So you want to get a handle on the main types of fonts used by graphic designers and typographers every day. We have a list of the 17 of most used kinds of typefaces in general order of their usage and popularity. The most elementary and different kinds of fonts are here listed for you, so look no further!
We’ll look at all our examples using the same format: the name of the font, a basic description, and an example so you can see each one in action. Here we go!
1) Serif
Serif fonts are typefaces composed of lines with their ends embellished with small marks or strokes making them easy to read. Serifs originated in the Latin Alphabet. An example of classic serif fonts are Times Roman, New Century Gothic, and Palatino.
2) Sans Serif
Sans Serif fonts are fonts composed of simple lines. They do not have the small embellishments that the Serif fonts do on the end of each character. The term comes from the French word Sans, meaning “without” and “serif” (Dutch) with the meaning “line”. Some popular sans serif fonts are Helvetica, Avant Garde and Geneva.
3) Display
Display type is also known as headline type and is meant to draw and hold a viewer’s attention. They tend to appear in advertisements on billboards, posters, book jackets and packaging. Type usually set larger than 14 point is considered “display” and sets the tone for a design piece.
4) Slab Serif
The Slab Serif is about a 200 year old letterform that came from Britain and quickly became very popular, with their geometric and beefy block-like serifs plastered all over everything from crates to pamphlets. Until this time, the usual font of the day had been used for long sections of type, but as the printing industry grew, advertisers were in need of a bold call-out type. Slab fonts carry a certain typographic authority, that demand the viewers attention.
5) Hand drawn
Hand drawn fonts are a great way to add a little character and charm to your design. Some are created completely by hand, while others are sketched and scanned into Illustrator or Photoshop. Some are very clean and easy to read, while others may have a natural sketchy flow giving a piece a particular personality or mood. There are endless possibilities in creating hand drawn fonts by combining qualities found in various styles of type such as Art Deco, historic display, thin, and thick slabs, etc.
6) Script
Script fonts come in many styles from casual to highly organized and elegant. They are based on the fluid strokes that are created by handwriting. Script fonts are popularly used for formal invitations such as wedding or concerts, as well as informal gatherings.
7) Retro
Retro type is used to carry a viewer decades into the past achieving an “old fashioned” look to creative pieces. Retro fonts are found in serif, sans serif, and script typefaces and are often used as bold headlines in vintage and classic posters, logos and packaging.
8) Dingbat
Dingbats, also known as printers characters or ornaments, are fonts that have shapes and symbols in the place of the alphabet and numeric characters. There are many varieties: Pictograms, design elements, user interface elements, buttons, illustrations, and bullet lists. One of the main advantages is the ability to create various sizes and colors without having to do any special editing. Dingbat types of fonts are eminently useful and should be a part of your basic type library. Find a good one, learn what’s in it, and keep it handy.
9) Monospaced
Monospaced fonts were created in order to meet the requirements of the typewriter. They are referred to as being non-proportional fonts, or fixed-width fonts. Meaning, that all of their characters occupy the same amount of horizontal space as opposed to variable width fonts that have different spacings and widths–they are proportionally spaced. Some examples of these fonts are Courier and Monaco. They are not defined by their beauty, and are often more difficult to read than proportional fonts. Monospaced types of fonts are always useful, though, in particular situations where you need things to line up.
10) Novelty
A Novelty font is considered to be any typeface that does not fall into one of the major categories of type – serif, sans serif, Old English, script or cursive. Often they are attention-grabbers and are used in headlines or call-outs and commonly define the personality of your piece. Novelty types of fonts are fun to look for and collect, and there is a novel typeface for any mood or aesthetic you can think of. The possibilities are simply endless, as there are no rules to break when designing a novelty typeface.
11) Comic
Comic fonts are usually friendly, easy to read and most popular for use in comics and cartoons–there’s lots of alternatives out there these days to choose from (in order to avoid the infamous Comic Sans) if you’re looking to find a comic book theme. In making your font choices you should consider ultra-legible fonts that are easy on the eyes and brain for all age groups. You’ll also want to be aware of suitability in whatever project you’re working on, ie., you don’t want the usual light-hearted comic font if you’re interested in relaying a more serious subject matter. Generally comic typesetting has a very specific task in comparison to other typography. With cartoons and speech bubbles, the font carries the mood of the strip and is not secondary to the overall design as most other typography is. The lettering will highly influence the feel and impact of what is being communicated. Remember, comic style types of fonts are pretty overused. If you can pick something else, do it.
