Welcome to your first week of typography. You will learn current standards and practices of designing with type. Before doing so it is important to understand the categories and characteristics of type as well as what makes it readable and legible.

Categories of Type

Subtlety is a very important part of designing with type and design in general. The Categories of Type link below discusses the many differences to observe when looking at letterforms.

Counter Space is a great website dedicated to typography and it's history.
Visit it often.

Check out the ANATOMY: Character Structure and Measurements link in Counter Space (above)

Readability
Readability refers to an extended amount of text, as in a book or magazine article, and how easy it is to read.

Legibility
When a short amount of text can be easily recognizable
such as, headlines, subheads, street signs, posters, billboards.

Mildred's House of Signage
Signage in an urban environment.
Look through this sight and observe the different kinds of type used.
Be aware of the beauty of each letterform.

Letterforms

Letterform Slideshow

Learn Adobe Indesign CS5
Great videos for the beginner

Type basics:
Type topics (Adobe)

Real world tips for working with text in InDesign (Adobe press)

Formatting text in CS 4, CS5 and CS5.5
Making a text frame (Adobe video)
Character formatting (Adobe video)
Paragraph formatting (Adobe video)
Placing and flowing text (Adobe video)