Classification of Typefaces
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Originated in 1475, Old Style type were influenced by carved Roman capitals and fifteenth-century Carolingian miniscules. Old Style is characterized by horizontal crossbars, wedge-shaped serifs, scooped serifs, slight diagonal stress, and contrast in thick and thin strokes.
i.e. Bembo, Garamond, Bookman
Transitional typeface was invented 250 years later in 1750. Transitional can be recognized by greater contrast (than Old Style) between thick and thin strokes, vertical stress, bracketed serifs, tall x-height, and wider characters.
i.e. Baskerville, Century, Caslon
Between Modern and Transitional typeface, there is about a 25 year difference. Modern typeface has extreme contrast between thick and thin strokes (with thin strokes as hairlines), unbracketed serifs (horizontal hairlines at right angle), vertical stress, and strong geometric quality.
i.e. Didot, Walbaum, Bodoni
Slab Serif typeface was introduced in 1815 by Vincent Figgins, during a time in which Egyptian artifacts were highly sought after. Slab Serif is characterized by its heavy square or rectangular serifs (usually unbracketed), thick serifs, and monoweight contrast.
i.e. Memphis, Swift, Serifa
Sans Serif, which first appeared in 1816, do not contain serifs. Strokes are usually uniform (with little or no contrast between thick and thin strokes), vertical stress, and usually geometric in construction.
Absense of Serifs
i.e. Futura
Proportions of the Letterform
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The ratio of letterform height to stroke width, variation between the thickest and thinnest strokes of the letterform, the width of the letters, and the relationship of the x-height to the height of capitals, ascenders, and descenders change the visual appearance of a typeface. These characteristics make up the proportions of the letterform.
Stroke Weight
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A stroke is defined as any linear element within in a letterform. Stroke weight is the ration between the relative width of the strokes and their height.
Axis or Stress
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Axis or Stress defines the appearance of the angle of the letterform (left-angled, vertical, or right-angled).
Define: Small caps, Lining Figures, Non-aligning figures, Ligatures
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Small caps are a complete set of capitals that are all at the same x-height as the lowercase letters of the same set. Lining Figures are numbers, exact height of the capital letters, that rest on the baseline. Non-aligning figures are compatible with lowercase letters with 1, 2, and 0 aligning with the x-height, 6 and 8 having ascenders, and 3, 4, 5, 7, 9, have descenders. Ligatures consists of two or more characters combined as one piece.
Dashes
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A dash is a punctuation mark that are used to break up sentences. There are three type of dashes, which include em-dash, en-dash, and just the regular dash or horizontal bar.
Apostrophes (Smart Quotes)
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An apostrophe is a punctuation mark, usually used for possession or omission or words. Apostrophes that are smart quotes mean that the apostrophes can be interpreted as the opening or closing marks.
Optical Relationships Within a Font
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Optical relationships of a typeface are important to consider to keep the letters in order and balance, which can alter the overall appearance of the font. Examples of maintaining the optical relationship include extending letterforms beyond the baseline or cap height, so letters don’t appear too short or creating a slight difference in the weight for the balance of horizontal/vertical strokes, so the horizontal bars don’t appear too thick, etc.
Type measurement
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Introduced in 1737 by Piere Simon Fournier le Jeune, type measurement is a system in which there are two basic units to measure type, the point and the pica. There are about 72 points per inch and 12 points in a pica, being 6 picas in a inch.
Type House or Font House
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A type house is a company that designs and distributes fonts. Originally, these businesses sold metal and wood typefaces for line casting on letterpress machines.
i.e. Emigre, Adobe Type, Microsoft, Berthold, Bitstream, Monotype Imaging
The Visual Journey 