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Typography is so overwhelmingly ever-present we hardly notice it there anymore.
At least, any font that wasn’t created by somebody named “Pizzadude.”
These fonts were agonizingly designed around the core principle of legibility.
Jannon’s fonts are often lumped together with Garamond, even to this day.
This is the sort of history to be found behind every major typeface and Bringhurst lets us know it.
Typography exists to honor content.
And all art is, in part, about the artist.
The art of typography says something about the typographers personal style.
Jannon was a nonconformist Frenchman who designed immaculate typefaces.
Are you speaking of the French flair of the author?
Of his suffering and persecution?
Every face says something, even if it is not obvious.
Not to say that this is the quote-unquote proper way to design.
Many fields of design, including web page design, are ill suited to printing with blocks of wood.
Body copy set in Serif fonts is often very readable.
Common Serifs are Times, Georgia, Garamond, Minion, and Baskerville.
Sans Serif: When the first Sans Serif fonts were created, people called them Grotesque.
This name still exists today as one of the first generation of Sans Serif fonts.
Sans are the more modern hipster cousins to Serif fonts.
Much of typographic design today uses Sans fonts.
Common Sans are Helvetica, Impact, Futura, Frutiger, Myriad, or Tahoma.
Common Slab serifs are Rockwell and Courier, the typewriter font.
Blackletter: Unfortunately, these are often called Old English fonts.
They are based on a caligraphic tradition and were first used by Gutenberg to print the famous Gutenberg Bible.
A common Blackletter is Fraktur.
Dingbat: Decorative, non letterform Glyphs used for various decorative purposes.
Common Dingbat fonts are Zapf Dingbats and Wingdings.
Body Font: Fonts designed to set large sections of body copy.
Books, newspapers, and the content of blog posts should all be set in appropriate body fonts.
CalligraphicorScript Font: Fonts designed based on a persons handwriting or designed to look like handwriting.
These can be as elaborate as Edwardian Script or as simple as the humble yet loathed Comic Sans MS.
Novelty Font: Digital typography has allowed designers to create all manner of bizarre, but oddly good-looking fonts.
Novelty is sort of my own umbrella term.
Tips for Better Typography
Special thanks and credit to theWikiProject Typography.
Your articles have helped me brush up on my atrophied pop in knowledge.
Image captured from the Elements of Typographic Style by Robert Bringhurst assumed fair use.
All other typography is assumed to be public domain under theThreshold of Originality.
And for the record, I have much love forPizzadude.
