It seems like ‘Font’ and ‘Typeface’ are used interchangeably, but ‘typefaces’ mean a whole collection of glyphs that share a common design (eg. Helvetica); while ‘fonts’ refer to a specific set of glyphs (eg. 30pt Helvetica Bold Oblique). This distinction was most important historically when physical font pieces were organised so typesetters could quickly find the right glyph to typeset letter by letter.
Serifs describe letters that have a little flared foot (or serif) end stroke, and this letterform style is said to date back to Ancient Roman stone carving techniques. Sans serif literally means ‘without serif’ and appeared in printed media around the 1800s due to their clarity at smaller sizes.
All letters can be broken down into anatomical features. Let’s take a look!
Did you already know some of these type anatomy terms?
The fonts on a page convey more than just letters – each have their own personality and style. Font choice can help communicate being trustworthy, or casual, or rebellious, or authoritative! They can be a shorthand to convey the nuance in your message.
Making a decision about which fonts to use can seem like a dark art, but as with anything it comes with practice! Often brands will have multiple brand fonts, as each have a purpose, whether it is legibility at small sizes, emphasis or impactful headings.
Take ours for example:
A really important part of designing with text is the balance and harmony between text size and weight, aka hierarchy. Learning how to work with the rules of hierarchy means you can change the pace and order of how people read content.
We have some go-tos when it comes to sourcing fonts. Remember: always be sure to check the licensing and usage rules from each type foundry!
💙 Google Fonts
💙 Adobe Fonts
💙 Open Foundry
💙 MyFonts
💙 Fontspring
💙 Creative Market
💙 Font Squirrel
and p.s. we are not too cool for DaFont 🤌🏼🤌🏼🤌🏼
About the author
You might
also like
AT LAST! 😭🌈💖🥳 I’ve FINALLY made the design tool that I’ve always wanted, and here it is for ya! 🎨
We love a good list, and we really love when something makes our lives easier! So here are 8 design resources that we use on the reg or just simply love 👉
What if dogs were fonts?! PART TWO!!! 🐶🐕🐩🐕🦺🦮 We're back with a second instalment of this highly important investigative series, because you all seemed to love the first edition so much!