What are the serif fonts in word

Last Update: Jan 03, 2023

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Serif font (red serifs) In typography, a serif (/ˈsɛrɪf/) is a small line or stroke regularly attached to the end of a larger stroke in a letter or symbol within a particular font or family of fonts.

What is a serif in Word?

A serif font contains serifs—tiny projections or “tails” at the ends of the strokes in a letter. A typical example is Times New Roman. A font like Arial, which does not have serifs, is called a sans serif font (from the French word sans, meaning “without”).

What’s a serif font examples?

Some popular examples of serif typefaces are Times New Roman, Garamond, and Georgia. Some popular sans-serif fonts are Arial, Futura, and Helvetica. The mood: Serif fonts are sometimes considered more classic or formal, and sans-serif fonts are often considered more minimalist or casual.

Does Word have serif?

The first of the letter Es is the very popular serif font «Times New Roman«. … With Microsoft Word 2007 and later, the font you get if you don’t make any changes is called Calibri. Calibri is a sans serif font that looks very similar to Arial.

What does sans font look like?

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 serif typefaces.

34 related questions found

Some of the most commonly used serif fonts include Times New Roman, Garamond, Baskerville, Georgia, and Courier New. Some of the most popular sans serif fonts on the black include Arial, Helvetica, Proxima Nova, Futura, and Calibri.

Furthermore, What are the fonts in Word?

They appear in order of popularity.

• Helvetica. Helvetica remains the world’s most popular font. …
• Calibri. The runner up on our list is also a sans serif font. …
• Futura. Our next example is another classic sans serif font. …
• Garamond. Garamond is the first serif font on our list. …
• Times New Roman. …
• Arial. …
• Cambria. …
• Verdana.

Simply so How many fonts are there in Microsoft Word?

While there are more than 700 font options in Word, Microsoft has commissioned five new custom fonts for Office, in a move away from the Calibri font that has been the default in Microsoft Office for nearly 15 years.

Also, What are the standard Microsoft fonts? Calibri has been the default font for all things Microsoft since 2007, when it stepped in to replace Times New Roman across Microsoft Office.

What is font size in Microsoft Word?

Font sizes are measured in points; 1 point (abbreviated pt) is equal to 1/72 of an inch. The point size refers to the height of a character. Thus, a 12-pt font is 1/6 inch in height. The default font size in Microsoft Word 2010 is 11 pts.

How do I use fonts in Microsoft Word? Add a font

1. Download the font files. …
2. If the font files are zipped, unzip them by right-clicking the .zip folder and then clicking Extract. …
3. Right-click the fonts you want, and click Install.
4. If you’re prompted to allow the program to make changes to your computer, and if you trust the source of the font, click Yes.

While there are more than 700 font options in Word, Microsoft has commissioned five new custom fonts for Office, in a move away from the Calibri font that has been the default in Microsoft Office for nearly 15 years.

How many font styles are there in Microsoft Word?

The most common font styles are Regular, Italic, Bold, and BoldItalic. This is not the limit, however, and not every font will include these four. Indeed, the styles available for a particular font are entirely up to the font designer. WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training.

How do I organize fonts in Word?

There is a standard tool in the control panel which shows and previews the installed fonts. For accessing this you can simply type ‘Control Panel’ in the search bar and then click on ‘Appearance and Personalization’. Under this you will find the ‘Font’ section where you can organize it accordingly.

What is considered a standard font?

The most common font used is black Times New Roman at 12 points in size. Other serif fonts, those that have tails, that work well include Cambria, Georgia, Garamond, Book Antiqua, and Didot. Sans serif fonts, those without tails, that work well include Calibri, Helvetica, Verdana, Trebuchet MS and Lato.

How do I download new fonts to Microsoft Word?

Add a font

1. Download the font files. …
2. If the font files are zipped, unzip them by right-clicking the .zip folder and then clicking Extract. …
3. Right-click the fonts you want, and click Install.
4. If you’re prompted to allow the program to make changes to your computer, and if you trust the source of the font, click Yes.

What is the most beautiful font?