12) Stencil
The Stencil fonts were invented in 1937 by R. Hunter Middleton. They consisted of capital letters with rounded edges and thick main strokes with breaks in the face.The invention was for the Ludlow Typograph Company in Chicago where he worked. The letters were set with hand-assembled brass matrices for their linecasting machine and were created mainly to set newspaper headlines. Over the years, stencil use has not only been customary for newspaper headlines, public signage and crate labeling, but also very artistically used on posters, graffiti or street art.
Here’s a great resource for beautiful modern stencil fonts.
13) Blackletter
This typeface is also referred to as Gothic, or Old English and was used to set the Gutenberg Bible – the first book printed with movable type. It is characterized as having black texture and very decorated caps, with dramatic thick to thin strokes and serifs. The Blackletter typeface is highly stylized with elaborate swirls, and yet is very readable.
14) Calligraphic
Calligraphy is based on an ancient writing technique using flat edged pens to create unique and artistic lettering. The movement and the direction of the pen determined the thickness of the lines. This stylistic writing is a form of fine art and is commonly used for typesetting formal invitations or letters.
15) Typewriter
Typewriter fonts were created to resemble the classic mechanical typewriters, which were used for composing old letters and documents before the digital age. The varieties available are perfect for projects that require a retro or vintage look. 1913 Typewriter designed by Gilles Le Corre is a great example of this type of font. Often these fonts take on a grungy characteristic in order to represent irregularities and erosions similar to the old well-worn books of poetry and literature. Typewriter fonts are great for poster design and scrapbooks, as well as designs incorporating snippets of old letters and stories. These types of fonts never quite go out of style.
16) Pixel
Pixel fonts, also known as Screen Fonts, were created solely for the purpose of display on a computer screen and looks perfectly sharp because it’s structure is based on squares. These fonts have become popular for their clarity and saved the day for designers in the past, who would attempt displaying fonts in small sizes. Pixel fonts are crisp and usually displayed in high contrast colors such as black and white. Not grays or other shaded in-betweens. These types of of fonts seem to be out of style with high resolution screens being the norm now, which contributes to a lessoning of the awareness of this aesthetic.
17) Grunge
Grunge fonts are represent a style of dirty, loud and irregular design elements often used to characterize a portion of the 80’s and 90’s disgruntled, rebellious generation. Certainly in typography a growing discontentment with clean, neat and crisp design emerged. The design of the day was heavy, messy and emotionally charged. David Carson, the acclaimed graphic designer who created Ray Gun magazine, was known as the Godfather of grunge and promoted methods of rule-breaking and constant change in design rather than the clean and timeless form which was previously taught. Eventually trends of the chaotic began to fade away as the grid and simplicity made it’s way back onto the scene.
And there you have 17 different types of fonts which are more than enough to get you through a life-long career in graphic design. Now go design something cool!
Being a font-a-holic, this post is right up my street.
A brilliantly written piece with great visuals and good content. Thanks for writing and look forward to seeing what else you have on your mind.
For me– at least– there are only two main categories under which ALL OTHER fonts can, and should be placed… and these are, Monospace fonts, and Proportional fonts! And as I loathe any and all varieties of Proportional fonts, it’s an easy task to select from the large variety of Monospace entrants! But… there’s a key problem in the way in which FOSS-based Text Formatting suites treat Monospace fonts!…
Why… in a Monospace Format… when placing superscript (or subscript) characters in LibreOffice (but also, in other FOSS-based programs such as Apache OpenOffice, and AbiWord!), does the “normal point size” typed below and above the line I’m working on, not line up with the “normal point size” I’m ON? So, for example, if I type 10 Xes in 12point (and the 12point, being the larger “normal point size” I’m using), then the word “house painter” (e.g.) in superscript… and then type 5 more 12point Xes to the right of my SS/ SS… then go down one line, and type 12point Xes until I reach the last 12point X typed above… the last 12point X on the second line, won’t align with the last X typed above! A “squeeze-play” has occurred with the SS/ SS characters… wherewith, the 12point vertical spacial alignment to the right of the SS/ SS is no longer contiguous with the 12point vertical spacial justification on the left of the SS/ SS, or below it! In other words, the SS/ SS has created its own vertical spacial justification!… AND DAMN THE VERTICAL SPACIAL JUSTIFICATION OF THE NORMAL POINT SIZE ON THE SCREEN!… AND THUS, DAMN FULL MONOSPACE ALIGNMENT! And… to be clear… it doesn’t matter what larger point size one is using!… the invoking of SS/ SS on one’s computer screen will mean a failure of the alignment of the larger point size!
