a bad idea 
Use of lines
I remember when I first started designing I had soooo many lines it was hard to read my work. Try to stay away from arbitrary lines. It only hinders your readability, and sometimes takes away from your design.
Distorted Text.
Alright, so I was a big fan of distorted text, still am, but I have to say sometimes it is over used. Use distorted text sparingly. The more distorted the harder it is to read unless thats the point 
Cutting text.
When you chop text, the only way you can chop it is from the bottom up. You can not chop text from the top down. Its undecipherable. This really only applies to roman characters.
Large Text Capitals
Sometimes splitting off the first capitol letter when doing a heading will make it more dynamic. Also when you are using a script typeface, it is highly recommended you do this, so the heading is more readable.
Different Typefaces
Alright for my last tip in this tutorial….
The use of different typefaces can really enhance your design. Using a serif with a san-serif will up the contrast of your design. Using large font sizes with a contrasting smaller size is good also.
Clarification: It seems that I was miss understood by the statement below. I don’t mean that you should use a ton of fonts because doing that would be quite messy. Dave Bowker has a good point “Good design is about communicating a message as simply and effectively as possible.”
Hopefully this got you started.
I finished the 2nd part you can find it here.
February 13th, 2008 at 5:32 pm
wow nice!
February 14th, 2008 at 12:58 am
This is an awesome tutorial, very detailed as well. I can’t wait to see more of them! Do you design icons? Maybe you can include typography in icons in one of your tutorials? Just suggesting.
February 14th, 2008 at 7:14 am
Really nice, I have started to take a serious interest in typography of late, have picked up some killer books with overviews of certain periods.
I have a question, which may sound daft, but what is Kerning? to me it looks like you’ve adjusted the spacing between the numbers.
February 14th, 2008 at 9:06 am
Thank you, for dedicating some of your time, sharing your knowledge with us.
Great Tut.
February 14th, 2008 at 11:24 am
Great lesson, with some much needed, subtle humor to get the point accross
February 14th, 2008 at 12:24 pm
neat. thanks, I’ve learned here new things
February 14th, 2008 at 1:08 pm
avangelist,
Kerning is the space between two letter pairs.
as apposed to tracking which is the space between all the letters in a selected line.
February 14th, 2008 at 1:28 pm
Great tutorial!
a great-mini course of typography!
thanks for it!
February 14th, 2008 at 1:57 pm
This is informative and want to see your next tutorial
February 14th, 2008 at 8:55 pm
Wow, these are nice tips. too bad you can’t spell too well. Jolly good day to you. Cheerio.
February 14th, 2008 at 11:59 pm
yea… It was really late.
February 15th, 2008 at 2:14 am
Fail. Using many typefaces on the same design is not good.
February 15th, 2008 at 7:58 am
I should have been more specific.
As you can say I didn’t say many typefaces.
I said elements, but I shall explain further in the next tutorial.
You are right, many different typefaces do hinder a design. My point was that if you use different contrasting typefaces, it adds to the design.
February 15th, 2008 at 7:41 pm
So… i find it a bit ironic that you have a misspelling when talking about Kerning. … i would hope that the way it was put it was intentional.
“the difference between a good large text heading and a bed one”
…
much love
February 15th, 2008 at 8:39 pm
Yea, I am horrible at spelling.
Thanks for pointing that out.
February 17th, 2008 at 12:59 am
“A good design is made up of lots of elements”
Mmmm… Good design is about communicating a message as simply and effectively as possible.
Also, keep your fonts to no more than 3 on a page. Usually a [H1], a [H2], and a [P] in web design speak.
Otherwise, rest of the article is a rather good beginners guide. Well done.
February 17th, 2008 at 5:38 pm
Woah. This is pointless. What’s the deal with these ugly red scribbles all over the place?
February 17th, 2008 at 10:00 pm
All people should know at LEAST this amount when designing anything.
And you spelled Capital wrong in “Large Text Capitols”
February 18th, 2008 at 1:58 am
justify the paragraph text will look neat… nice tutorial though
February 18th, 2008 at 3:22 am
great post. i liked it… Like the Paranaque Scandal…
February 18th, 2008 at 1:06 pm
Thank you for the tutorial!
February 19th, 2008 at 5:05 am
Pay attention to the heart of the info, not so much how it is presented or spelled. Either way, very informative.
February 19th, 2008 at 5:18 am
[...] lesson in typography Teil 1 und Teil [...]
February 20th, 2008 at 2:13 pm
[...] few new things. I had no idea what “rag” was, or that font was different from typeface.read more | digg story You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave [...]
February 21st, 2008 at 3:32 am
Very enjoyable. Informative, yet simple tips. Thanks.
February 26th, 2008 at 11:06 am
very very good , Thanx so much
February 27th, 2008 at 2:57 am
Thank you for putting the time in to explain this. Especially about adjusting the rag. Nice one. Can make a big difference.
March 1st, 2008 at 7:05 pm
Thank you! The visuals REALLY helped! This was obviously a time consuming entry - thank you again!
March 2nd, 2008 at 12:51 pm
Great info on “readability”.
I especially like the part about alignment.
However, on your last example about different typefaces, you did not follow your own rule. Why, for example is the word “communication” not aligned with anything? Why is the word “about” stuck up under design but also not aligned with any other elements? There is no center, right or left alignment of the elements. The eye really sees words as shapes instead of individual words and when they are stacked with some order so to speak, it is much easier to distinguish the message.
April 11th, 2008 at 7:01 pm
just thank the dude for giving all you guys a beginners/essential tutorial. I can’t believe some of the negative comments. Sure there’s errors but don’t be the guy that points out dents and scratches on a car…if you follow me.
sorry had to say that.
So, thanks for the “tutorial”. I learned all of this stuff in college, but it’s nice to see a reference that’s to the point and brief. Good $#!t.
To everybody here. You should take a sec to look at this guy, and study the right way to break the rules or at least bend them
DAVID CARSON
http://www.davidcarsondesign.com
April 21st, 2008 at 7:49 pm
Thank you so much, I love your tutorial. Helped me understand some things I was confused about.
April 23rd, 2008 at 2:09 pm
Where are the rivers?
July 5th, 2008 at 6:52 am
Super tutorial - your explanations are clear and concise. Thank you!
September 30th, 2008 at 3:05 am
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