• 10 of the Most Beautiful Fonts for Web Designers. Design Tips. …
• Playfair. Some looks never go out of fashion. …
• Roboto. Roboto is a sans serif font – it’s geometric with friendly and open curves. …
• Raleway. Raleway is an elegant font with a thin weight – the unique ‘W’ really makes it stand out. …
• Pacifico. …
• Quicksand. …
• Oswald. …
• Lato.

How do I change font size and writing style in Word?

To change the font size of selected text in desktop Excel, PowerPoint, or Word:

1. Select the text or cells with text you want to change. To select all text in a Word document, press Ctrl + A.
2. On the Home tab, click the font size in the Font Size box. You can also type in any size you want, within the following limits:

What is the minimum font size in MS Word?

In Word, fonts can be sized from 1 point to 1,638 points. Point sizes smaller than 6 are generally too small for a human to read.

What is the biggest font size in Word?

Word supports font sizes from 1 point to 1638 points, which means you can use fonts that are 1/72 of an inch all the way up to 22-3/4 inches. Don’t these sizes deceive you, however. You might expect that if you set a font size to 144 points, you will end up with letters two inches high. You won’t.

How can I add a font to Microsoft Word for Mac?

How to Add New Fonts to Microsoft Word on a Mac

1. Open Finder on your Mac.
2. Navigate to the location where your new font file is. …
3. Double-click the font file you want to install.
4. The font preview window opens. …
5. This will install the font and open the Font Book. …
6. Restart your computer for the changes to take effect.

What is Microsoft logo font?

Segoe (/ˈsiːɡoʊ/ SEE-goh) is a typeface, or family of fonts, that is best known for its use by Microsoft. The company uses Segoe in its online and printed marketing materials, including recent logos for a number of products.

How do I add a Calligraphr font to Word?

To use your font in external programs like MS Word or Adobe Illustrator you have to install it on your computer. In the result dialog of “Build font” there is a download link for a . ttf file. Download this font file to your computer and install it.

Is Helvetica on Microsoft Word?

We recently told you about the Helvetica font in Windows and Microsoft Office – or rather it’s noticeable absence. … Now open the same document in Word 2013 for Windows (or any Word for Windows) and check out the capital R – they are the same even though there’s two different fonts.

What is font face in MS Word?

Microsoft Office 2007, Word comes with the default font face set to Calibri, a Microsoft specific font face. Changing the default to a more common font face, Arial for example, will ensure that your document displays properly for everyone who views it.

Why do my fonts change in Word?

If a document uses a font that is on your system, and then that document is opened on a system that doesn’t have the same font, Word will substitute a different font for the missing one. This can affect the appearance of the document, even when you subsequently open it back on your original system.

Where is the font style in Microsoft Word?

Go to Format > Font > Font. + D to open the Font dialog box. Select the font and size you want to use.

Which is not a font style in MS Word?

Superscript is not related to the font style. It is a letter, character number or symbol that is set slightly for the normal line of type. It is generally smaller than the body of the text and detailed occurs at the baseline.

What are the four types of fonts?

What are four main types of fonts?

• Serif fonts.
• Sans serif fonts.
• Script fonts.
• Display fonts.

Pronounced SAN-SERR-if. A category of typefaces that do not use serifs, small lines at the ends of characters. Popular sans serif fonts include Helvetica, Avant Garde, Arial, and Geneva. Serif fonts include Times Roman, Courier, New Century Schoolbook, and Palatino.

Pronounced SAN-SERR-if. A category of typefaces that do not use serifs, small lines at the ends of characters. Popular sans serif fonts include Helvetica, Avant Garde, Arial, and Geneva. Serif fonts include Times Roman, Courier, New Century Schoolbook, and Palatino.

Is Arial sans-serif font?

Typefaces that have serifs are referred to as serif typefaces, while sans-serif typefaces do not have those decorative strokes. Some popular examples of serif typefaces are Times New Roman, Garamond, and Georgia. Some popular sans-serif fonts are Arial, Futura, and Helvetica.

What is the cleanest sans-serif font?

The Best Sans Serif Fonts for Modern, Clean Designs

• Zetafonts. Florence, Italy is the home of Zetafonts, a foundry that has spent the last decade incorporating Italian design principles into their sleek fonts.
• Neufile Grotesk.
• Ariana Pro.
• Fibra.
• TT Interphases.
• Gelion.
• Industrial Sans.
• Sofia Pro.