IF I’M IN MONOSPACE, THE “NORMAL POINT SIZE” SHOULD BE IN ALIGNMENT THROUGHOUT THE PAGE!… WHETHER I’M USING SS/ SS, OR OTHERWISE (and that goes for the inclusion of boxes around “normal point size” text, and/ or SS/ SS… i.e., if I add a vertical bar to form a box, the normal point size to the left or right of the bar, SHOULD ALIGN IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE NORMAL POINT SIZE BELOW, OR ABOVE THE BAR!– AND REGARDLESS OF THE ADDITION OF SS/ SS!)! Otherwise, what’s the point of adopting Monospace to effect– in part– the display mechanics of a typewriter (and the use of the latest software that renders the look and feel– if you will– of old-style typewriter fonts; the “bleeding” of keystrokes on one’s computer screen that some developers have fashioned– and, linked to the actual pressure one uses when hitting one’s keyboard; and, software that enables the “clicking sound” of a typewriter’s keys!) when the alignment of SS/ SS, and graphic boxes, have been neglected in relation to the normal point size being used in the Monospace Environment (and thereby, ELIMINATING THE MOST NOTABLE FEATURE OF OF A MECHANICAL TYPEWRITER’S CHARACTERISTICS!… i.e., 100% MONOSPACE ALIGNMENT!)? H–l… my typewriter aligns better than that!… and, for both SS/ SS, and boxes!
And yes… I know that the SS/ SS– as such– with a typewriter, is THE SAME as that of/ for the fixed point size of the “normal text”! But arguing that, misses the point! And that is, that the typewriter affords– due to its fixed mechanics– 100% CHARACTER ALIGNMENT FOR BOTH NORMAL POINT SIZE CHARACTERS, AND, SS/ SS (IN ADDITION, TO INCORPORATED GRAPHIC BOXES!… that may be fashioned from a mechanical typewriter’s “underscore symbol” and the “single quote symbol”!)! And that, to me– at least– is the QUINTESSENTIAL DEFINITION OF TRUE MONOSPACE!… and, the reason why many (if not!… why MOST!) desire Monospace! But, regardless of this PREREQUISITE STANDARD DEFINITION of what SHOULD constitute TRUE MONOSPACE… AND, DESPITE THE ADOPTED RATIONALE BY MANY (AND IF NOT… BY MOST!) USERS FOR USING MONOSPACE!… Text Formatting Apps have gone on to subvert that definition (e.g., Apache’s OpenOffice, and AbiWord!… among others!), in favour of a “hybrid version”!… i.e., part Monospace, AND PART NONSENSE!
And by this, I don’t mean to suggest that digital SS/ SS must be the SAME SIZE as that found within a mechanical typewriter! That’s ridiculous! But… that afterupon placing SS/ SS text adjoining the normal point size on screen, the normal point size should be in alignment with the normal point size elsewhere on the page!
