Type is Everywhere!
Every typeface you see has been painstakingly designed to have its own personality or voice.
Where did all these typefaces come from and why?
Where did all these typefaces come from and why?
Evolution of Type
Type evolves, it is influenced by technological advances and culture (political, social, academic, artistic, etc):
- Evolved from one-of-a-kind handwritten scripts (pre-1400) to printed technologies - this changed the nature of written communication so much that the term "typography" was coined to describe it.
- Current digital typographic innovations continue to push the boundaries of type use in design.
- Typographic quality is based on reproducibility.
Learn more about the History of Typeface.
Basics of Type
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Terminology
- Font - a complete set of letterforms, numerals, and signs
- Letterform - the particular style and form of each individual letter of our alphabet.
- Italics - letterforms that slope to the right
- Sans serif - a typeface with no serifs
- Serif - a small element added to the upper or lower end of the main stroke of a letterform.
- Stroke - a straight or curved line forming a letter.
- Typeface - the design of a single set of letterforms, numerals, and signs unified by consistent visual properties created by a type designer the design you see: the style, look, feel of a specific font
- Type family - several font designs contributing a range of style variations based upon a single typeface design (light, medium, and bold weights including italics.)
- Type style - modifications in a typeface that create design variety while retaining the essential visual character of the face. Include variations in weight, width, angle, and elaborations on the basic forms (outline, shaded, decorated).
- Typography - Traditionally defined as the study, use, and design of sets of letterforms
Note: Typeface is the family, while font is each individual member of the family.
For more terms visit Adobe Typographic Terms List [PDF]
or view An Illustrated Glossary of Typographic Terms on Canvas Learn
or view An Illustrated Glossary of Typographic Terms on Canvas Learn