Type Specification

TYPE SECIFICATION

TYPE SPECIFICATION: CHARACTER ANATOMY

At first glance a letterform may looksimple, but there is more to each stroke thanmeets the eye.

“It is important to be familiar withcharacteristics of a typeface because beingaware of details and conversing [with otherprofessionals] go hand in hand.”

Ilene Strizver


TYPE SPECIFICATION: CHARACTER TYPES

TYPE SPECIFICATION: SERIF TYPES

Serif fonts can be broadly classified intoone of four subgroups:

• old style

• transitional

• slab serif

• modern


Old Style

Old style or humanist typefaces date back to 1465,and are characterized by a diagonal stress (thethinnest parts of letters are at an angle rather thanat the top and bottom), subtle differences betweenthick and thin lines (low line contrast), and excellentreadability.

Old style typefaces are reminiscent of the humanistcalligraphy from which their forms were derived.



Transitional

Transitional or baroque serif typefaces firstappeared in the mid-18th century. They are among themost common, including such widespread typefaces asTimes Roman (1932) and Baskerville (1757).

They are in between modern and old style, thus thename "transitional." Differences between thick andthin lines are more pronounced than they are in oldstyle, but they are still less dramatic than they arein modern serif fonts.



Modern

Modern or Didone serif typefaces, which firstemerged in the late 18th century, are characterizedby extreme contrast between thick and thin lines.

Modern typefaces have a vertical stress, long andfine serifs, with minimal brackets. Serifs tend to bevery thin and vertical lines are very heavy. Mostmodern fonts are less readable than transitional orold style serif typefaces. Common examples includeBodoni, Didot, Century Schoolbook and ComputerModern.



Slab Serif Slab serifSlab serif or Egyptiantypefaces usually have little if any contrast betweenthick and thin lines. Serifs tend to be as thick as thevertical lines themselves and usually have nobracket. Slab serif fonts have a bold, rectangularappearance and sometimes have fixed widths, meaningthat all characters occupy the same amount ofhorizontal space (as in a typewriter). They aresometimes described as sans-serif fonts with serifsbecause the underlying character shapes are oftensimilar to sans serif typefaces, with less variation

between thin and thick shapes on the character.


TYPE SPECIFICATION: SANS-SERIF TYPES

Sans-Serif fonts can be broadly classifiedinto one of four subgroups:

• Grotesque

• Neo-Grotesque

• Humanist

• Geometric


GROTESQUE

Grotesque, early sans-serif designs, such asSwiss, Helvetica, Univers, Akzidenz Grotesk,Franklin Gothic and Royal Gothic.

These fonts are very similar in that the terminalsend in a very uniform way.



NEO-GROTESQUE

Neo Grotesque or Transitional or Realist, moderndesigns such as Standard, Bell Centennial, MS SansSerif, Highway Gothic, and Arial.

These are the most common sans-serif fonts. They arerelatively straight in appearance and have less linewidth variation than Humanist sans-serif typefaces.Transitional sans-serif is sometimes called"anonymous sans-serif" due to its relatively plainappearance.



HUMANIST

Humanist (Calibri, Johnston, Lucida Grande, SegoeUI, Gill Sans, Myriad, Frutiger, Trebuchet MS,Tahoma, Verdana and Optima, a.k.a. Zapf Humanist).

These are the most calligraphic of the sans-seriftypefaces, with some variation in line width and morelegibility than other sans-serif fonts.



GEOMETRIC

Geometric (Futura, Avant Garde, Century Gothic,Gotham, or Spartan).

As their name suggests, Geometric sans-seriftypefaces are based on geometric shapes.

Note the optically circular letter "O" and the simpleconstruction of the lowercase letter "a". Geometricsans-serif fonts have a very modern look and feel. Ofthese four categories, geometric fonts tend to be theleast useful for body text.












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