Facts

Some interesting facts about fonts...

A font is not the same as a typeface..

Nowadays the words are pretty much used interchangably. However, they do mean something slightly different. Typeface refers to the shape of the letters, font to one particular size of a typeface. The distintion was important in the olden days (up until around 1970) when type used to exists as solid metal blocks for letterpress printing.

What the heck is a serif?

Fonts are usually categorised as either serif or sans-serif (sans just means without so a sans-serif font doesn't have any serifs). But what is a serif? If you look at a font like Times you'll see little twiddly bits on the end of each letter. This is a serif. A font like Arial doesn't have these. So, Times is a serif font and Arial is a sans-serif.

It's Leading not Leading

The space between lines is called Leading. This is pronounced Ledding not leeding and the word comes from the strips of lead that used to be be placed between lines of letters to add line spacing.

The First Font

Most type historians agree that printing was invented in Germany in about 1450 by Johann Gutenberg. He based his font on the handwritten type forms of that time. The font is known as Gothic Textura.

Uppercase

Capital letters are called Upper case. This term comes from the days when type was set by hand. Metal type was kept in open wooden cases and the capital letters were kept in the top or Upper case.