Typeface Classification

Timeline

Classifications

According to the well-known classification system (adapted from the Association Typographique Internationale (ATypI)) following typefaces are distinguished:

Round Typefaces

Blackletter

Serifs

Sans Serifs

Serifs

Small decorative strokes that are added to the end o f a letter's main strokes are called serifs. These cross-lines at the end of a stroke are either: slab, wedge or hair. And they are bracketed or unbracketed.

Research has unveiled that we grasp words as a whole by comparing with the acquired samples in our brain. Serifs help us recognizing these samples. Serifs improve readability by leading the eye along the line of type. Therefore, serifs are the best suited for body text. Generally one serif and one sans serif (used for headlines) are a good mixture. Serif faces are more difficult to read in small scale (smaller than 8pt) and in very large sizes.

Serif form contains four designs called Old Style, Transitional, Modern and Slab Serif designs.

Sans Serifs

Sans serif faces don't have serifs; cross-lines at the end of a stroke. The appearance of the letters is reduced to the essential figures.

Research has unveiled that we grasp words as a whole by comparing with the acquired samples in our brain. Serifs help us recognizing these samples. A sans serif text has to be read letter by letter. Well, long texts are unfavorable. It is recommended that you use sans serif faces for small (smaller than 8pt) and very large sizes. Therefore, sans serif faces are used for footnotes and headlines. Generally one serif (used for body text) and one sans serif are a good mixture.

Venetian

History

Venetian typefaces, which were better suited for the letterpress than the previous (Blackletter) faces, arose with the invention of the letterpress in 15th Century Italy. They were first used for printing in 1465.

The appearance of the original Venetian shows that it was written with the broad feather (in contrast to Geralde).

Features

Characteristic for Venetian typefaces are:

  • Inclined axis of the letter to the left (see o and b)
  • Upper wedge-shaped serifs of the minuscules (see b)
  • Rounded transitions between main strokes and (bracketed) serifs

The thickness of the stroke varies hardly. The cross stroke of the lower case e is diagonal.

Examples

  • Venetian 300
  • Golden Type from William Morris
  • Trajanus
  • Centaur
  • Schneidler-Mediäval

Geralde

History

Geralde typefaces have the same origins as Venetian. A refinement of the letter shape can be recognized during the further development of the letterpress. The well-known variant Garamond is considered the leading typeface of the renaissance and early baroque.

Features

Characteristics of the Geralde typefaces are:

  • Inclined axis of the letters to the left (see o and b)
  • Upper wedge shaped serifs of the minuscules (see b)
  • RRounded transitions between main strokes and (bracketed) serifs

Geralde typefaces show more contrast between thick and thin strokes than Venetian. The cross stroke of the lower case e is horizontal.

Examples

  • Garamond (Claude Garamond 1480 - 1561)
  • Palatino (Hermann Zapf 1948)
  • Weiß-Antiqua
  • Trump Mediäval
  • Goudy Catalog
  • Bembo

Transitional (Baroque Old Style)

History

This type forms the transition between Renaissance Old Style and Modern typefaces. With the change from the woodcut to copperplate engravings in the 17th Century, the lines of the letters became more fine and rich in contrast.

Features

  • Transitional typefaces show greater difference in stroke thickness than Geralde
  • The axis of the letters is vertical or barely inclined (see o, g)
  • Serifs are flat and bracketed
  • Serifs of the minuscules are usually sloping above and horizontal below

Examples

  • Times (Stanley Morison 1889-1967)
  • Baskerville (John Baskerville 1706-1775)
  • Caslon (William Caslon 1692-1766)
  • Janson
  • Imprimatur
  • Fournier

Modern Type (Didone)

History

Modern typefaces arose with the distribution of copper and steel engraving techniques in the 17th and 18th Century. The appearance is technical exact. Modern types are named Didone after Didot and Bodoni.

Features

  • The classical Roman type shows strong vertical emphasis and fine hairlines with short transitions
  • Serifs are attached horizontally with no brackets
  • The axis of the letters is vertical (see o, g)

Examples

  • Didot (Firmin Didot 1761-1836)
  • Bodoni (Giambattista Bodoni 1740-1813)
  • Walbaum
  • Pergamon
  • Corvinus

Slab Serif (Egyptian)

History

At the beginning of the 19th Century typefaces for attracting attention were in demand for advertising, posters, flyers, business and private printed matters. Egyptian and Grotesque typefaces arose from Modern typefaces. The name Egyptian is derived from its use in a publication about booty from Napoleon's Egyptian campaign. Three subgroups of Slab Serifs are distinguishable:

  • Ordinary Slab Serifs have square, unbracketed serifs
  • Clarendons have square, bracketed serifs
  • Typewriter fonts have similar weight in stems and serifs and a constant character width.