And just because the SS/ SS within a Text Formatting App may, itself, be Monospace, doesn’t mean that its application in relation to the larger normal point size, is– in fact– adhering to the Monospace Environment of the larger point size! And, just because a vertical or horizontal bar composing/ comprising a graphic box around the normal point size on a given screen is not regarded as “synonymous” with the “alphanumeric, and grammatic family of characters” of a given larger point size, and Font (and apart from… but in addition to… the issue of SS/ SS!), doesn’t mean that the graphic box elements should be “estranged” from, and adversely affecting (once invoked) the larger normal point size chosen! The consistent alignment one achieves with a single or double quotation mark and underscore character found within a mechanical typewriter (both vertical, and horizontal!… and, regardless of the “default mechanics” unique to a typewriter!), should be the same consistent alignment achieved with a Text Formatting App (Monospace-based!) used in conjunction with a PC (the differences between the size of the SS/ SS characters within a mechanical typewriter, versus that found on a computer screen, NOTWITHSTANDING!)! ANYTHING INCLUDED WITHIN A MONOSPACE ENVIRONMENT (IMAGES, DINGBATS, OR WHATEVER!) ON A COMPUTER SCREEN, MUST BE CONFINED TO (I.E., CALIBRATED WITHIN THE PARAMETERS OF!… OR CONSISTENT WITH!) THE VERTICAL SPACIAL ALLOTMENT ASSIGNED TO THE NORMAL (LARGER) POINT SIZE SYMBOLS/ CHARACTERS/ TEXT ENTERED ON ONE’S SCREEN! And so, if an IMAGE requires– let’s say– 30 and a 1/4 normal point size characters for its width (leaving aside… for the moment… the image’s height!)… and the image begins at the leftmost side of the screen… then the placement of the next normal size character to the right of the image (whether at the top right of the image, or somewhere below this to the bottom right of the image!), should begin– MUST BEGIN!– at the “Monospace Coordinate” “31” (whatever the normal point size… save, for a point size wherewith the characters are too large!… and thus, a scaled-up “31st character” could not be entered!)!… not “30 and 1/2”, “30 and 3/4″… and so on… WHICH WOULD BRING THE NORMAL (LARGER) POINT SIZE ABOVE, OR BELOW, OUT OF VERTICAL ALIGNMENT! The normal point size text will should dictate– MUST DICTATE!– how the SS/ SS, image… or whatever!… will be framed!– MUST BE FRAMED! THE NORMAL (LARGER) POINT SIZE, SHOULD BE THE GUIDE– TEMPLATE!– WITH WHICH TO ALIGN EVERYTHING ELSE ON A GIVEN SCREEN IN A MONOSPACE ENVIRONMENT!… PERIOD!
And, it would be just as disconcerting to find, that an image (or SS/ SS, or graphic box) has adversely impacted on the HORIZONTAL ALIGNMENT in a Monospace Environment!… i.e., to find, that the HORIZONTAL SYMMETRY of normal point size lines of text has been compromised, once an image (or whatever) has been invoked! And… as would be the case, with a mechanical typewriter!
Lastly, because of the problems cited above, I cannot use LibreOffice (or any other Office Suite with the same issue!… and e.g., Apache’s OpenOffice, or AbiWord!) AT ALL! I… for my purposes (and for users like me!)… require TRUE MONOSPACE (i.e., 100% ALIGNMENT IN THE USE OF SS/ SS, GRAPHIC BOXES– OR IMAGES!… AND, IN CONJUNCTION, WITH THE NORMAL POINT SIZE ADOPTED FOR THE SCREEN I’M WORKING ON!)! AND, IT’S “THE ONLY REASON” FOR CHOOSING LIBREOFFICE (OR… ANY OTHER TEXT FORMATTING SOFTWARE!… WHATSOEVER!)! AND… I DARE SAY!… IT’S A PREFERRED ITEM, OF CONNOISSEURS OF THE MECHANICS OF OLD STYLE TYPEWRITERS!… AND, IN ADDITION TO (BUT, BEYOND!) A-L-L OF THE NEWEST SOFTWARE FEATURES DESCRIBED ABOVE! AND!… IF FOR NO OTHR REASON, THAN TO INVOKE THE “LAST WORD” (IF YOU WILL!) IN RENDERING THE COMPLETE AESTHETIC “LOOK AND FEEL” OF OLD-STYLE TYPEWRITER MECHANICS! AND!… WHY NOT?
Why… indeed!… would this– should this!– one element of the “look and feel” of old-style typewriter mechanics (and given all of the software that has been fashioned to provide a true recreation of the experience of using an old-style typewriter!) be left out of the “aesthetic experience” of old-style typewriting? Why would this one element be any less important than glyphs (bleeding!… or otherwise!)… or, the software rendering of the clicking sounds made with old-style typewriter keys! H-ll!… even the actor Tom Hanks (with his Hanx Writer!) has gotten into the “act”!
