In
typography
Typography is the art and technique of arranging type to make written language legible, readable and appealing when displayed. The arrangement of type involves selecting typefaces, point sizes, line lengths, line-spacing ( leading), and ...
, a serif () is a small line or stroke regularly attached to the end of a larger stroke in a letter or symbol within a particular
font
In metal typesetting, a font is a particular size, weight and style of a typeface. Each font is a matched set of type, with a piece (a "sort") for each glyph. A typeface consists of a range of such fonts that shared an overall design.
In mod ...
or family of fonts. A
typeface
A typeface (or font family) is the design of lettering that can include variations in size, weight (e.g. bold), slope (e.g. italic), width (e.g. condensed), and so on. Each of these variations of the typeface is a font.
There are list of type ...
or "font family" making use of serifs is called a serif typeface (or serifed typeface), and a typeface that does not include them is
sans-serif
In typography and lettering, a sans-serif, sans serif, gothic, or simply sans letterform is one that does not have extending features called "serifs" at the end of strokes. Sans-serif typefaces tend to have less stroke width variation than seri ...
. Some typography sources refer to sans-serif typefaces as "grotesque" (in
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
** Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ge ...
, ) or "Gothic", and serif typefaces as "
roman
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
*Rome, the capital city of Italy
*Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
*Roman people, the people of ancient Rome
*''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a letter ...
".
Origins and etymology
Serifs originated from the first official Greek writings on stone and in
Latin alphabet
The Latin alphabet or Roman alphabet is the collection of letters originally used by the ancient Romans to write the Latin language. Largely unaltered with the exception of extensions (such as diacritics), it used to write English and the o ...
with
inscriptional lettering—words carved into stone in Roman
antiquity. The explanation proposed by Father
Edward Catich
Edward M. Catich (1906–April 14, 1979) was an American Roman Catholic priest, teacher, and calligrapher. He is noted for the fullest development of the thesis that the inscribed Roman square capitals of the Augustan age and afterward owed their ...
in his 1968 book ''The Origin of the Serif'' is now broadly but not universally accepted: the Roman letter outlines were first painted onto stone, and the stone carvers followed the brush marks, which flared at stroke ends and corners, creating serifs. Another theory is that serifs were devised to neaten the ends of lines as they were chiselled into stone.
The origin of the word 'serif' is obscure, but apparently is almost as recent as the type style. The book ''The British Standard of the Capital Letters contained in the Roman Alphabet, forming a complete code of systematic rules for a mathematical construction and accurate formation of the same'' (1813) by
William Hollins, defined 'surripses', usually pronounced "surriphs", as "projections which appear at the tops and bottoms of some letters, the O and Q excepted, at the beginning or end, and sometimes at each, of all". The standard also proposed that 'surripsis' may be a Greek word derived from (, "together") and (, "projection").
In 1827, Greek scholar
Julian Hibbert
Julian may refer to:
People
* Julian (emperor) (331–363), Roman emperor from 361 to 363
* Julian (Rome), referring to the Roman gens Julia, with imperial dynasty offshoots
* Saint Julian (disambiguation), several Christian saints
* Julian (giv ...
printed with his own experimental
uncial
Uncial is a majuscule Glaister, Geoffrey Ashall. (1996) ''Encyclopedia of the Book''. 2nd edn. New Castle, DE, and London: Oak Knoll Press & The British Library
The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one ...
Greek types, remarking that the types of
Giambattista Bodoni
Giambattista Bodoni (, ; 16 February 1740 – 30 November 1813) was an Italian typographer, type-designer, compositor, printer, and publisher in Parma.
He first took the type-designs of Pierre Simon Fournier as his exemplars, but afterwards be ...
's ''Callimachus'' were "ornamented (or rather disfigured) by additions of what
ebelieve
type-founders call syrifs or cerefs". The printer
Thomas Curson Hansard
Thomas Curson Hansard (6 November 17765 May 1833) was an English pressman, son of the printer Luke Hansard.
Life
In 1803, he established a press of his own in Paternoster Row. In the same year, William Cobbett, a newspaperman, began to print th ...
referred to them as "ceriphs" in 1825.
The oldest citations in the ''
Oxford English Dictionary
The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the first and foundational historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP). It traces the historical development of the English language, providing a com ...
'' (''OED'') are 1830 for 'serif' and 1841 for 'sans serif'. The ''OED'' speculates that 'serif' was a
back-formation
In etymology, back-formation is the process or result of creating a new word via inflection, typically by removing or substituting actual or supposed affixes from a lexical item, in a way that expands the number of lexemes associated with the c ...
from 'sanserif'.
''
Webster's Third New International Dictionary
''Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged'' (commonly known as ''Webster's Third'', or ''W3'') was published in September 1961. It was edited by Philip Babcock Gove and a team of lexicographers who spent 757 ...
'' traces 'serif' to the
Dutch
Dutch commonly refers to:
* Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands
* Dutch people ()
* Dutch language ()
Dutch may also refer to:
Places
* Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States
* Pennsylvania Dutch Country
People E ...
noun , meaning "line, stroke of the pen", related to the verb , "to delete, strike through" ( now also means "serif" in Dutch). Yet, is the past tense of (to write). The relation between and is documented by Van Veen and Van der Sijs. In her book , Van der Sijs lists words by first known publication in the language area that is the Netherlands today:
* , 1100;
* , 1350;
* , 1406 (i.e. is from (to write), not from (to scratch, eliminate by strike-through)).
The ''OED''s earliest citation for "grotesque" in this sense is 1875, giving 'stone-letter' as a
synonym
A synonym is a word, morpheme, or phrase that means exactly or nearly the same as another word, morpheme, or phrase in a given language. For example, in the English language, the words ''begin'', ''start'', ''commence'', and ''initiate'' are all ...
. It would seem to mean "out of the ordinary" in this usage, as in art 'grotesque' usually means "elaborately decorated". Other synonyms include "Doric" and "Gothic", commonly used for
Japanese Gothic typeface
In the East Asian writing system, gothic typefaces (; ja, ゴシック体, goshikku-tai; ko, 돋움, dotum, ''godik-che'') are a type style characterized by strokes of even thickness and lack of decorations akin to sans serif styles in Weste ...
s.