Is Comic Sans a sans serif font?

Comic Sans MS is a sans-serif casual script typeface designed by Vincent Connare and released in 1994 by Microsoft Corporation.

What is the best font to use on word?

1) Download the font files. These often come compressed in . In one .zip folder, you might find several variations on the same font, such as “light” and “heavy.” A .zip folder usually looks like this: 2) If the font files are zipped, unzip them by right-clicking the .zip folder and then clicking Extract . Now you’ll see the available TrueType and OpenType font files: 3) Right-click the fonts you want, and click Install . 4) If you’re prompted to allow the program to make changes to your computer, See More…

What are some good, large serif fonts?

Droid Serif Pro. This font is beautiful serif font collection specifically design for clear and comfortable on-screen reading.

What fonts are in the serif family?

Times New Roman. Talking about the best font,how can we forget to mention the classic “Times New Roman”.

When to use sans serif?

Sans serif fonts work well for short sections of text, such as credits and captions. When a project calls for very small type sizes, sans serif type is easier to read.

While there are more than 700 font options in Word, Microsoft has commissioned five new custom fonts for Office, in a move away from the Calibri font that has been the default in Microsoft Office for nearly 15 years.

What fonts are available in Microsoft Word?

List of typefaces included with Microsoft Windows

What Font Is, a free font finder uses a catalogue of 550,000+ fonts which leads me to believe there are at least half a million fonts in existance. A quick search in MyFonts, the largest distributor of commercial fonts, shows them housing over 130,000 fonts which fall into: Font familes: 36,000+

How many fonts can Windows 10 install?

add-fonts-windows-10.
Even a plain-vanilla Windows 10 installation includes more than 100 fonts that can be used to change the display of text on the screen and in documents. Third-party programs, including Microsoft Office and some members of the Adobe family, can add hundreds more.

What is the font in Windows 10?

Segoe UI
Windows 10’s default system font, Segoe UI, looks pretty nice. However, if you have something better to replace it with, you can change the default system font on your Windows 10 PC. We’ll show you how to do this.

How many fonts is too many?

How Many Fonts Are Too Many? When you can no longer install more fonts you definitely have too many. As a general rule of thumb, you can expect to run into installation problems with 800-1000 or more installed fonts. In practice, you’ll probably encounter system slowdowns with fewer fonts.

What are the 5 main types of fonts?

There are five basic classifications of typefaces: serif, sans serif, script, monospaced, and display. As a general rule, serif and sans serif typefaces are used for either body copy or headlines (including titles, logos, etc.), while script and display typefaces are only used for headlines.

What are the 5 font families?

Font families
You list the font that you want first, then any fonts that might fill in for the first if it is unavailable, and you should end the list with a generic font, of which there are five: serif, sans-serif, monospace, cursive and fantasy.

Do fonts take up RAM?

Fonts won’t just slow down your PC in general, though. Having too many fonts might slow the boot process down a bit as those fonts are loaded into memory, sure. But you’ll notice too many fonts in other situations. For example, applications like word processors might take an unusually long time to start up.

Is Arial a font?

Arial is an extremely versatile family of typefaces which can be used with equal success for text setting in reports, presentations, magazines etc, and for display use in newspapers, advertising and promotions.

Where are Microsoft Word fonts stored?

C:WindowsFonts folder
All fonts are stored in the C:WindowsFonts folder. You can also add fonts by simply dragging font files from the extracted files folder into this folder. Windows will automatically install them. If you want to see what a font looks like, open the Fonts folder, right-click the font file, and then click Preview.

What font does Apple use?

San Francisco
San Francisco (SF) is the system font on all Apple platforms; the SF Pro variant is the system font in macOS. Using the system font gives your text legibility, clarity, and consistency with apps across Apple platforms. Download the San Francisco family of fonts here.

Will there be a Windows 11?

Starting today, October 5th, Microsoft is rolling out the new Windows 11 to eligible devices. Earlier this year, Microsoft announced the new flagship update to its operating system: Windows 11.

