What is type style

The underlying characters hapes often more closely resemble sans serif fonts. Sans-serif typefaces are called such because they lack serif details on characters. Sans-serif typefaces are often more modern in appearance than serifs.

The first sans-serifs were created in the late 18th century. Grotesques are the earliest, and include fonts like Franklin Gothic and Akzidenz Grotesk. These typefaces often have letterforms that are very similar to serif typefaces, minus the serifs. Neo-Grotesque typefaces include some of the most common typefaces: MS Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica and Univers are all neo-grotesque sans serif type fonts. They have a relatively plain appearance when compared to the grotesques.

These are more calligraphic than other sans-serif typefaces, and are also the most legible hence the popularity of some of them for website body copy. Geometric sans-serifs are more closely based on geometric shapes. Scripts are based upon handwriting, and offer very fluid letterforms. There are two basic classifications: formal and casual. Formal scripts are often reminiscent of the handwritten letterforms common in the 17th and 18th centuries.

Some scripts are based directly on the handwriting of masters like George Snell and George Bickham. There are modern creations, too, including Kuenstler Script. Casual scripts more closely resemble modern handwriting, and date back to the mid-twentieth century.

Casual scripts include Mistral and Brush Script. Display typefaces are probably the broadest category and include the most variation. Display typefaces can be formal, or informal, and evoke any kind of mood. Also included among display typefaces are blackletter typefaces, which were the original typefaces used with the first printing presses.

Since that time, better, more readable fonts have been developed. Dingbats are specialty typefaces that consist of symbols and ornaments instead of letters. Wingdings is probably the best-known dingbat font, though there are now thousands, often created around themes. In proportional typefaces, the space a character takes up is dependent on the natural width of that character. Times New Roman is a proportional typeface. In monospace typefaces , on the other hand, each character takes up the same amount of space.

Narrower characters simply get a bit more spacing around them to make up for the difference in width. Courier New is one example of a monospace typeface. The mood of a typeface is an important part of how it should be used. Different typefaces have strikingly different moods. Commonly used moods include formal vs. Some typefaces have very distinct moods. Verdana, on the other hand, has a more modern mood. Helvetica is often considered one such font.

Each of these refers to the thickness of the strokes that make up the characters:. Small caps are often used for headings or subheadings, to add variety to your typography if using a single typeface. Italic and oblique are often confused or used interchangeably, but are two distinct styles.

Oblique type is simply a slanted version of the regular characters. Italics are slanted like obliques, but are actually a separate set of characters, with their own unique letterforms. The different letterforms within a typeface share a few common characteristics.

These characteristics can be important in determining whether two or more typefaces work well together, or clash. Here are the most basic parts of a typeface:.

The above image shows the different guidelines that are generally present in a typeface. The baseline is the invisible line that all the characters sit on. Rounded letters sometimes sit just a tiny bit under the baseline, and descenders always drop below this line. A given typeface will have a consistent baseline. The above illustration shows three common parts to letterforms. The stem is the main upright of any letter, including the primary diagonal.

The bar is any horizontal part, which are sometimes also called arms. The bowl is the curved part of a character that creates an interior empty space. The inside of a bowl is a counter. Serifs are the extra flourish at the end of a stroke on serif typefaces. Some typefaces have very pronounced serifs , while others are barely distinguishable.

Hairlines are the thinnest part of a serif typeface. Finials are the tapered endings of some strokes. Shoulders are any curved stroke that originate from a stem.

Stay tuned! What is time to value TTV — and how do you measure it? In an age of short attention spans brought about by social media, designers are urged to be concise and create typefaces that allow users to consume the necessary information in short amounts of time.

Hierarchy can be created using sizing, color, contrast, and alignment. The most typical example of typographical hierarchy is size: headings should always be larger than subheadings and standard text.

Making the right choice depends on so much more than just seeing what looks nice. Here are a few key considerations:. How do you want your users to feel when they first enter your website. Do you want to emulate a friendly atmosphere? Do you want the site to feel high-end, welcoming, playful, or serious?

A good starting point when faced with this challenge is to define the core traits of your brand, and start to gather typefaces that reflect these traits. From there, you can begin to notice a trend. For example, if you want to convey serious or important information, choose a less stylized or decorative font that is both clearly legible and will limit distraction.

When deciding what typefaces to include in your interface, set the style, aesthetic, and voice aside and reflect on whether the font is legible, readable, and accessible. Can the text be legible without strain? Are the characters distinct enough? One thing that many designers often overlook is choosing typefaces that are web browser friendly. Commonly used font libraries such as Google fonts offer web-based font files that can be rendered perfectly in a browser without any issues.

Pro tip: when downloading web fonts, never download more character sets than you need to. Open your eyes to the typography that you see around you. Can you notice similar patterns? Can you see good and bad examples of typography? You can also look to these eight typography trends for further inspiration. The best way to decipher which font to use for your interface? These early typefaces were reminiscent of handwritten calligraphy.

The New York Times logo is a classic, ubiquitous example of blackletter type, as are many other popular newspaper titles. After blackletter came the first serif typefaces. Serifs include slight projections that finish off the strokes of their letterforms called serifs , where the style gets its name. Emerging in the s, the first serifs were Old Style serifs.

This style includes Garamond and Goudy Old Style. The successors to the Old Style serifs were called Transitional serifs, which made their first appearance in the s. These typefaces had high stroke contrast and were more upright than their Old Style predecessors.

The natural evolution of the trends present in Transitional serif typefaces became known as the Modern serifs during the s. These Modern serifs include fonts like Didot and Bodoni. They have extreme contrast between strokes and no brackets on their serifs. Slab serifs are the final evolution of the serif style. With the advent of mechanization e. They have little contrast between strokes and most are unbracketed. Slab serif typefaces include Rockwell and Clarendon, among others. While serifs were the first typefaces to evolve after the original blackletters, sans serif typefaces largely came on to the design scene in the early 20th century.

These early sans serif typefaces were called grotesque or gothic fonts and included typefaces like Franklin Gothic. Source: Michael Sallit. Later in the s, after the Grotesques came to the Neo-Grotesque sans serif typefaces. These typefaces were designed to be more legible than their earlier counterparts and generally have much plainer designs. Helvetica and Arial are both examples of Neo-Grotesque sans serifs. Rounding out the sans serif typefaces are the Geometric and Humanistic styles.

Geometric sans serifs, like the Modern serifs, took the style to the edge. Their ultra-modern shapes do sacrifice legibility at smaller sizes, however.