Classification
Serif fonts can be broadly classified into one of four subgroups: old style, transitional, Didone and slab serif, in order of first appearance.
Old-style
![Garamond sample](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e0/Garamond_sample.svg)
Old-style typefaces date back to 1465, shortly after
Johannes Gutenberg
Johannes Gensfleisch zur Laden zum Gutenberg (; – 3 February 1468) was a German inventor and Artisan, craftsman who introduced letterpress printing to Europe with his movable type, movable-type printing press. Though not the first of its ki ...
's adoption of the
movable type
Movable type (US English; moveable type in British English) is the system and technology of printing and typography that uses movable components to reproduce the elements of a document (usually individual alphanumeric characters or punctuatio ...
printing press
A printing press is a mechanical device for applying pressure to an inked surface resting upon a printing, print medium (such as paper or cloth), thereby transferring the ink. It marked a dramatic improvement on earlier printing methods in wh ...
. Early printers in Italy created types that broke with Gutenberg's
blackletter
Blackletter (sometimes black letter), also known as Gothic script, Gothic minuscule, or Textura, was a script used throughout Western Europe from approximately 1150 until the 17th century. It continued to be commonly used for the Danish, Norweg ...
printing, creating upright and later
italic styles inspired by
Renaissance
The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...
calligraphy.
Old-style serif fonts have remained popular for setting body text because of their organic appearance and excellent readability on rough book paper. The increasing interest in early printing during the late 19th and early 20th centuries saw a return to the designs of Renaissance printers and type-founders, many of whose names and designs are still used today.
Old-style type is characterized by a lack of large differences between thick and thin lines (low line contrast) and generally, but less often, by a diagonal stress (the thinnest parts of letters are at an angle rather than at the top and bottom). An old-style font normally has a left-inclining curve axis with weight stress at about 8 and 2 o'clock; serifs are almost always bracketed (they have curves connecting the serif to the stroke); head serifs are often angled.
Old-style faces evolved over time, showing increasing abstraction from what would now be considered handwriting and blackletter characteristics, and often increased delicacy or contrast as printing technique improved.
Old-style faces have often sub-divided into 'Venetian' (or '
humanist
Humanism is a philosophical stance that emphasizes the individual and social potential and agency of human beings. It considers human beings the starting point for serious moral and philosophical inquiry.
The meaning of the term "humani ...
') and '
Garalde
In typography, the Vox-ATypI classification makes it possible to classify typefaces into general classes. Devised by Maximilien Vox in 1954, it was adopted in 1962 by the Association Typographique Internationale (ATypI) and in 1967 as a British Sta ...
' (or 'Aldine'), a division made on the
Vox-ATypI classification
In typography, the Vox-ATypI classification makes it possible to classify typefaces into general classes. Devised by Maximilien Vox in 1954, it was adopted in 1962 by the Association Typographique Internationale (ATypI) and in 1967 as a British S ...
system.
Nonetheless, some have argued that the difference is excessively abstract, hard to spot except to specialists and implies a clearer separation between styles than originally appeared.
Modern typefaces such as
Arno
The Arno is a river in the Tuscany region of Italy. It is the most important river of central Italy after the Tiber.
Source and route
The river originates on Monte Falterona in the Casentino area of the Apennines, and initially takes a s ...
and
Trinité may fuse both styles.
Early "humanist" roman types were introduced in Italy. Modelled on the script of the period, they tend to feature an "e" in which the cross stroke is angled, not horizontal; an "M" with two-way serifs; and often a relatively dark colour on the page.
In modern times, that of
Nicolas Jenson
Nicholas Jenson (c. 1420 – 1480) was a French engraver, pioneer, printer and type designer who carried out most of his work in Venice, Italy. Jenson acted as Master of the French Royal Mint at Tours and is credited with being the creator of on ...
has been the most admired, with many revivals.
Garaldes, which tend to feature a level cross-stroke on the "e", descend from an influential 1495 font cut by engraver
Francesco Griffo Francesco Griffo (1450–1518), also called Francesco da Bologna, was a fifteenth-century Italian punchcutter. He worked for Aldus Manutius, designing the printer's more important humanist typefaces, including the first italic type. He cut Roman, Gr ...
for printer
Aldus Manutius
Aldus Pius Manutius (; it, Aldo Pio Manuzio; 6 February 1515) was an Italian printer and humanist who founded the Aldine Press. Manutius devoted the later part of his life to publishing and disseminating rare texts. His interest in and preserv ...
, which became the inspiration for many typefaces cut in France from the 1530s onwards.
Often lighter on the page and made in larger sizes than had been used for roman type before, French Garalde faces rapidly spread throughout Europe from the 1530s to become an international standard.
Also during this period,
italic type
In typography, italic type is a cursive font based on a stylised form of calligraphic handwriting. Owing to the influence from calligraphy, italics normally slant slightly to the right. Italics are a way to emphasise key points in a printed tex ...
evolved from a quite separate genre of type, intended for informal uses such as poetry, into taking a secondary role for emphasis. Italics moved from being conceived as separate designs and proportions to being able to be fitted into the same line as roman type with a design complementary to it.
A new genre of serif type developed around the 17th century in the Netherlands and Germany that came to be called the "Dutch taste" ( in
French).
It was a tendency towards denser, more solid typefaces, often with a high
x-height
upright 2.0, alt=A diagram showing the line terms used in typography
In typography, the x-height, or corpus size, is the distance between the baseline and the mean line of lowercase letters in a typeface. Typically, this is the height of the let ...
(tall lower-case letters) and a sharp contrast between thick and thin strokes, perhaps influenced by blackletter faces.
Examples of contemporary Garalde old-style typefaces are
Bembo
Bembo is a serif typeface created by the British branch of the Monotype Corporation in 1928–1929 and most commonly used for body text. It is a member of the " old-style" of serif fonts, with its regular or roman style based on a design cut a ...