What font does Windows 11 use?

On Windows 11, an operating system announced by Microsoft a few months ago, the default system font is Segoe UI Variable. It is a new version of the classic Segoe and uses variable font technology.

Is it okay to use 3 fonts?

Using more than 3 different fonts makes a website look unstructured and unprofessional. Keep in mind that too many type sizes and styles at once can also wreck any layout.If you do use more than one font, ensure the font families complement each other based on their character width.

Do fonts slow down computer?

In essence, no it shouldn’t slow down the system. you should copy your font files and paste them in the Fonts folder located within Control Panel.

How many font families are there?

Font Families: Serif, Sans-serif, and others
In CSS (and in typography in general) there are five basic types, or families, of fonts: serif, sans serif, cursive, fantasy, and monospace.

What are 3 common font styles?

They appear in order of popularity.

• Helvetica. Helvetica remains the world’s most popular font.
• Calibri. The runner up on our list is also a sans serif font.
• Futura. Our next example is another classic sans serif font.
• Garamond. Garamond is the first serif font on our list.
• Times New Roman.
• Arial.
• Cambria.
• Verdana.

What are fonts called?

A typeface 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 thousands of different typefaces in existence, with new ones being developed constantly.

What are 6 common font styles?

The 6 Types of Fonts

• Serif Fonts. Serif fonts have their origins in the Latin alphabet.
• Slab Serif Fonts. These are the bolder and chunkier versions of the serif fonts.
• Sans serif fonts.
• Script Fonts.
• Decorative Fonts.
• Handwritten Fonts.

What are the four types of fonts?

What are four main types of fonts?

• Serif fonts.
• Sans serif fonts.
• Script fonts.
• Display fonts.

In typography, 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 or family of fonts. A typeface 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. Some typography sources refer to sans-serif typefaces as «grotesque» (in German, grotesk) or «Gothic»,^[1] and serif typefaces as «roman».

Origins and etymology[edit]

Serifs originated from the first official Greek writings on stone and in Latin alphabet with inscriptional lettering—words carved into stone in Roman antiquity. The explanation proposed by Father Edward Catich 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.^[2][3][4]

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 σῠν- (‘syn-‘, «together») and ῥῖψῐς (‘rhîpsis’, «projection»).

In 1827, Greek scholar Julian Hibbert printed with his own experimental uncial Greek types, remarking that the types of Giambattista Bodoni’s Callimachus were «ornamented (or rather disfigured) by additions of what [he] believe[s] type-founders call syrifs or cerefs». The printer Thomas Curson Hansard referred to them as «ceriphs» in 1825.^[5] The oldest citations in the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) are 1830 for ‘serif’ and 1841 for ‘sans serif’. The OED speculates that ‘serif’ was a back-formation from ‘sanserif’.

Webster’s Third New International Dictionary traces ‘serif’ to the Dutch noun schreef, meaning «line, stroke of the pen», related to the verb schrappen, «to delete, strike through» (‘schreef’ now also means «serif» in Dutch). Yet, schreef is the past tense of schrijven (to write). The relation between schreef and schrappen is documented by Van Veen and Van der Sijs.^[6] In her book Chronologisch Woordenboek,^[7] Van der Sijs lists words by first known publication in the language area that is the Netherlands today:

• schrijven, 1100;
• schreef, 1350;
• schrappen, 1406 (i.e. schreef is from schrijven (to write), not from schrappen (to scratch, eliminate by strike-through)).

The OED‘s earliest citation for «grotesque» in this sense is 1875, giving ‘stone-letter’ as a synonym. 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 typefaces.^[8]

Classification[edit]

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[edit]

Old-style typefaces date back to 1465, shortly after Johannes Gutenberg’s adoption of the movable type printing press. Early printers in Italy created types that broke with Gutenberg’s blackletter printing, creating upright and later italic styles inspired by Renaissance calligraphy.^[9][10] 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.^[11][12][13]

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.^[14]

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.^[10][15][16] Old-style faces have often sub-divided into ‘Venetian’ (or ‘humanist’) and ‘Garalde’ (or ‘Aldine’), a division made on the Vox-ATypI classification system.^[17] 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.^[18][b] Modern typefaces such as Arno and Trinité may fuse both styles.^[21]

