Behind The Font

Font Styles & Point Sizes

Fonts can be categorized in many different ways, but the most common broad groups are Serif and Sans Serif. Here are examples of both:

[.rich-text-center][.font-family-serif]SERIF[.font-family-serif][.rich-text-center]

This Serif font has decorative strokes that finish off the ends of letter stems.

[.rich-text-center][.font-family-sans]SAN SERIF[.font-family-sans][.rich-text-center]

This Sans Serif font has no decorative strokes that finish off the ends of letter stems.

Historically in print, Serif fonts have been more commonly used in body text as serifs guide the eyes across the paper while reading. Sans Serif fonts have been used mainly for headlines and larger display text. With the advent of the internet, sans serif fonts were favored; but with improved screen quality, both serif and sans serif fonts are acceptable.

Of course there are many other font categories such as Script, Handwritten, Rounded, Outlined, Dingbats, and so on. Some fonts can be put into multiple categories, and some would be difficult to categorize at all.

[.rich-text-center][.text-color-purple]The same point size looks different from one typeface to another.[.text-color-purple][.rich-text-center]

[.rich-text-center][.font-family-mono][.text-color-red]The same point size looks different from one typeface to another.[.font-family-mono][.text-color-red][.rich-text-center]

[.rich-text-center][.font-family-serif][.text-color-blue]The same point size looks different from one typeface to another.[.font-family-serif][.text-color-blue][.rich-text-center]

As far as terminology goes, very often “font” and “typeface” are used interchangeably. However, technically there’s a difference:

Helvetica is a typeface. (In this case “Helvetica” is the font family name.)

Helvetica Regular, Helvetica Light, Helvetica Bold Condensed Oblique, etcetera, are fonts.

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