,
Garamond
Garamond is a group of many serif typefaces, named for sixteenth-century Parisian engraver Claude Garamond, generally spelled as Garamont in his lifetime. Garamond-style typefaces are popular and particularly often used for book printing and b ...
,
Galliard
The ''galliard'' (; french: gaillarde; it, gagliarda) was a form of Renaissance dance and music popular all over Europe in the 16th century. It is mentioned in dance manuals from England, Portugal, France, Spain, Germany, and Italy.
Dance fo ...
,
Granjon
Granjon is an old-style serif typeface designed by George W. Jones around 1924 for the British branch of the Linotype company, and based on the Garamond typeface that was used in a book printed by the Parisian Jean Poupy in 1592. The roman desi ...
,
Goudy Old Style
Goudy Old Style (also known as just Goudy) is an Serif#Old-style, old-style serif typeface originally created by Frederic Goudy, Frederic W. Goudy for American Type Founders (ATF) in 1915.
Suitable for text and display applications, Goudy Old Styl ...
,
Minion Places
*Minions, Cornwall, a village in the United Kingdom
People
* Frank Minion (born 1929), American jazz and bop singer
*Fred Minion, English professional footballer
*Joseph Minion (born 1957), American film director and screenwriter
*Marcus F ...
,
Palatino
Palatino is the name of an old-style serif typeface designed by Hermann Zapf, initially released in 1949 by the Stempel foundry and later by other companies, most notably the Mergenthaler Linotype Company.
Named after the 16th-century Italian ...
, Renard,
Sabon
Sabon is an old-style serif typeface designed by the German-born typographer and designer Jan Tschichold (1902–1974) in the period 1964–1967. It was released jointly by the Linotype, Monotype, and Stempel type foundries in 1967. The design ...
, and
Scala. Contemporary typefaces with Venetian old style characteristics include
Cloister
A cloister (from Latin ''claustrum'', "enclosure") is a covered walk, open gallery, or open arcade running along the walls of buildings and forming a quadrangle or garth. The attachment of a cloister to a cathedral or church, commonly against a ...
,
Adobe Jenson
Adobe Jenson is an old-style serif typeface drawn for Adobe Systems by its chief type designer Robert Slimbach. Its Roman styles are based on a text face cut by Nicolas Jenson in Venice around 1470, and its italics are based on those created by L ...
, the
Golden Type
The Golden Type is a serif font designed by artist William Morris for his fine book printing project, the Kelmscott Press, in 1890. It is an "old-style" serif font, based on type designed by engraver and printer Nicolas Jenson in Venice around 147 ...
,
Hightower Text
Hightower Text is a serif typeface designed by Tobias Frere-Jones. It is loosely based on the printing of Nicolas Jenson in Venice in the 1470s, in what is now called the "old style" of serif fonts.
Begun by Frere-Jones while he was a student, ...
,
Centaur
A centaur ( ; grc, κένταυρος, kéntauros; ), or occasionally hippocentaur, is a creature from Greek mythology with the upper body of a human and the lower body and legs of a horse.
Centaurs are thought of in many Greek myths as being ...
, Goudy's Italian Old Style and
Berkeley Old Style
Berkeley most often refers to:
*Berkeley, California, a city in the United States
**University of California, Berkeley, a public university in Berkeley, California
*George Berkeley (1685–1753), Anglo-Irish philosopher
Berkeley may also refer t ...
and ITC Legacy. Several of these blend in Garalde influences to fit modern expectations, especially placing single-sided serifs on the "M"; Cloister is an exception.
Artists in the "Dutch taste" style include
Hendrik van den Keere
Hendrik van den Keere (c. 1540–2 – 1580) was a sixteenth-century punchcutter, or cutter of punches to make metal type, who lived in Ghent in modern Belgium.
Career
Van den Keere was the son of Ghent printer and schoolmaster Hendrik v ...
, Nicolaas Briot,
Christoffel van Dijck
Christoffel van Dijck (c. 1600-5, Dexheim – November 1669, Amsterdam) was a German-born Dutch punchcutter and typefounder, who cut punches and operated a foundry for casting metal type. Van Dijck's type was widely used at a time when Amsterdam ...
,
Miklós Tótfalusi Kis
Miklós Tótfalusi Kis ( hu, Misztótfalusi Kis Miklós) (1650 - March 20, 1702) was a Hungarian letter cutter, typeface designer, typographer and printer. Kis was one of the first printers and letter cutters of the Georgian type letters. He ma ...
and the
Janson
Janson is the name given to a set of old-style serif typefaces from the Dutch Baroque period, and modern revivals from the twentieth century. Janson is a crisp, relatively high-contrast serif design, most popular for body text.
Janson is based ...
and
Ehrhardt types based on his work and
Caslon
Caslon is the name given to serif typefaces designed by William Caslon I (c. 1692–1766) in London, or inspired by his work.
Caslon worked as an engraver of punches, the masters used to stamp the moulds or matrices used to cast metal ty ...
, especially the larger sizes.
Transitional
Transitional, or baroque, serif typefaces first became common around the mid-18th century until the start of the 19th.
They are in between "old style" and "modern" fonts, thus the name "transitional". Differences between thick and thin lines are more pronounced than they are in old style, but less dramatic than they are in the Didone fonts that followed. Stress is more likely to be vertical, and often the "R" has a curled tail. The ends of many strokes are marked not by blunt or angled serifs but by
ball terminal
A ball terminal is a design feature of a typeface
A typeface (or font family) is the design of lettering that can include variations in size, weight (e.g. bold), slope (e.g. italic), width (e.g. condensed), and so on. Each of these variations ...
s. Transitional faces often have an italic 'h' that opens outwards at bottom right.
Because the genre bridges styles, it is difficult to define where the genre starts and ends. Many of the most popular transitional designs are later creations in the same style.