Features

  • The bold/fine contrast is reduced to a minimum; i.e. equal thickness of all strokes (also serifs)
  • The striking serifs have the form of rectangles
  • The appearance is uniform (Geometric)

Examples

  • Courier
  • Clarendon
  • Memphis (Weiss 1930)
  • Rockwell
  • Serifa (Frutiger 1968)
  • Volta
  • Neutra
  • Egizio
  • Schadow
  • Pro Arte
  • Typewriter

Sans Serif (Grotesque)

History

Egyptian and Grotesque typefaces arose from Modern typefaces. The first Sans Serifs were issued in Britain in 1816. The first of these typefaces were considered awkward and unappealing since they lacked the traditional serif. Therefore, they were called Grotesque. A hundred years later, in the 1920's, they were again in demand by the Bauhaus movement.

Features

  • Relatively uniform strokes lacking significant contrast
  • Letters are reduced to essential forms
  • All flourishing and serifs are missing

Examples

There are three types of Sans Serifs:

  • Early and Neo-Grotesque:
    • Arial
    • Helvetica (Miedinger 1951)
    • Swiss 721
    • Univers (Frutiger 1952)
    • Grotesque*
    • Franklin Gothic (M.F. Benton 1903)*
  • Geometric (Bauhaus):
    • Futura
    • Avant Garde (Lubalin Graph)
    • Century Gothic
  • Humanist:
    • Gill Sans (Eric Gill 1928)
    • Optima (Zapf 1958)*
    • Frutiger (Frutiger 1975)*
    • Albertus
    • Shannon (Holmes & Prescott Fishman 1981)*
    • Myriad (Carol Twombly & Robert Slimbach)*

Decorative and Display

History

Advertising needs striking typefaces matching the product. For this use graphic or commercial artists invented decorative typefaces.

Features

All typefaces that cannot be assigned to any other group are called Decorative and Display. Capital letter fonts also fall into this category.

Examples

  • Arnold Böcklin
  • Codex
  • Largo
  • Profil
  • STOP
  • Biffo
  • Hobo
  • Stencil

Brush

History

By the end of the 15th Century, italic forms of the Roman type developed from the fast handwritten letters. At first the capitals were still showed upright, but later these got the same slope as the minuscules and numbers.

Features

  • Axis clearly sloped
  • Rounded, smooth outlines

Examples

  • Tekton
  • Balloon (Kaufmann 1939)
  • Brush Script (Smith 1942)
  • Dom Casual (Dom 1952)
  • Polka
  • Hyperion

Script

History

Developed from the handwriting maintaining the connections between the individual letters. Script typefaces imitate handwriting with a pen.

Features

  • Letters are written together (en bloc)
  • Axis of letters clearly sloped

Examples

  • Lithographia
  • Shelley (Carter 1972)
  • Coronet (Middleton 1937-38)
  • Snell Roundhand (Carter 1965)
  • Ariston
  • Virtuosa
  • Park Avenue (Smith 1933)
  • Present Script (Sallaway 1974)

Textura (Gothic)

History

In the 11th Century letterforms with the letters moved closer together, thus obligedly breaking the bends, came from France. Guthenberg in his first Bible used the narrow Regular Textura of the 15th Century in 1452. Wider forms of Textura appeared later. The Gothic Bastarda developed into typefaces Schwabacher and Fraktur.

Features

Almost only vertical and sloping lines whose ends look like bee cubes

  • Narrow and lofty appearance
  • Curves hexagonal
  • Ornate capitals
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Examples

  • Weiß-Gotisch
  • Trump-Deutsch
  • Schwaben Alt
  • Wedding Text

Rotunda

History

A soothed form of Textura developed in Italy.

Features

  • Rectangular ends of slopes
  • Simple curves and angular lines

Example

  • Wallau
  • Weiß-Rundgotisch

Schwabacher

History

With the genesis of the uncial type minuscules a double alphabet existed. At first the Scwabacher contained capitals of the uncial type with both round and angular elements. During the 15th Century this developed into a regular folk typeface.

Features

  • Dynamic capitals as opposed to Rotunda and Textura
  • Pointed o

Examples

  • Old Schwabacher
  • Renata

Fraktur

History

The origins were the simple document typeface of the Gothic type. A typically national typeface developed in Germany during the rule of Maximilian i. Under influence of the Renaissance, the Fraktur with decorative flourishings developed during the 16th Century. The Fraktur was for Germany the highlight of book typeface like the Roman in Italy.

Features

  • Fraktur has more sophisticated forms than the Schwabacher.
  • Curves and angles alternate
  • Minuscules with trunks (see b, h, k, l) have forked upper stroke ends
  • Capitals use a curved trunk

Example

  • Breitkopf-Fraktur
  • Unger-Fraktur
  • Gilgengart
  • Dürer
  • Fraktur

Fraktur Variants

History

In addition to the Fraktur, some variants appeared whose classification as Blackletter was difficult.

Features

  • All Blackletter variants that do not fit otherwise

Examples

  • Claudius
  • Koch-Kurrent
  • Tannhaeuser
  • Weiß Fraktur Kursiv
  • Heinrichsen Kanzlei




© K Woodward 1997-2002.