Basic Kinds of Typefaces

or Fonts
1) Serif
Serif fonts are typefaces composed of lines
with their ends embellished with small
marks or strokes making them easy to
read. Serifs originated in the Latin
Alphabet. An example of classic serif fonts
are Times Roman, New Century Gothic,
and Palatino.
2) Sans Serif
Sans Serif fonts are fonts composed of
simple lines. They do not have the small
embellishments that the Serif fonts do on
the end of each character. The term comes
from the French word Sans, meaning
“without” and “serif” (Dutch) with
the meaning “line”. Some popular sans
serif fonts are Helvetica, Avant Garde and
Geneva.
3) Display
Display type is also known as headline
type and is meant to draw and hold a
viewer’s attention. They tend to appear in
advertisements on billboards,
posters, book jackets and packaging. Type
usually set larger than 14 point is
considered “display” and sets the tone for
a design piece.
4) Slab Serif
The Slab Serif is about a 200 year old letterform
that came from Britain and quickly became very
popular, with their geometric and beefy block-
like serifs plastered all over everything from
crates to pamphlets. Until this time, the usual
font of the day had been used for long sections
of type, but as the printing industry grew,
advertisers were in need of a bold call-out type.
Slab fonts carry a certain typographic authority,
that demand the viewers attention.
5) Hand drawn
Hand drawn fonts are a great way to add a little
character and charm to your design. Some are created
completely by hand, while others are sketched and
scanned into Illustrator or Photoshop. Some are very
clean and easy to read, while others may have a natural
sketchy flow giving a piece a particular personality
or mood. There are endless possibilities
in creating hand drawn fonts by combining qualities
found in various styles of type such as Art Deco,
historic display, thin, and thick slabs, etc.
6) Script
Script fonts come in many styles from
casual to highly organized and elegant.
They are based on the fluid strokes that
are created by handwriting. Script fonts
are popularly used for formal invitations
such as wedding or concerts, as well as
informal gatherings.
7) Retro
Retro type is used to carry a viewer
decades into the past achieving an “old
fashioned” look to creative pieces. Retro
fonts are found in serif, sans serif, and
script typefaces and are often used
as bold headlines in vintage and classic
posters, logos and packaging.
8) Dingbat
Dingbats, also known as printers characters or
ornaments, are fonts that have shapes and symbols in
the place of the alphabet and numeric characters.
There are many varieties: Pictograms, design
elements, user interface elements, buttons,
illustrations, and bullet lists. One of the main
advantages is the ability to create various sizes and
colors without having to do any special editing.
Dingbat types of fonts are eminently useful and should
be a part of your basic type library. Find a good one,
learn what’s in it, and keep it handy.
9) Monospaced
Monospaced fonts were created in order to meet the
requirements of the typewriter. They are referred to as
being non-proportional fonts, or fixed-width fonts.
Meaning, that all of their characters occupy the same
amount of horizontal space as opposed to variable
width fonts that have different spacings and widths–
they are proportionally spaced. Some examples of
these fonts are Courier and Monaco. They are not
defined by their beauty, and are often more difficult to
read than proportional fonts. Monospaced types of
fonts are always useful, though, in particular
situations where you need things to line up.
7) Retro
Retro type is used to carry a viewer
decades into the past achieving an “old
fashioned” look to creative pieces. Retro
fonts are found in serif, sans serif, and
script typefaces and are often used
as bold headlines in vintage and classic
posters, logos and packaging.
10) Novelty
A Novelty font is considered to be any typeface that
does not fall into one of the major categories of type –
serif, sans serif, Old English, script or cursive. Often
they are attention-grabbers and are used in headlines
or call-outs and commonly define the personality of
your piece. Novelty types of fonts are fun to look for
and collect, and there is a novel typeface for any mood
or aesthetic you can think of. The possibilities are
simply endless, as there are no rules to break when
designing a novelty typeface.
11) Comic
Comic fonts are usually friendly, easy to read and most
popular for use in comics and cartoons–there’s lots of
alternatives out there these days to choose from (in
order to avoid the infamous Comic Sans) if you’re
looking to find a comic book theme. In making your
font choices you should consider ultra-legible fonts
that are easy on the eyes and brain for all age groups.
You’ll also want to be aware of suitability in whatever
project you’re working on, ie., you don’t want the
usual light-hearted comic font if you’re interested in
relaying a more serious subject matter.
 Generally comic typesetting has a very specific
task in comparison to other typography. With
cartoons and speech bubbles, the font carries
the mood of the strip and is not secondary to the
overall design as most other typography is. The
lettering will highly influence the feel and
impact of what is being communicated.
Remember, comic style types of fonts are pretty
overused. If you can pick something else, do it.
12) Stencil
The Stencil fonts were invented in 1937 by R. Hunter
Middleton. They consisted of capital letters with
rounded edges and thick main strokes with breaks in
the face. The invention was for the Ludlow Typograph
Company in Chicago where he worked. The letters were
set with hand-assembled brass matrices for their
linecasting machine and were created mainly to set
newspaper headlines. Over the years, stencil use has
not only been customary for newspaper
headlines, public signage and crate labeling, but
also very artistically used on posters, graffiti or street
art.
13) Blackletter
This typeface is also referred to as Gothic, or Old
English and was used to set the Gutenberg Bible
– the first book printed with movable type. It is
characterized as having black texture and very
decorated caps, with dramatic thick to thin
strokes and serifs. The Blackletter typeface is
highly stylized with elaborate swirls, and yet is
very readable.
14) Calligraphic
Calligraphy is based on an ancient writing
technique using flat edged pens to create unique
and artistic lettering. The movement and the
direction of the pen determined the thickness of
the lines. This stylistic writing is a form of fine
art and is commonly used for typesetting formal
invitations or letters.
15) Typewriter
Typewriter fonts were created to resemble the
classic mechanical typewriters, which were
used for composing old letters and documents
before the digital age. The varieties available are
perfect for projects that require a retro or
vintage look. 1913 Typewriter designed by Gilles
Le Corre is a great example of this type of font.
Often these fonts take on a grungy characteristic in
order to represent irregularities and erosions similar
to the old well-worn books of poetry and literature.
Typewriter fonts are great for poster design and
scrapbooks, as well as designs incorporating
snippets of old letters and stories. These types of fonts
never quite go out of style.
16) Pixel
Pixel fonts, also known as Screen Fonts, were
created solely for the purpose of display on a
computer screen and looks perfectly sharp
because it’s structure is based on squares. These
fonts have become popular for their clarity and
saved the day for designers in the past,
who would attempt displaying fonts in small
sizes.
Pixel fonts are crisp and usually displayed in
high contrast colors such as black and white.
Not grays or other shaded in-betweens. These
types of of fonts seem to be out of style with
high resolution screens being the norm now,
which contributes to a lessoning of the
awareness of this aesthetic
17) Grunge
Grunge fonts are represent a style of dirty, loud
and irregular design elements often used to
characterize a portion of the 80’s and 90’s
disgruntled, rebellious generation. Certainly in
typography a growing discontentment with
clean, neat and crisp design emerged. The
design of the day was heavy, messy and
emotionally charged.
David Carson, the acclaimed graphic designer who
created Ray Gun magazine, was known as the
Godfather of grunge and promoted methods of rule-
breaking and constant change in design rather than
the clean and timeless form which was previously
taught. Eventually trends of the chaotic began to fade
away as the grid and simplicity made it’s way back
onto the scene.