Fonts from the original period of transitional typefaces include early on the in France, then the work of
Pierre Simon Fournier
Pierre-Simon Fournier (15 September 1712 – 8 October 1768) was a French mid-18th century punch-cutter, typefounder and typographic theoretician. He was both a collector and originator of types. Fournier's contributions to printing were his cre ...
in France,
Fleischman and
Rosart in the Low Countries,
Pradell in Spain and
John Baskerville
John Baskerville (baptised 28 January 1707 – 8 January 1775) was an English businessman, in areas including japanning and papier-mâché, but he is best remembered as a printer and type designer. He was also responsible for inventing "wov ...
and
Bulmer in England.
Among more recent designs,
Times New Roman
Times New Roman is a serif typeface. It was commissioned by the British newspaper ''The Times'' in 1931 and conceived by Stanley Morison, the artistic adviser to the British branch of the printing equipment company Monotype, in collaboration wit ...
(1932),
Perpetua
Perpetua and Felicity ( la, Perpetua et Felicitas) were Christian martyrs of the 3rd century. Vibia Perpetua was a recently married, well-educated noblewoman, said to have been 22 years old at the time of her death, and mother of an infant son s ...
,
Plantin,
Mrs. Eaves
Mrs. (American English) or Mrs (British English; standard English pronunciation: ) is a commonly used English honorific for women, usually for those who are married and who do not instead use another title (or rank), such as ''Doctor'', ''Profe ...
,
Freight Text, and the earlier
"modernised old styles" have been described as transitional in design.
Later 18th-century transitional typefaces in Britain begin to show influences of Didone typefaces from Europe, described below, and the two genres blur, especially in type intended for body text;
Bell
A bell is a directly struck idiophone percussion instrument. Most bells have the shape of a hollow cup that when struck vibrates in a single strong strike tone, with its sides forming an efficient resonator. The strike may be made by an inter ...
is an example of this.
Didone
Didone, or modern, serif typefaces, which first emerged in the late 18th century, are characterized by extreme contrast between thick and thin lines. These typefaces have a vertical stress and thin serifs with a constant width, with minimal bracketing (constant width). Serifs tend to be very thin, and vertical lines very heavy. Didone fonts are often considered to be less readable than transitional or old-style serif typefaces. Period examples include
Bodoni
Bodoni is the name given to the serif typefaces first designed by Giambattista Bodoni (1740–1813) in the late eighteenth century and frequently revived since. Bodoni's typefaces are classified as Didone or modern. Bodoni followed the ideas o ...
,
Didot Didot may refer to:
* Didot family, family of French printers, punch-cutters and publishers that flourished mainly in the 18th century
* Didot (typeface)
Didot is a group of typefaces. The word/name Didot came from the famous French printing and ...
, and
Walbaum Walbaum is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include:
*Johann Julius Walbaum (1724–1799), German physician, naturalist and taxonomist
* Johannes Walbaum (born 1987), German footballer
* Justus Erich Walbaum (1768-1837), German typ ...
.
Computer Modern
Computer Modern is the original family of typefaces used by the typesetting program TeX. It was created by Donald Knuth with his Metafont program, and was most recently updated in 1992. Computer Modern, or variants of it, remains very widely u ...
is a popular contemporary example. The very popular
Century
A century is a period of 100 years. Centuries are numbered ordinally in English and many other languages. The word ''century'' comes from the Latin ''centum'', meaning ''one hundred''. ''Century'' is sometimes abbreviated as c.
A centennial or ...
is a softened version of the same basic design, with reduced contrast. Didone typefaces achieved dominance of printing in the early 19th-century printing before declining in popularity in the second half of the century and especially in the 20th as new designs and revivals of old-style faces emerged.
In print, Didone fonts are often used on high-gloss
magazine paper Magazine papers are paper grades generally used in printing of magazines.
Manufacture
Magazine papers are made on paper machines from pulp. The pulp may be recycled, mechanical or chemical depending on the magazine quality. Publishers select the ...
for magazines such as ''
Harper's Bazaar
''Harper's Bazaar'' is an American monthly women's fashion magazine. It was first published in New York City on November 2, 1867, as the weekly ''Harper's Bazar''. ''Harper's Bazaar'' is published by Hearst and considers itself to be the st ...
'', where the paper retains the detail of their high contrast well, and for whose
image
An image is a visual representation of something. It can be two-dimensional, three-dimensional, or somehow otherwise feed into the visual system to convey information. An image can be an artifact, such as a photograph or other two-dimensiona ...
a crisp, "European" design of type may be considered appropriate.
They are used more often for general-purpose body text, such as book printing, in Europe.
They remain popular in the printing of Greek, as the Didot family were among the first to establish a printing press in newly independent Greece.
The period of Didone types' greatest popularity coincided with the rapid spread of printed
poster
A poster is a large sheet that is placed either on a public space to promote something or on a wall as decoration. Typically, posters include both typography, textual and graphic elements, although a poster may be either wholly graphical or w ...
s and commercial
ephemera
Ephemera are transitory creations which are not meant to be retained or preserved. Its etymological origins extends to Ancient Greece, with the common definition of the word being: "the minor transient documents of everyday life". Ambiguous in ...
and the arrival of
bold type
In typography, emphasis is the strengthening of words in a text with a font in a different style from the rest of the text, to highlight them. It is the equivalent of prosody stress in speech.
Methods and use
The most common methods in W ...
.
As a result, many Didone typefaces are among the earliest designed for
"display" use, with an ultra-bold "
fat face
FatFace is a British lifestyle brand, based in Hampshire, which creates product ranges across women's, men's, kids, footwear and accessories. FatFace is a multichannel retailer, with an international digital business as well as over 180 store ...
" style becoming a common sub-genre.
Slab serif
Slab serif typefaces date to about 1817.
Originally intended as attention-grabbing designs for posters, they have very thick serifs, which tend to be as thick as the vertical lines themselves. Slab serif fonts vary considerably: some such as
Rockwell have a geometric design with minimal variation in stroke width—they are sometimes described as sans-serif fonts with added serifs. Others such as those of the
"Clarendon" model have a structure more like most other serif fonts, though with larger and more obvious serifs.
