Typography 101: Baseline Shift

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Typography 101: Baseline Shift
Here’s a simple tip for making sure web email address in print look more professional; I’ve been doing this for years now.

When typing an email address into your document, what I have found is the “@” symbol sits on the baseline by default (in the majority of fonts).

In the example above, I have demonstrated that simply by shifting the baseline lower on the “@” symbol, the whole aesthetics of the typography looks a whole lot better.

Number 1 shows the email address without baseline shift correction, whilst number 2 shows the corrected version.

(Technical tip: the baseline shift should be set to a few negative-points (depending on letter size) using the character pallet in Illustrator, Photoshop, etc).

I also adjust the baseline shift on brackets, too.

This method is very ‘perfectionist’, but that’s what makes a good designer a great one

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About the Author

Andrew Kelsall

I'm a Creative Designer from England who loves to work on various projects such as logos, posters and illustration. You can also follow my daily musings and shared links on Twitter.
13 Comments
- Typography 101: Baseline Shift…
  
  This article demonstrates how adjusting the baseline shift on the typographic “@” symbol increases the aesthetic quality on the letters….
- Typography 101: Baseline Shift Tutorial…
  
  This article demonstrates how adjusting the baseline shift on the typographic “@” symbol increases the aesthetic quality on the letters….
- [...] Typography 101: Baseline Shift [...]
- [...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Richard Laksana and Maya Ibuki, Carlos Estrada. Carlos Estrada said: Typography 101: Baseline Shift: Here’s a simple tip for making sure web email address in print look more professio… http://bit.ly/9Bhrmw [...]
- Typography 101: Baseline Shift…
  
  This article demonstrates how adjusting the baseline shift on the typographic “@” symbol increases the aesthetic quality on the letters….
- Typography 101: Baseline Shift…
  
  This article demonstrates how adjusting the baseline shift on the typographic “@” symbol increases the aesthetic quality on the letters….
- [...] Typography 101: Baseline Shift [...]
- [...] Direct Link [...]
- nice tip! thanks!!!
  
  03 Nov 2010 04:11 am Rebecca
  
  Reply
- Simple but priceless!
  
  03 Nov 2010 02:11 pm Rob Cubbon
  
  Reply
- Simple and very effective, nice tip! Thanks for sharing.
  
  11 Nov 2010 10:11 am Ray Vellest
  
  Reply
- Rebecca & Rob → Cheers
  
  11 Nov 2010 10:11 pm Andrew Kelsall
  
  Reply
- Ray → No worries
  
  11 Nov 2010 10:11 pm Andrew Kelsall
  
  Reply
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