


The geometric class of fonts has a stark minimalistic appearance. The Futura font came with the manifesto: form follows function. Other moderns include computer modern, and Monotype modern (on which computer modern is based). Modern typefaces with high contrast between light and heavy strokes are not as readable as the old style fonts.īodoni is the most notable modern. Many moderns have a stark contrast between light and heavy strokes. Vertical lines are heavy, horizontal lines are light. Lighter serifs, often just thin horizontal lines. They are based on the designs popular in the 19th century and later. However, nothing is black and white - and there are some modern fonts such as computer modern and Monotype modern, and New Century Schoolbook which are very readable (the contrast between heavy and light is softened to add readability). These fonts typically have more character, and more attitude than their old style counterparts, and can be used to add character to a document rather than to typeset a long piece. The moderns are the opposite of old style fonts. Notable Old Style fonts include Garamond, Goudy Old Style, Jenson, and Caslon (the latter is contentious - some consider it transitional)


The old style fonts have heavy lines and light lines but the contrast in weight is subtle, not stark. Old style fonts are almost always very readable. Old style fonts often have this appearance. Imagine drawing a font with a fountain pen, where lines 45 degrees anticlockwise from vertical are heavy and lines 45 degrees clockwise from vertical are light. The old style class of fonts has the following distinguishing features:ĭiagonal emphasis. There are classic old style fonts, such as Goudy Old Style, which were designed in the 20th century. The name ``old style'' refers to the style of the font, as opposed to the date of its design. They are well suited to writing long documents. Old style fonts tend to be conservative in design, and very readable. Old style fonts are based on very traditional styles dating as far back as the late 15th century. It is somewhat overused, and many books by typographers plead users to stay away from it. By the way, Helvetica is considered harmful by typographers. Notable sans serif fonts include Lucida Sans, MS Comic Sans, Verdana, Myriad, Avant Garde, Arial, Century Gothic and Helvetica. For example, Microsoft touts Verdana as being readable at very small sizes on screen. The lack of detail in the font can provide it with more clarity. Another application that sans serif fonts have is as display fonts on computer screens, especially at small sizes. There are sans serif fonts that are readable enough to be well suited to documents that are supposed to be browsed / skimmed (web pages, catalogues, marketing brochures). One usually does not write a long book using a sans serif font for the body text. Sans serif fonts do not have these little hooks, so they have a starker appearance. There are many different types of serif fonts. Serif fonts are usually considered more readable than fonts without serifs. For example, the letter i in a font such as Times Roman has serifs protruding from the base of the i and the head of the i. Serifs are little hooks on the ends of characters.