These designs may have bracketed serifs that increase width along their length.
Because of the clear, bold nature of the large serifs, slab serif designs are often used for posters and in small print. Many
monospace fonts, on which all characters occupy the same amount of horizontal space as in a
typewriter
A typewriter is a mechanical or electromechanical machine for typing characters. Typically, a typewriter has an array of keys, and each one causes a different single character to be produced on paper by striking an inked ribbon selectivel ...
, are slab-serif designs. While not always purely slab-serif designs, many fonts intended for newspaper use have large slab-like serifs for clearer reading on poor-quality paper. Many early slab-serif types, being intended for posters, only come in
bold
In typography, emphasis is the strengthening of words in a text with a font in a different style from the rest of the text, to highlight them. It is the equivalent of prosody stress in speech.
Methods and use
The most common methods in W ...
styles with the key differentiation being width, and often have no lower-case letters at all.
Examples of slab-serif typefaces include
Clarendon,
Rockwell,
Archer
Archery is the sport, practice, or skill of using a bow to shoot arrows.Paterson ''Encyclopaedia of Archery'' p. 17 The word comes from the Latin ''arcus'', meaning bow. Historically, archery has been used for hunting and combat. In mo ...
,
Courier
A courier is a person or organisation that delivers a message, package or letter from one place or person to another place or person. Typically, a courier provides their courier service on a commercial contract basis; however, some couriers are ...
,
Excelsior
Excelsior, a Latin comparative word often translated as "ever upward" or "even higher", may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Literature and poetry
* "Excelsior" (Longfellow), an 1841 poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
* ''Excelsior'' (Macedo ...
,
TheSerif
Thesis is a large typeface family designed by Luc(as) de Groot. The typefaces were designed between 1994 and 1999 to provide a modern humanist family. Each typeface is available in a variety of weights as well as in italic. Originally released b ...
, and
Zilla Slab
Zilla Slab is a free to use, open source slab serif font commissioned by the Mozilla Foundation as a part of their rebranding process from mid-2016 to 2017. It was created in 2017 by Peter Biľak and Nikola Djurek, typeface designers for the Typo ...
.
FF Meta Serif and
Guardian Egyptian
Guardian Egyptian is a slab-serif typeface commissioned by Mark Porter for the UK newspaper ''The Guardian'' and designed by Paul Barnes and Christian Schwartz between 2004 and 2005 and published by their company Commercial Type.
It was an ...
are examples of newspaper and small print-oriented typefaces with some slab-serif characteristics, often most visible in the bold weights. In the late 20th century, the term "humanist slab-serif" has been applied to typefaces such as
Chaparral
Chaparral ( ) is a shrubland plant community and geographical feature found primarily in the U.S. state of California, in southern Oregon, and in the northern portion of the Baja California Peninsula in Mexico. It is shaped by a Mediterranean c ...
, Caecilia and Tisa, with strong serifs but an outline structure with some influence of old-style serif typefaces.
Other styles
During the 19th century, genres of serif type besides conventional body text faces proliferated.
These included "Tuscan" faces, with ornamental, decorative ends to the strokes rather than serifs, and "Latin" or "wedge-serif" faces, with pointed serifs, which were particularly popular in France and other parts of Europe including for signage applications such as business cards or shop fronts.
Well-known typefaces in the "Latin" style include
Wide Latin,
Copperplate Gothic
Copperplate Gothic is a typeface designed by Frederic W. Goudy and released by American Type Founders (ATF) in 1901.
While termed a "''Gothic''" (another term for sans-serif), the face has small glyphic serifs that act to emphasize the blunt ...
,
Johnston Delf Smith and the more restrained
Méridien.
Readability and legibility
Serifed fonts are widely used for
body text
__NOTOC__
The body text or body copy is the text forming the main content of a book, magazine, web page, or any other printed or digital work. This is as a contrast to both additional components such as headings, images, charts, footnotes etc. on ...
because they are considered easier to read than
sans-serif
In typography and lettering, a sans-serif, sans serif, gothic, or simply sans letterform is one that does not have extending features called "serifs" at the end of strokes. Sans-serif typefaces tend to have less stroke width variation than seri ...
fonts in print. Colin Wheildon, who conducted scientific studies from 1982 to 1990, found that sans serif fonts created various difficulties for readers that impaired their comprehension. According to Kathleen Tinkel, studies suggest that "most sans serif typefaces may be slightly less legible than most serif faces, but ... the difference can be offset by careful setting".
Sans-serif
In typography and lettering, a sans-serif, sans serif, gothic, or simply sans letterform is one that does not have extending features called "serifs" at the end of strokes. Sans-serif typefaces tend to have less stroke width variation than seri ...
are considered to be more
legible on computer screens. According to Alex Poole,
[Literature Review ''Which Are More Legible: Serif or Sans Serif Typefaces?']
alexpoole.info
. "we should accept that most reasonably designed typefaces in mainstream use will be equally legible". A study suggested that serif fonts are more legible on a screen but are not generally preferred to sans serif fonts.
[Effects of Font Type on the Legibility ''The Effects of Font Type and Size on the Legibility and Reading Time of Online Text by Older Adults'']
psychology.wichita.edu
. Another study indicated that comprehension times for individual words are slightly faster when written in a sans serif font versus a serif font.
[Moret-Tatay, C., & Perea, M. (2011). Do serifs provide an advantage in the recognition of written words? ''Journal of Cognitive Psychology 23, 5, 619-24.'']
valencia.edu
When size of an individual glyph is 9-20 pixels, proportional serifs and some lines of most glyphs of common vector fonts are smaller than individual pixels.
Hinting
Font hinting (also known as instructing) is the use of mathematical instructions to adjust the display of an outline font so that it lines up with a rasterized grid. At low screen resolutions, hinting is critical for producing clear, legible tex ...
,
spatial anti-aliasing
In digital signal processing, spatial anti-aliasing is a technique for minimizing the distortion artifacts (aliasing) when representing a high-resolution image at a lower resolution. Anti-aliasing is used in digital photography, computer graphics ...
