OLD STYLE
It all began with Francesco Griffo's designs of the punchcutter. Influenced by During this time period (1475), everything was made by hand and therefore, mimicked letterforms as if handwritten.
Defining Characteristics:
wedge serifs
slight diagonal stress
contrasting stroke weight
scooped serifs
Font Examples:
Bembo, Garamond, Bookman
No significant advancements or trends changed in the typographic world for a while. 280 years to be precise. But naturally, as time passed, technology advanced. Typographic tools were invented to make more intricate marks, which in turn, created more font styles.
TRANSITIONAL
This font classification showcases the transition in the 1700s from Old Style to Modern, hence the name, Transitional.
Defining Characteristics:
greater contrast in stroke weight
slight vertical stress
typically wider than Old Style
bracketed serifs
tall x-height
Font Examples:
Baskerville, Century, Caslon
25 more years pass with a little more font evolution
MODERN
Inspired by the Transitional font classification, the Modern typefaces were born in the late 1700s.
Defining Characteristics:
hairline serifs
vertical stress
mathematical
high contrasting stroke weight
unbracketed serifs
Typically wide letters (M&W) are condensed and others (P&T) are expanded
Font Examples:
Didot, Walbaum, Bodoni
SLAB SERIF (EGYPTIAN)
Vincent Figgins introduced slab-serif typestyles in 1815 under the name Antique. During this time period, Egyptian artifacts were extremely popular, which inspired the name of this font classification by typefounders.
Defining Characteristics:
thick serifs
medium contrasting stroke widths
monoweight
stress on curved strokes is minimal
usually unbracketed serifs
geometric/constructed
Font Examples:
Swift, Rockwell, Serifa
SANS SERIF
The name alone describes the root of this classification. No serifs. William Caslon IV released the first sans serif typestyle in an 1816 specimen book.
Defining Characteristics:
Monoweight, typically uniform stroke weight
Vertical Stress
Geometric construction typically
Some combine organic and geometric characteristics
Further Classifications with Font Examples:
Geometric - Futura, Gotham, Din, Kabel
Humanist - Frutiger, Meta, Syntax
Grotesque - Interstate, Trade Gothic, Accidents Grotesque, Helvetica
Here are a few definitions to get you on my nerd level
Proportions of the letterform
There are four major letterform proportion variables that end up having a large impact on the appearance of a typeface.
Ratio of letterform heigh to stroke width
variation between the thickest and thinnest strokes of the letterform
width of the letters
relationship of x-heigh to the height of capitals, ascenders, and descenders.
Stroke Weight
Describes the thickness/width of the major lines comprising a letterform.
Axis/Stress
The visual axis created by the relationship between thick and thin strokes. Can be left-angled, vertical, or right angled.
Small Caps
A set of capital letters that have the same x-height as the lowercase letters. Often used for abbreviations, cross references, and emphasis.
Lining Figures
Numbers that align with the height of the captial letters and the baseline
Non-Aligning Figures
Also called Old Style Figures. Numbers that are have varying alignments. 1, 2, and 0 align with the x-height; 6 and 8 have ascenders; and 3, 4, 5, 7, and 9 have descenders
Ligatures
Two or more characters linked together as one unit, such as ff and & (which originated as the combination of the French word et ("and").
Dashes
Apostrophes
Optical relationships within a font
Adjustments purposefully made to correct spacial problems between letters. Pointed and Curved letters have less weight at the top and bottom guidelines, which makes them appear shorter. To change this appearance, the apexes of these letters go beyond the baseline and capline so that they appear to be the same height as the other capital letters.
Type Measurement
The point system of measurement was created by Pierre Simon Fournier, a French type designer. Before 1737, there were no standards for measuring type. The current system, developed in the 1870s uses the point and pica system of measurement.
72 points in an inch
12 points in a pica
~6 picas in an inch
There are three dimensions of type design:
The depth of type is measured in points and called the point size or body size.
All metal type must be the same height (called type high) so that it prints at a uniform impression.
The width of type is called set width, but it varies usually from letter to letter. M & W are the widest and I is the narrowest.
The length of a line of type is measured by the sum of the set width of each character and the spaces in between. It is measured in picas.
text type - Size 12 point type and less is used mainly for body copy.
display type - Type over 12 points and is primarily used for titles, headlines, signage, etc.
Metal type maxes at size 72 point type and has a minimum of 5 points.
A few terms
Type House/Font House
A collaboration of designers that focus on type design.
A few well known Font Houses
House Industries
H&FJ
Adobe
P22
Underware
Typophile
Font Brothers
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