And so, I’m now forced to hunt the web for my needed superscript “q” (see: http://webcache.googleuser
content.com/search?q=cache:5i6OGFIStVsJ:www.unicode.org/L2/L2011/11208-n4068.
pdf+&cd=5&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us) for inclusion within the remaining alphabet I’ve copied from the web (see: https://en.wikipedia.org/
wiki/Unicode_subscripts_and_superscripts); paste and store this– somehow (if found, and if possible!)– in MS’ Notepad (in Monospace)!; play with MS’ Character Map to implement graphic boxes!; and, use MS’ Private Character Editor to effect the underlining of text, and the incorporation other symbols not found within MS’ family of Monospace Fonts! CRAAAAZY!! And all because my otherwise chosen LibreOffice doesn’t allow for 100% Monospace Alignment of a given normal point size (i.e., when SS/ SS, boxes, or other elements, are added)! And the fact that I am having to discuss this c–p in 2016, is… well… RIDICULOUS!… and boggles the mind!
And now… if the foregoing wasn’t bad enough!… although one can copy and paste 25 of the latin-based alphabetic superscript letters from a website into Notepad… I am– nevertheless– unable to add the “q” into Notepad!… because someone, or somebody (or, SOME “BODY”!) has failed to see the significance of including this (and more!) within Unicode (and the “BODY”!…. and so far!…being the Unicode Consortium!)!
For me– at least– the inability to render ALL of the Latin-based alphabetic SS/ SS characters in Unicode, is dumb (let alone, the many other symbols one could, and should be able to render as a SS/ SS character in Unicode!)! I– and, other users!– should be able to immediately capture that unique symbol out there on the Net (SS/ SS, or otherwise!), and incorporate such within the body of our chosen Net Medium, or personal file/ (s)!… AND, “TEXT FORMATTING SUITE”! And, if Unicode is to play a role in that, then it MUST be able to “turn on a dime” (so to speak)… and, accommodate our proficient, and prolific use of what’s out there! UNICODE MUST SERVE US!… NOT THE OTHER WAY AROUND!
My recommendation is simple… LibreOffice (but, add Apache OpenOffice, and AbiWord!… but, etc.!) should create a NEW Menu Option in association with its SS/ SS icons (possibly, through a “drop-down menu”!… maybe, when the cursor moves over these icons!), that will enable (activate!) 100% alignment of a given Monospace normal point size on a computer screen, with any SS/ SS, and/ or graphic box rendering (unless!… of course!… LibreOffice simply renders all of its Monospace text in the manner as aforedescribed!)! In other words, the optional (or ONLY!) FOSS-BASED TEXT FORMATTING STANDARD will render (henceforth!… and specific to a Monospace Environment!), all SS/ SS, and graphic boxes (etc.) in alignment with (in calibration with!) a given chosen “normal point size’s” spatial configuration (VERTICALLY, AND HORIZONTALLY!)! And, that will require, that when a SS/ SS expression, box, or image (or whatever) is rendered in Monospace, the NEW FOSS-BASED TEXT FORMATTING FORMATTING STANDARD (and call it what one will!) will automatically frame the SS/ SS, box, or image (or whatever) WITHIN A DETERMINED NUMBER OF NORMAL (LARGER) POINT SIZE SPACES!… so that, any normal (larger) point size text typed to the right of the SS/ SS (in the case of SS/ SS), or included above or below a given line of typed normal point size, WILL BE IN 100% ALIGNMENT! And, all of the immediately aforesaid should be SCALABLE!… i.e., if there are “multiple normal point sizes (if you will!)” on a screen (e.g., ads converted, or translated to Monospace!… and– of course!– which should be so converted, or translated!), the same principles of alignment will apply within these respective conversions, or translations!… AND, IN RELATION TO (CONTIGUOUS WITH!) ONE ANOTHER! THAT’S TRUE MONOSPACE!… NOT THE C–P WE NOW HAVE (though, with ALL DUE CONSIDERATION to the FINE EFFORTS of ANY AND ALL who have contributed to the creation of the LibreOffice family… and OTHER FOSS FAMILIES!… of text formatting products!)!
Thanks for your time!… and, ERNEST EFFORTS!
Please!… no emails!… or email publication! If a “reworking” of LibreOffice (and other FOSS-based text formatting software products!) to accommodate the SERIOUS CONCERNS I’ve raised is effected, I will learn of such, soon enough! Otherwise… I’ll see you, when I see you!