, and
subpixel rendering
Subpixel rendering is a way to increase the apparent resolution of a computer's liquid crystal display (LCD) or organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display by rendering pixels to take into account the screen type's physical properties. It takes ...
allow to render distinguishable serifs even in this case, but their proportions and appearance are off and thickness is close to many lines of the main glyph, strongly altering appearance of the glyph. Consequently, it is sometimes advised to use sans-serif fonts for content meant to be displayed on screens, as they scale better for low resolutions. Indeed, most web pages employ sans-serif type.
[''The Principles of Beautiful Web Design'', (2007) p. 113.] Recent introduction of desktop displays with 300+ dpi resolution might eventually make this recommendation obsolete.
As serifs originated in inscription, they are generally not used in handwriting. A common exception is the
printed
Printing is a process for mass reproducing text and images using a master form or template. The earliest non-paper products involving printing include cylinder seals and objects such as the Cyrus Cylinder and the Cylinders of Nabonidus. The ea ...
capital
Capital may refer to:
Common uses
* Capital city, a municipality of primary status
** List of national capital cities
* Capital letter, an upper-case letter Economics and social sciences
* Capital (economics), the durable produced goods used f ...
I, where the addition of serifs distinguishes the character from
lowercase
Letter case is the distinction between the letters that are in larger uppercase or capitals (or more formally ''majuscule'') and smaller lowercase (or more formally ''minuscule'') in the written representation of certain languages. The writing ...
L. The printed capital
J and the
numeral 1 are also often handwritten with serifs.
Gallery
Below are some images of serif letterforms across history:
Jenson006.jpg, The roman type of Nicolas Jenson
Nicholas Jenson (c. 1420 – 1480) was a French engraver, pioneer, printer and type designer who carried out most of his work in Venice, Italy. Jenson acted as Master of the French Royal Mint at Tours and is credited with being the creator of on ...
De Aetna 1495.jpg, ''De Aetna'', printed by Aldus Manutius
Aldus Pius Manutius (; it, Aldo Pio Manuzio; 6 February 1515) was an Italian printer and humanist who founded the Aldine Press. Manutius devoted the later part of his life to publishing and disseminating rare texts. His interest in and preserv ...
Houghton TypTS 515.52.370 - Alphabetum Graecum.jpg, Title page printed by Robert Estienne
Garamond's Second Great Primer Roman Vervliet.png, Great Primer type (c. 18 pt) by Claude Garamond
Michael Praetorius Missodia Sionia (1611).jpg, 1611 book, with arabesque
The arabesque is a form of artistic decoration consisting of "surface decorations based on rhythmic linear patterns of scrolling and interlacing foliage, tendrils" or plain lines, often combined with other elements. Another definition is "Foli ...
ornament border
Hendrik van den Keere La Plus grande Romaine from Plantin specimen c. 1585.jpg, Large roman by Hendrik van den Keere
Hendrik van den Keere (c. 1540–2 – 1580) was a sixteenth-century punchcutter, or cutter of punches to make metal type, who lived in Ghent in modern Belgium.
Career
Van den Keere was the son of Ghent printer and schoolmaster Hendrik v ...
, introducing the "Dutch taste" style
Christoffel van Dijck Ascendonica Romein.jpg, Type by Christoffel van Dijck
Christoffel van Dijck (c. 1600-5, Dexheim – November 1669, Amsterdam) was a German-born Dutch punchcutter and typefounder, who cut punches and operated a foundry for casting metal type. Van Dijck's type was widely used at a time when Amsterdam ...
Romain du roi sample (1702).png, The '' Romain du roi'', the first "transitional" typeface
Ehrhardt specimen.png, Condensed, high x-height types in the "Dutch taste" style, c. 1720
Publii Virgilii Maronis Bucolica, Georgica, et Æneis by John Baskerville 1757.jpg, Title page by John Baskerville
John Baskerville (baptised 28 January 1707 – 8 January 1775) was an English businessman, in areas including japanning and papier-mâché, but he is best remembered as a printer and type designer. He was also responsible for inventing "wov ...
, 1757
Type sample, Pierre Simon Fournier, Manuel Typographique 1766.png, Alphabet by Pierre-Simon Fournier
Pierre-Simon Fournier (15 September 1712 – 8 October 1768) was a French mid-18th century punch-cutter, typefounder and typographic theoretician. He was both a collector and originator of types. Fournier's contributions to printing were his cre ...
in his ''Manuel typographique'', 1760s
Fleischman Paragon roman & italic.jpg, Transitional type by Joan Michaël Fleischman
Joan Michaël Fleischman (1707–27 May 1768, german: Johann Michael Fleischmann), was an 18th-century German-Dutch typographer and punchcutter.
Fleischman worked in the Baroque period of design and his roman typefaces have been described as ...
of Amsterdam, 1768
Feria Sexta.jpg, Modern-face types by the Amoretti Brothers
The Amoretti (, 18th to 19th centuries) were a family of type-engravers, printers, mechanics, and blacksmiths of the Duchy of Parma. They were initially friends and pupils of the printer Giambattista Bodoni, although they ultimately parted ways ...
, 1797
Code civil des Français (Firmin-Didot).jpg, Didone type in a book printed by the company of Firmin Didot, 1804
Manuale-Tipografico1.jpg, Bodoni's posthumous ''Manuale Tipografico'', 1818
Caslon inline Great Primer Columbia specimen.jpg, Inline modern face
Austin Foundry 1838 12 Lines Ornamented, No. 4.jpg, Display type with pattern inside
Redford & Robins - poster - Google Art Project.jpg, "Fat face" ultra-bold Didone type
Fann Street Foundry Clarendon image with text for emphasis.jpg, The original Clarendon typeface
Boston Type Foundry Clarendon.jpg, Display-size slab-serifs
Miller & Richard Old Style Type Specimen (15399996818).jpg, Miller and Richard's Modernised Old Style
Old Style or Modernised Old Style was the name given to a series of serif typefaces cut from the mid-nineteenth century and sold by the type foundry Miller & Richard, of Edinburgh in Scotland. It was a standard typeface in Britain for literary an ...
