Typography
University typography
Using consistent typefaces is essential for a unified graphic identity. James Madison University logos and marks, stationery and the James Madison publication signature use Logo Typography. Brand typography is used to create the look of university brand communications like Madison magazine.
Logo Typography
James Madison University logos and marks, stationery and the James Madison publication signature use the following typefaces:
Brand typography
Madison brand typography includes preferred font families. The serif font Adobe Garamond is for body text and the sans serif font Adobe District is for headlines, sidebars and captions. The slab serif font Adobe Stymie is also appropriate as an alternate headline font, and Adobe Franklin Gothic may be used as accent font.
Stymie BT
Adobe District
Adobe Garamond
Typographic elements
Brand typography has composition standards. Typefaces, font weights, point sizes and template grid shall be consistent throughout an article. Formatting headline and body text depends on the audience and message.
With formal typography, headlines may be centered and body text justified. With informal typography, headlines may be flush left and body text flush left/ragged right.
For formatting a headline, make sure it is adjacent to its body text and avoid all capital characters using a serif font in a long headline that has more than a few words on one line.
For formatting body text, the first paragraph is always flush left to the margin (no indent). For subsequent paragraphs, either indent the first line with no line space after the paragraph or make the first line flush left to the margin with a line space after the paragraph. Never combine both elements in an article.
Drop caps
In editorial design, the drop cap signifies the first paragraph of a story. It either replaces the first letter of the paragraph with text running around it or the drop cap goes behind the opening lines of text. The drop cap character size should be a minimum of five lines deep and may extend well into the next paragraph. The font should either match the story font or contrast it. For example, a sans serif drop cap nicely contrasts serif text. Drop caps are often brand colors or may match a significant color from a photo or graphic within the story.
Bullets
Use distinctive dingbat graphics like squares or triangles in brand purple or gold colors. For bold graphics like squares, make the dingbat point size slightly smaller than the point size of the text. Avoid generic dot bullets associated with commonplace desktop publishing. Adobe ITC Zapf Dingbats is the preferred font.
Web urls
Display URLs at the end of a paragraph or the bottom of an ad. Set off using brand colors in a bold font, preferably sans serif, for quick recognition. When displaying websites that contain “www.” such as www. jmu.edu, delete the http:// from the beginning of the URL. Avoid breaking a URL to two lines. If this is necessary, make sure no hyphens are inserted and break the URL between whole words.
Sans-serif: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif
Serif: Arvo, Georgia, serif
Type sizes for web
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog
Arial 14px, line-height: 20px default paragraph typography
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog
H1: Arvo 24px used in page title
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog
H2: Arvo 28px used in content headings*
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog
H3 Arial 28px used for content heading*
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog H4 Arial 22px
H4 Arial 22px used in action link
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog H5 Arvo 18px
H5 Arvo 18px used in link list
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog
H6 Arial 12px, all caps, letter-spacing: .75px used in link list pre-heading
*Use H3 when the content heading is directly below the page title (in the gold below navigation); H2 can be used below an image banner or when there is content separating the H2 from the page title.
All emails use the font Arial (fallback of Helvetica, san-serif) in the following sizes:
Heading One: 26px
Used for headlines
Heading Two: 20px
Used for subheadings
Heading Three: 22px
Department name in the email header
Paragraph: 16px; line-height: 24px
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