Families, fonts and typefaces
The words typeface and font are commonly confused, but the distinction is important to maintain.
A family is a group of typefaces that share fundamental characteristics, such as a collection of typefaces with serifs or a collection of typefaces that imitate handwriting.
Within a family are groups of typefaces whose letterforms share specific characteristics.
In turn the type contains a series of fonts. Each font is a complete set of letters in a particular style. Until recently, when computer software changed the way we use type, a font was defined as being a set of letters in a particular style and size.
Families
Families are named for the period of history the typefaces were designed. For more information about families of type.
Within each race there are a number of families. A family consists of all the variations, or styles, of the typeface. Most typefaces have four major variations: roman, italic, bold, and bold italic. Other variations are also possible.
- Roman main strokes are vertical
- Italic main strokes are slanted to the right of the vertical
- Pseudo-italic (oblique) roman angled away from the vertical
- Bold heavier vertical strokes than the roman
- Light thinner letter strokes than the roman
- Expanded character widths that are wider than the roman
- Condensed character widths that are narrower than the roman
Typefaces
A typeface is named for the designer such as Garamond, for its purpose such as Bible Script or for a place name such as Memphis.
Although computer software provides alterations to typeface sizes and styles as selections from a menu, typefaces have traditionally been created with uniquely designed variations.
There are several standard variations within a typeface, including:
Weight | Roman Bold |
Slant | 
|
Stroke width | 
|
Case |
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz |
Series
Series is a range of sizes for a typeface. Before the arrival of PostScript, type designers had a range of pre-cut sizes from which they would make their selections. Using a PostScript printing device, it is now possible to select any type size you need. Some software allows you increments of .001 points in a range of 2 to 720 points.
Most software size selection menus shown a range of sizes that can be chosen. The usual range is 6, 9, 10, 12, 14, 18 24, 28, 36, 48, 72.
Font
Font is the term used to describe a complete collection of characters of one size and style, including capitals, small capitals, lower case letters, ligatures, punctuation and numerals. Usually the font will contain sufficient characters to satisfy the needs of most designers and printers. The assortment of special characters, that has been made a part of most PostScript typefaces, is called a "pi" set. This assortment of characters, includes accents, mathematical symbols, and foreign currency symbols.
A font of type includes:
Capitals, small capitals
and accented capitals.
Lower case
and accented lower case letters.
Figures, punctuation
and reference marks
Ligatures and
pi characters.
Letters
Strokes
The lines that make up a letter are called strokes. These are either all the same width (monotonal) or vary from hairline to thick.
Slope
Some strokes lean. This is called "italic" when the letters have serifs, and "oblique" when the letters do not have serifs.
Serifs
Some strokes are finished with serifs. These small ticks occur in several forms: rounded, flat or bracketed.
Tail
The only letter in the upper case alphabet with a descender is the Q. The stroke below the baseline is called a "tail".
Curves
Rounded letters have a point of axis on the curved elements.
Each typeform is designed with a consistent and relevant size. This size, measured in points is called the x-height. It is determined by the height of the lower case x: the only letter with both a flat top and base.
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