Know Your Fonts
Old Style:
A style of serif font developed by Renaissance typographers to replace the Blackletter style of type.
Based on ancient Roman inscriptions, Old Style fonts are generally characterized
Examples:
Transitional:
The Antiqua or Old Style of type of the 16th and 17th centuries evolved into a serif typestyle known as trasitional
Examples:
Modern:
A style of typeface developed in the late 18th century that
continued through much of the 19th century. Characterized by high
contrast between thick and thin strokes and flat, hairline serifs, Modern fonts are harder to read than previous and later typestyles developed for text.
Examples:
Slab Serif:
A type of serif font that evolved from the Modern
style. The serifs are square and larger, bolder than serifs of previous
typestyles. Considered a sub-classification of Modern in some type
classification systems and its own class in other systems, Slab Serif is
further divided into: Clarendon, Typewriter, Slab Serif or Geometrics (a separate sub-category of Slab Serif), Fat Face (a fattened Didone/Modern style).
Examples:
Sans Serif:
In typography, a sans-serif, sans serif, gothic, san serif or simply sans typeface is one that does not have the small projecting features called "serifs" at the end of strokes. The term comes from the French word sans, meaning "without".
Examples:
Dissecting a Font:
Stroke Weight:
The thickness of lines in a font character. The HP LaserJet defines stroke weights from Ultra Thin (-7) to Ultra Black (+7), with Medium, or Text, as normal (0)
Stress:
The diagonal, vertical, or horizontal thick-to-thin transition in the stroke of a letter
Small Caps:
Small capitals (usually abbreviated small caps) are uppercase (capital) characters set at the same height and weight as surrounding lowercase (small) letters or text figures.
Lining Figures:
A modern style of numerals where all figures are of the same height (and
typically larger than Old Style Figures in the same font) and rest on
the baseline. Some fonts come with both Old Style and Lining Figures.
Non-Aligning Figures:
Also called Old Style figures, are Arabic numerals varying in height and position. Some sit on the baseline while others descend beneath the baseline.
Ligatures:
Two or more letters combined into one character make a ligature. In typography some ligatures represent specific sounds or words such as the AE or æ diphthong ligature. Other ligatures are primarily to make type more attractive on the page such as the fl and fi ligatures.
Type Measurement:
A common unit of measurement in typography. Em is traditionally defined as the width of the uppercase M in the current face and point size. It is more properly defined as simply the current point size. For example, in 12-point type, em is a distance of 12 points. em dash.
Adobe Caslon Quick Facts
- Serif
- Designed by William Caslon I
- William Caslon I also designed:
- LTC Caslon
- ITC Caslon 224
- ITC Caslon 224 Black
- ITC Cason 224 Black Italic
- Caslon 3
- Caslon 540
- Caslon Black
- Adobe Caslon Bold
- Caslon Bold
- Caslon Classico
- Caslon Graphique
- EF Caslon Graphique
- ITC Caslon No. 224
- Caslon Old Face
- Williams Caslon Text
- Caslon's earliest design dates to 1722
- Dutch Baroque type
- Family Members
- Bold
- Regular
- Italic
- SemiBold
- Bold
- Bold Italic
