How AF Fonts are Categorized
Here in the AF, I want folks — designers, yes, but also “laypeople” — to be able to easily find what they’re looking for. So you’ll find that the type is categorized a little differently from many other font sites.
Primary Use
Type is usually used in one of two ways: either for blocks of text (like what you’re reading right now — copy in paragraph format) or for display purposes — larger-sized type used illustratively or to create hierarchy of information (breaking down content into labeled “chunks”).
There are typefaces that work for both display and for text, Those usually have large families comprising many styles of type: different weights, different horizontal widths, or italics. They can function for both the copy content and for the headings that break it down, doing the job of two or more typefaces. We often call those workhorse families.
Curated Collections
Here at AF, some typefaces have been grouped because of a common trait or intention.
Workhorses, as mentioned before, are large typeface families with many different styles.
The Sondheim Series was created to honor theater titan Stephen Sondheim on his death in November 2021. Typefaces continue to be made in this series, each one inspired by one of his scores.
More curated collections are likely to come as the site evolves. Stay tuned!
Thicks and Thins
A good deal of type structure is determined by Stroke Contrast: the degree of difference between the thick strokes in a typeface (usually the verticals) and the thin strokes in a typeface (usually the horizontals).
Low contrast typefaces have almost no difference in the thickness of any of their strokes (zero-contrast type is called monoline). High contrast typefaces have an extreme degree of difference between their thick and thin strokes.
Special Opentype Features
These merit their own page…
Supported Alphabets
The alphabet used for English, and for most Western European languages, is the Latin alphabet, handed down to us from Ancient Rome.
The Cyrillic alphabet is used in Russian and other Slavic languages.
The Greek alphabet is used (you guessed it) in Greek, with modern Greek using monotonic diacriticals (accents) and Ancient Greek using polytonic ones.
Finally, the IPA, or International Phonetic Alphabet is a multicultural attempt to convey all the sounds spoken by human beings in one comprehensive writing system.
Traditional Classifications
For over half a century, Western type was classified using a system developed by French belletrist Maximilien Vox. The Vox system categorized type created for the Latin alphabet based largely on design history, with form taking a backseat to period.
Here’s a quick reference for the classifications used here:
Serifs are the little structural “feet” that some typefaces have at the ends of their extremities.
As far as I’m concerned, it matters little whether a typeface has serifs or not. Its proportions, shape, and overall structure are really what make it fit for use.
But…. people really like classifying by serif! So:
SERIF TYPE
Humanist Serif type uses arbitrary forms that have their origin in the shapes made by the stroke of a (calligraphic) pen. It’s one of the oldest forms of Western type, originating around 1490. I’ve combined all “Oldstyle” forms here — Venetians / Antiquas and Garaldes. Humanists generally connote erudition and scholarship. Think of them as “book type.”
Modern Serif type has more consistent, often modular, “rational” forms that have their basis in geometry rather than penstrokes. They often have an upright posture, with higher contrast between their thick and thin strokes. Moderns often convey a strong sense of structure in their look, making them good for applications that have to do with craft, design, or science.
Slab Serifs are simply serif typefaces whose serifs have the same weight or thickness as the rest of the strokes. In other words, they have big feet. They’re usually (but not always!) Modern in structure. Typewriter-style typefaces generally fall into this category, and are often monoline — all their strokes are the same thickness.
SANS SERIFS
Lineal type, more commonly called Sans Serif type, is exactly what the name implies: type without serifs. Don’t be fooled by the common belief that sans serifs are more or less legible, modern, clean, or readable than serifs — all of that depends, once again, on proportion and structure. You’re reading a legible, modern, clean serif typeface right now!
The Grotesque style came about during the Industrial Revolution, whose innovations fueled the need for new and different typeface styles, like the first Sans Serif families. High-volume, mechanical presses ushered in a print boom that required large type families that could flexibly fill multiple-column grids with many levels of hierarchy. Grotesques enjoyed a huge renaissance in the mid-20th century. The slimmer, American version of this style was called Gothic.
Geometric sans serifs gained popularity in the 1920s, as the Modernist movement sought to create type systems that were objective — rooted in the universal language of numbers and shapes, and thus free of influence on the text they conveyed. Most contemporary sans serifs contain elements of both the geometric (structurally) and the grotesque (in terms of family size and use).
Scripts (also called Hands) live outside the type system above, and comprise all typefaces meant to resemble handwritten letterforms. And most of them, if they’re meant to be aesthetically pleasing, may be called Calligraphic.
Obviously, scripts have been around for far longer than type designed for type’s sake, and they include many many styles of handwriting. The tradition of our Latin alphabet includes everything from the rustic letterforms of classical antiquity to the Blackletter and Fraktur styles of Central Europe, to the connected scripts (cursives) of the Renaissance onward.
Display is a catchall term for any set of letterforms that is designed to be used at larger sizes, with its aesthetic qualities potentially overriding its need for legibility.
It can often be said that Calligraphic forms are written, while display forms (or Lettering) is drawn.