, a reimagination of pre-Didone typefaces
Kelmscott Press Typefaces.jpg, William Morris's Golden Type
The Golden Type is a serif font designed by artist William Morris for his fine book printing project, the Kelmscott Press, in 1890. It is an "old-style" serif font, based on type designed by engraver and printer Nicolas Jenson in Venice around 147 ...
in the style of Jenson and other typefaces of his Kelmscott Press
ATF 1923 Garamond specimen page 22.jpg, ATF
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE), commonly referred to as the ATF, is a domestic law enforcement agency within the United States Department of Justice. Its responsibilities include the investigation and preven ...
's "Garamond" type, an example of historicist printing
Sir Harry Johnston memorial plaque.JPG, Memorial plaque by Eric Gill
Arthur Eric Rowton Gill, (22 February 1882 – 17 November 1940) was an English sculptor, letter cutter, typeface designer, and printmaker. Although the ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' describes Gill as ″the greatest artist-cra ...
, c. 1920s
East Asian analogues
![Ming serif](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/af/Ming_serif.svg)
In the
Chinese
Chinese can refer to:
* Something related to China
* Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity
**''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation
** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...
and
Japanese
Japanese may refer to:
* Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia
* Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan
* Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture
** Japanese diaspor ...
writing systems, there are common type styles based on the
regular script
Regular script (; Hepburn: ''kaisho''), also called (), (''zhēnshū''), (''kǎitǐ'') and (''zhèngshū''), is the newest of the Chinese script styles (popularized from the Cao Wei dynasty c. 200 AD and maturing stylistically around the ...
for
Chinese characters
Chinese characters () are logograms developed for the writing of Chinese. In addition, they have been adapted to write other East Asian languages, and remain a key component of the Japanese writing system where they are known as ''kanji' ...
akin to serif and sans serif fonts in the West. In Mainland China, the most popular category of serifed-like typefaces for body text is called
Song
A song is a musical composition intended to be performed by the human voice. This is often done at distinct and fixed pitches (melodies) using patterns of sound and silence. Songs contain various forms, such as those including the repetitio ...
(, ); in Japan, the most popular serif style is called ; and in Taiwan and Hong Kong, it is called (, ). The names of these lettering styles come from the
Song
A song is a musical composition intended to be performed by the human voice. This is often done at distinct and fixed pitches (melodies) using patterns of sound and silence. Songs contain various forms, such as those including the repetitio ...
and
Ming
The Ming dynasty (), officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming dynasty was the last ort ...
dynasties, when
block printing
Woodblock printing or block printing is a technique for printing text, images or patterns used widely throughout East Asia and originating in China in antiquity as a method of printing on textiles and later paper. Each page or image is create ...
flourished in China. Because the
wood grain
Wood grain is the longitudinal arrangement of wood fibers or the pattern resulting from such an arrangement.
Definition and meanings
R. Bruce Hoadley wrote that ''grain'' is a "confusingly versatile term" with numerous different uses, including ...
on printing blocks ran horizontally, it was fairly easy to carve horizontal lines with the grain. However, carving vertical or slanted patterns was difficult because those patterns intersect with the grain and break easily. This resulted in a typeface that has thin horizontal strokes and thick vertical strokes. In accordance with Chinese calligraphy (
kaiti
Regular script (; Hepburn: ''kaisho''), also called (), (''zhēnshū''), (''kǎitǐ'') and (''zhèngshū''), is the newest of the Chinese script styles (popularized from the Cao Wei dynasty c. 200 AD and maturing stylistically around the ...
style in particular), where each horizontal stroke is ended with a dipping motion of the brush, the ending of horizontal strokes are also thickened. These design forces resulted in the current Song typeface characterized by thick vertical strokes contrasted with thin horizontal strokes, triangular ornaments at the end of single horizontal strokes, and overall geometrical regularity.
In Japanese typography, the equivalent of serifs on
kanji
are the logographic Chinese characters taken from the Chinese family of scripts, Chinese script and used in the writing of Japanese language, Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese ...
and
kana
The term may refer to a number of syllabaries used to write Japanese phonological units, morae. Such syllabaries include (1) the original kana, or , which were Chinese characters (kanji) used phonetically to transcribe Japanese, the most pr ...
characters are called —"fish scales". In Chinese, the serifs are called either (, lit. "forms with legs") or (, lit. "forms with ornamental lines").
The other common East Asian style of type is called black (, ) in Chinese and in Japanese. This group is characterized by lines of even thickness for each stroke, the equivalent of "sans serif". This style, first introduced on newspaper headlines, is commonly used on headings, websites, signs and billboards.
See also
*
Homoglyph
In orthography and typography, a homoglyph is one of two or more graphemes, characters, or glyphs with shapes that appear identical or very similar. The designation is also applied to sequences of characters sharing these properties.
Synoglyphs ...
*
Ming (typeface)
Ming or Song is a category of typefaces used to display Chinese characters, which are used in the Chinese, Japanese and Korean languages. They are currently the most common style of type in print for Chinese and Japanese.
Name
The names ' ...
, a similar style in Asian typefaces
*: The analogs of serifs, known as , literally "fish scales", in Japanese.
*
San Serriffe
San Serriffe is a fictional island nation invented for April Fools' Day 1977, by Britain's ''The Guardian'' newspaper.''The Guardian'Special Report: San Serriffe. 1 April 1977 It was featured in a seven-page hoax supplement, published in the ...
, an elaborate typographic joke
*
Serif typefaces
This is a list of typefaces, which are separated into groups by distinct artistic differences. The list includes typefaces that have articles or that are referenced. Superfamilies that fall under more than one category have an asterisk (*) after t ...
