In this second part of typography articles we are going to learn the categories in which a type can be classified. Knowing the terms and characteristics of these groups can help you in the process of selecting the appropriate type for your project.

The number of type categories can vary according to the source, bibliography or point of view of the author. Here I’ll be presenting 7 categories as did Robin Williams in her excellent book: Non-Designer’s Type Book.

Old Style

The Old Style types are commonly used in the body of printed text due to its appearance and readability. They have serif and are characterized by having a gentle transition between the thick and thin strokes and the stress is always diagonal.
Some examples of Old Style types are: Times New Roman, Palatino, Garamond and Centaur.

Modern

Modern typefaces have serif and a strong vertical stress line. They display an elegant yet cold feeling. Its readability is not great due to the contrast between the strokes. Some examples of Modern types are: Bodoni, Didot and Onyx.

Slab Serif

Slab Serif types originated from the advertising business after the Industrial Revolution. The main characteristic of these types are the thick (slap) horizontal serifs. There is very little (sometimes none) transition between the thin and thick strokes, and the stress is vertical (if any). It is very common to see this group of type being used on webdesign nowadays. Some examples of Slab Serif types are: Memphis, Clarendon and New Century Schoolbook.

Sans Serif

Basically, sans serif types are the ones without serif (“sans” = french for “without”). They became popular when the Bauhaus school of design was formed. They have almost no transition between strokes and have a large x-height. Some examples of Sans Serif types are: Futura, Arial, Tahoma and Helvetica.

Grunge

These types, also called Distressed or Fringe, are distorted, trashy and heavily manipulated. Some examples of Grunge types are: Rapture, Fragile and Amoebia Rain.

Scripts

Script types are easy to spot – they emulate handwriting. Some examples of Script types are: Nuptial, Felt Tip Roman and Lamar Pen.

Decorative

These types are created for a specific purpose of emphasize the content. They are also called Ornamented or Novelty. Some examples of Decorative types are: Rustic, Moore Liberty and Baileywick.

Don’t forget to check out our first part of Know Your Type where we talk about the anatomy of type and explain some terms commonly used to describe types.

Typography is a field that is quite new to me. Coming from a developer background, I did not study type the way graphic designers do. Luckily, today we have great books and various websites approaching this subject.

In this post series, which will be called Know Your Type, I will share some basic concepts and theories to introduce you to the amazing world of typography.

In this first post, let’s find out the main terms used to describe specific shapes used in the characters formation and their surroundings. These terms will be repeated throughout the posts in this blog series so you can always used it as a reference.

Terms

Ascender: Part of the character that extends above the baseline.
Bar: Or Cross Bar, is a horizontal stroke that crosses a character.
Baseline: Line where the type sits.
Bowl: Curved stroke that makes the counter area.
Cap Height: Height of a capital letter.
Counter: White space inside a letter.
Descender: Part of the character that extends below the baseline.
Ear: Upper stroke of a lowercase g.
Link: Stroke connecting upper and lower parts of a letter, as in the lowercase g.
Loop: Lower portion of a lowercase g.
Serif: Short line that extends from the main stroke.
Spine: Curved stroke of the letter S.
Stress: Direction of thickening on the curved stroke of a letter.
Stroke: Or Stem, is the main stroke of the character.
Terminal: The end of a stroke that does not end in serif.
X- Height: Height of a lowercase letter without ascenders or descenders.

I must admit that typography wasn’t always my favourite field in design. Until a couple years ago fonts and texts were mere supporting actors of the design movie. My mind changed when I finally realized that typography is as important as the shapes, the colours and the styles used. One of the books that helped me get there was Thinking with Type, by Ellen Lupton.

Overall idea of the book

Always using history as a guide, the author shows how the letters and texts can influence the way we see a piece of design and how we can improve readability by following some rules. Personally, one of these tips that really caught my attention was: When using stacked letters – like the ones on spines of books – we should always use small caps with centred column. Maybe this is common sense to some people, but for me it was something that I had never realized.

The book is also very rich on examples. Fonts familiar to most designers – or anyone in the field – are presented and described throughout the pages. Futura, for example, was designed in the late 20′s by Paul Renner who sought on “honest expression of technical processes”. But be warned, as the author constantly says, this is not a book about fonts.

“The relationships among letters in a font are more important than the identity of individual characters.”

History or Design Book?

If you are not into history and want to get straight to the technical part you might want to skip a few pages, but by doing this you’ll miss the best part of the book, like when the author explains the reason of the terms uppercase and lowercase: in the old printshops, they used to store the case of the capital letter in the upper drawer). Historical fact or plain curiosity, at least it helps to make the reader more comfortable with the subject.

Conclusion

From letters to text, grid layout to html, Thinking with Type is a book that explains the use of typography in different media and for different audiences. This may not be your ultimate guide about it, but will surely be on your mind in your next designs.