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.^[9][10] In modern times, that of Nicolas Jenson has been the most admired, with many revivals.^[22][9] Garaldes, which tend to feature a level cross-stroke on the «e», descend from an influential 1495 font cut by engraver Francesco Griffo for printer Aldus Manutius, which became the inspiration for many typefaces cut in France from the 1530s onwards.^[23][24] 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.^[19][23][25]

Also during this period, italic type 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.^{[26][27][28][c]}

A new genre of serif type developed around the 17th century in the Netherlands and Germany that came to be called the «Dutch taste» («goût Hollandois» in French).^[30] It was a tendency towards denser, more solid typefaces, often with a high x-height (tall lower-case letters) and a sharp contrast between thick and thin strokes, perhaps influenced by blackletter faces.^{[31][32][30][33][34]}

Examples of contemporary Garalde old-style typefaces are Bembo, Garamond, Galliard, Granjon, Goudy Old Style, Minion, Palatino, Renard, Sabon, and Scala. Contemporary typefaces with Venetian old style characteristics include Cloister, Adobe Jenson, the Golden Type, Hightower Text, Centaur, Goudy’s Italian Old Style and Berkeley Old Style 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.^[35] Artists in the «Dutch taste» style include Hendrik van den Keere, Nicolaas Briot, Christoffel van Dijck, Miklós Tótfalusi Kis and the Janson and Ehrhardt types based on his work and Caslon, especially the larger sizes.^[33]

Transitional[edit]

Transitional, or baroque, serif typefaces first became common around the mid-18th century until the start of the 19th.^[36] 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 terminals. Transitional faces often have an italic ‘h’ that opens outwards at bottom right.^[37] 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 «romain du roi» in France, then the work of Pierre Simon Fournier in France, Fleischman and Rosart in the Low Countries,^[38] Pradell in Spain and John Baskerville and Bulmer in England.^[39][40] Among more recent designs, Times New Roman (1932), Perpetua, Plantin, Mrs. Eaves, Freight Text, and the earlier «modernised old styles» have been described as transitional in design.^[d]

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 is an example of this.^[42][43][e]

Didone[edit]

Didone, or modern, serif typefaces, which first emerged in the late 18th century, are characterized by extreme contrast between thick and thin lines.^[f] 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, Didot, and Walbaum. Computer Modern is a popular contemporary example. The very popular Century is a softened version of the same basic design, with reduced contrast.^[46] 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.^[47][48][49]

In print, Didone fonts are often used on high-gloss magazine paper for magazines such as Harper’s Bazaar, where the paper retains the detail of their high contrast well, and for whose image a crisp, «European» design of type may be considered appropriate.^[50][51] They are used more often for general-purpose body text, such as book printing, in Europe.^[51][52] 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.^[53][54] The period of Didone types’ greatest popularity coincided with the rapid spread of printed posters and commercial ephemera and the arrival of bold type.^[55][56] As a result, many Didone typefaces are among the earliest designed for «display» use, with an ultra-bold «fat face» style becoming a common sub-genre.^[57][58][59]

Slab serif[edit]

Slab serif typefaces date to about 1817.^[g][60] 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.^[61][62] 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, 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 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, Courier, Excelsior, TheSerif, and Zilla Slab. FF Meta Serif and Guardian Egyptian 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, Caecilia and Tisa, with strong serifs but an outline structure with some influence of old-style serif typefaces.^[63][64][65]

Other styles[edit]

During the 19th century, genres of serif type besides conventional body text faces proliferated.^[66][67] 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.^[68]

Well-known typefaces in the «Latin» style include Wide Latin, Copperplate Gothic, Johnston Delf Smith and the more restrained Méridien.

Readability and legibility[edit]

Serifed fonts are widely used for body text because they are considered easier to read than sans-serif fonts in print.^[69] Colin Wheildon, who conducted scientific studies from 1982 to 1990, found that sans serif fonts created various difficulties for readers that impaired their comprehension.^[70] 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».^[71]

Sans-serif are considered to be more legible on computer screens. According to Alex Poole,^[72] «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.^[73] Another study indicated that comprehension times for individual words are slightly faster when written in a sans serif font versus a serif font.^[74]

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, spatial anti-aliasing, and subpixel rendering 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.^[75] 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 capital I, where the addition of serifs distinguishes the character from lowercase L. The printed capital J and the numeral 1 are also often handwritten with serifs.