, a list of Serif typefaces
Lists of serif typefaces
*
Old-style
*
Transitional
*
Didone
Notes
Citations
Bibliography
*
Robert Bringhurst
Robert Bringhurst Appointments to the Order of Canada (2013). (born 16 October 1946) is a Canadian poet, typographer and author. He has translated substantial works from Haida and Navajo and from classical Greek and Arabic. He wrote ''The Eleme ...
, ''
The Elements of Typographic Style
''The Elements of Typographic Style'' is a book on typography and style by Canadian typographer, poet and translator Robert Bringhurst. Originally published in 1992 by Hartley & Marks Publishers, it was revised in 1996, 2001 (v2.4), 2002 (v2.5), ...
,'' version 4.0 (Vancouver, BC, Canada:
Hartley & Marks Publishers, 2012), .
*
Harry Carter, ''A View of Early Typography: Up to about 1600'' (London: Hyphen Press, 2002).
* Father
Edward Catich
Edward M. Catich (1906–April 14, 1979) was an American Roman Catholic priest, teacher, and calligrapher. He is noted for the fullest development of the thesis that the inscribed Roman square capitals of the Augustan age and afterward owed their ...
, ''The Origin of the Serif: Brush Writing and Roman Letters'', 2nd ed., edited by Mary W. Gilroy (Davenport, Iowa: Catich Gallery, St. Ambrose University, 1991), .
*
Nicolete Gray
Nicolete Gray (sometimes Nicolette Gray) (20 July 1911–8 June 1997) was a British scholar of art and calligraphy. She was the youngest daughter of the poet, dramatist and art scholar Laurence Binyon and his wife, writer, editor and trans ...
, ''Nineteenth Century Ornamented Typefaces'', 2nd ed. (Faber, 1976), .
*
Alfred F. Johnson, ''Type Designs: Their History and Development'' (Grafton, 1959).
* Stan Knight, ''Historical Types: From Gutenberg to Ashendene'' (Oak Knoll Press, 2012), .
*
Ellen Lupton
Ellen Lupton (born 1963) is a graphic designer, curator, writer, critic, and educator. Known for her love of typography, Lupton is the Betty Cooke and William O. Steinmetz Design Chair at Maryland Institute College of Art. Previously she was the ...
,
Thinking with Type: A Critical Guide for Designers, Writers, Editors, & Students', 2nd ed. (New York:
Princeton Architectural Press
Princeton Architectural Press is a small press publisher, specializing in books on architecture, design, photography, landscape, and visual culture, with over 1,000 titles on its backlist. In 2013, it added a line of stationery products, including ...
, 2010), ,
.
* Indra Kupferschmid,
Some Type Genres Explained
" Type, kupferschrift.de (2016-01-15).
* Stanley Morison, ''A Tally of Types'', edited by Brooke Crutchley et al., 2nd ed. (London: Cambridge University Press, 1973), . (on revivals of historical typefaces created by the British company Monotype)
* ———, “Type Designs of the Past and Present,” was serialized in 4 parts in 1937 in ''PM Magazine'' (the last 2 are available online):
** “Part 1,” ''PM Magazine'', 4, 1 (1937-09);
** “Part 2,” ''PM Magazine'', 4, 2 (1937-12);
**
Part 3
” ''PM Magazine'', 4, 3 (1937-11): 17–32;
**
Part 4
” ''PM Magazine'', 4, 4 (1937-12): 61–81.
*Sébastien Morlighem, ''The 'modern face' in France and Great Britain, 1781-1825: typography as an ideal of progress'' (thesis, University of Reading, 2014)
download link
* Sébastien Morlighem, ''Robert Thorne and the Introduction of the 'modern' fat face'', 2020, Poem, an
presentation
* James Mosley, ''Ornamented types: twenty-three alphabets from the foundry of Louis John Poucheé'', I.M. Imprimit, 1993
* Paul Shaw, ''Revival Type: Digital Typefaces Inspired by the Past'' (Brighton: Quid Publishing, 2017), .
* Walter Tracy, ''Letters of Credit: A View of Type Design'', 2nd ed. (David R. Godine, 2003), .
* Daniel Berkeley Updike
Daniel Berkeley Updike (February 14, 1860 – December 29, 1941) was an American printer and historian of typography. In 1880 he joined the publishers Houghton, Mifflin & Company, of Boston as an errand boy. He worked for the firm's Riverside ...
, ''Printing Types, their History, Forms, and Use: A Study in Survivals'', 2 vols. (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1922), volume 1 and volume 2 Volume Two, Volume 2, Volume II or Vol. II may refer to:
* '' Vol. 2... Hard Knock Life'', a 1998 album by rapper Jay-Z
* ''Volume 2'' (Herb Alpert's Tijuana Brass album), 1963
* '' Vol. 2 (Breaking Through)'', by The West Coast Pop Art Experimenta ...
—now outdated and known for a strong
not always accurate
dislike of Dutch and modern-face printing, but extremely comprehensive in scope.
* H. D. L. Vervliet
Hendrik Désiré Louis 'Dis' Vervliet (Antwerp, 31 December 1923 – August 2020) was a Belgium, Belgian librarian and historian of books and printing.
Life
Vervliet was born into a working-class family and received a doctorate in classical ...
, ''The Palaeotypography of the French Renaissance: Selected Papers on Sixteenth-Century Typefaces'', 2 vols., Library of the Written Word series, No. 6, The Handpress World subseries, No. 4 (Leiden: Koninklijke Brill NV, 2008-11-27), .
* ———, ''Sixteenth Century Printing Types of the Low Countries'', Annotated catalogue (Leiden: Koninklijke Brill NV, 1968-01-01), .
* ———, ''French Renaissance Printing Types: A Conspectus'' (Oak Knoll Press, 2010).
* ———, ''Liber librorum: 5000 ans d'art du livre'' (Arcade, 1972).
** Translation: Fernand Baudin, ''The Book Through Five Thousand Years: A Survey'', edited by Hendrik D. L. Vervliet (London: Phaidon, 1972).
* James Mosley's reading lists:
"Type and its Uses, 1455–1830"
1830-2000
{{Typography terms
Typography