Definition and Variations of Typeface
– A typeface is a design of letters, numbers, and symbols used in printing or electronic display.
– Most typefaces have variations in size, weight, slope, and width.
– These variations are known as fonts.
– There are thousands of different typefaces in existence.
– Type designers, employed by type foundries, create and develop typefaces.
Glyphs and Specialized Typefaces
– Every typeface is a collection of glyphs representing individual letters, numbers, and symbols.
– The same glyph can be used for characters from different scripts.
– Some typefaces are tailored for specific applications like cartography or mathematics.
– Specialized typefaces exist for astrology or other niche areas.
– Type designers are also referred to as font developers or font designers.
Terminology and Distinction between Typeface and Font
– In professional typography, typeface and font are not interchangeable terms.
– Historically, a font referred to a given alphabet and its associated characters in a single size.
– Fonts of specific weight and stylistic variants led to font families.
– Font families include closely related typeface designs with varying weights, orientations, and widths.
– The term font is often used loosely to refer to an entire typeface.
Font and Typeface Relationship
– A font is the vessel or software that allows the use of a set of characters with a given appearance.
– A typeface is the actual design of the characters.
– Different fonts can render the same typeface, such as Times, in different ways.
– In the digital era, a font can be scaled to any size.
– Extended font families emerged in the early 1900s, offering a wide range of widths and weights.
Font Superfamilies and Design Relationships
– Font superfamilies include typefaces with significant structural differences but some design relationship.
– Superfamilies emerged when foundries started including typefaces with similar family names.
– Examples of superfamilies include PT Serif and PT Sans.
– Some superfamilies have alternate styling designed as compatible replacements.
– Designers like Morris Fuller Benton played a significant role in creating font superfamilies.
A typeface (or font family) is a design of letters, numbers and other symbols, to be used in printing or for electronic display. Most typefaces include variations in size (e.g., 24 point), weight (e.g., light, bold), slope (e.g., italic), width (e.g., condensed), and so on. Each of these variations of the typeface is a font.
There are thousands of different typefaces in existence, with new ones being developed constantly.
The art and craft of designing typefaces is called type design. Designers of typefaces are called type designers and are often employed by type foundries. In desktop publishing, type designers are sometimes also called "font developers" or "font designers" (a typographer is someone who uses typefaces to design a page layout).
Every typeface is a collection of glyphs, each of which represents an individual letter, number, punctuation mark, or other symbol. The same glyph may be used for characters from different scripts, e.g. Roman uppercase A looks the same as Cyrillic uppercase А and Greek uppercase alpha (Α). There are typefaces tailored for special applications, such as cartography, astrology or mathematics.