Gallery[edit]

Below are some images of serif letterforms across history:

• 

  Title page printed by Robert Estienne

• 

  Great Primer type (c. 18 pt) by Claude Garamond

• 

  Gros Canon type by Garamond

• 

• 

  Condensed, high x-height types in the «Dutch taste» style, c. 1720

• 

  Didone type in a book printed by the company of Firmin Didot, 1804

• 

  Bodoni’s posthumous Manuale Tipografico, 1818

• 

  Inline modern face

• 

  Display type with pattern inside

• 

  «Fat face» ultra-bold Didone type

• 

  The original Clarendon typeface

• 

  Display-size slab-serifs

• 

  William Morris’s Golden Type in the style of Jenson and other typefaces of his Kelmscott Press

• 

  ATF’s «Garamond» type, an example of historicist printing

East Asian analogues[edit]

In the Chinese and Japanese writing systems, there are common type styles based on the regular script for Chinese characters 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 (宋体, Songti); in Japan, the most popular serif style is called Minchō (明朝); and in Taiwan and Hong Kong, it is called Ming (明體, Mingti). The names of these lettering styles come from the Song and Ming dynasties, when block printing flourished in China. Because the wood grain 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^{[citation needed]}. In accordance with Chinese calligraphy (kaiti style in particular), where each horizontal stroke is ended with a dipping motion of the brush, the ending of horizontal strokes are also thickened^{[citation needed]}. 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 and kana characters are called uroko—»fish scales». In Chinese, the serifs are called either yǒujiǎotǐ (有脚体, lit. «forms with legs»)^{[citation needed]} or yǒuchènxiàntǐ (有衬线体, lit. «forms with ornamental lines»).

The other common East Asian style of type is called black (黑体/體, Hēitǐ) in Chinese and Gothic (ゴシック体, Goshikku-tai) 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[edit]

• Homoglyph
• Ming (typeface), a similar style in Asian typefaces

  The analogs of serifs, known as 鱗, literally «fish scales», in Japanese.

• San Serriffe, an elaborate typographic joke
• Serif typefaces, a list of Serif typefaces

Lists of serif typefaces[edit]

• Old-style
• Transitional
• Didone

Notes[edit]

Citations[edit]

Bibliography[edit]

• Robert Bringhurst, The Elements of Typographic Style, version 4.0 (Vancouver, BC, Canada: Hartley & Marks Publishers, 2012), ISBN 0-88179-211-X.
• Harry Carter, A View of Early Typography: Up to about 1600 (London: Hyphen Press, 2002).
• Father Edward Catich, 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), ISBN 9780962974021.
• Nicolete Gray, Nineteenth Century Ornamented Typefaces, 2nd ed. (Faber, 1976), ISBN 9780571102174.
• Alfred F. Johnson, Type Designs: Their History and Development (Grafton, 1959).
• Stan Knight, Historical Types: From Gutenberg to Ashendene (Oak Knoll Press, 2012), ISBN 9781584562986.
• Ellen Lupton, Thinking with Type: A Critical Guide for Designers, Writers, Editors, & Students, 2nd ed. (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2010), ISBN 9781568989693, <www.thinkingwithtype.com>.
• 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), ISBN 978-0-521-09786-4. (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, and 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), ISBN 978-0-300-21929-6.
• Walter Tracy, Letters of Credit: A View of Type Design, 2nd ed. (David R. Godine, 2003), ISBN 9781567922400.
• Daniel Berkeley Updike, Printing Types, their History, Forms, and Use: A Study in Survivals, 2 vols. (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1922), volume 1 and volume 2—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, 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), ISBN 978-90-04-16982-1.
• ———, Sixteenth Century Printing Types of the Low Countries, Annotated catalogue (Leiden: Koninklijke Brill NV, 1968-01-01), ISBN 978-90-6194-859-9.
• ———, 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