History MediaNotes / Fonts

A related term to the point is the '''pica''', which is defined as 12 points, or ⅙ inch. While not relevant to consumer-grade apps like Microsoft Word, it's used in the publishing industry to define the physical size of the paper, the text block, etc., and so is a standard unit of measurement in professional typesetting software like Adobe [=InDesign=]. Dimensions will usually be spelled out in a combination of picas and points, written in the format "[=XpY=]" -- e.g., a text column with a width of 16p6 is 16 picas and 6 points, or 2¾ inches.

Also pertinent is the '''em''', which is a measure of width equivalent to the height of the bounding box at the specified point size. So, for example, 1 em at 12 pt size has a width of 12 points (1 pica or ⅙ inch), an em at 18 pt has a width of 18 points (1p6 or ¼ inch), and so on. As such, it's useful for specifying dynamic measurements linked to text size, as on websites designed for multiple devices and screen sizes. It's also good for determining the proper indent for a block of text, with 1–3 em being standard.[[note]]The default tab-stop is ½ inch, which is exactly 3 em at 12 pt; note, however, that while a tab-indent can be set manually, it's better practice to set the auto-indent feature in em units for more consistent and satisfactory results).[[/note]]

Finally, due to quirks in how text is interpreted in web browsers, the most reliable method for getting a specific size of text when designing a website is the '''pixel''' unit, or "px" for short. While pixel density has increased exponentially over the decades, a decision by Microsoft eons ago (back in TheNineties) to make the assumption of 96 pixels per inch (as opposed to Apple's usual assumption of 72 ppi) means that the px measurement can reliably be used to generate type in units of 1/96 of (what the viewport assumes as equivalent to) an inch, making it useful across platforms and devices. By this assumption, a font on the web set at a given number of pixels is generally the same as the same type displayed in a word processor at ¾ that numerical size in points. So 16 px on the web is generally the same as 12 pt type in a word processor, and so on.[[labelnote: Or in more detail...]]Modern web specifications define 96 "CSS pixels" (that is, the pixel value that's specified in the HTML/CSS) as equivalent to 1 inch. Then the browser turns that into inches if the page is to be printed, or scales the CSS pixels depending on the screen resolution and other factors if it's to be shown on a screen.[[/labelnote]]

* Erik Spiekermann (Germany, born 1947): A pre-eminent German designer and one of the few remaining "leading lights" of the business who has worked with all three major forms of typesetting during their successive heydays (metal/letterpress, phototype and digital). He cofounded [=FontShop=] International in 1989, and his '''FF Meta''' is extremely popular for signage and corporate branding, not to mention the basis of '''Fira Sans''', the in-house font of the Firefox browser and erstwhile OS. He's also known for his [[{{Understatement}} rather]] [[CausticCritic strident opinions]] on design-related subjects: he will never mince words when telling you, in a crisp German accent, that your design ''sucks''.[[note]]In one infamous episode, he made a pithy comment on Twitter that an author wrote a ''text'', not a ''book'' -- the implication that the ''book'' is something made by the designers and bookbinders, rather than the author -- and got major blowback for it.[[/note]] Now retired from type design, he's gone back to his roots to open a [[http://www.p98a.com letterpress print shop]] in Berlin.

* Adobe Systems: You might have heard of them. Founded in 1982 by John Warnock in his garage, the company pioneered the influential [=PostScript=] page-description language, leveraging it to work with major type foundries such as Linotype and International Typeface Corporation to produce faithful digital versions of some of the most iconic fonts out there, jump-starting the boom in desktop publishing. Thanks to their suite of creative software, they have remained ever-present in the publishing industry, but their most major contributions to computing have come under the hood in the form of the aforementioned [=PostScript=] language, as well as the [=OpenType=] font format, which allows for selectable alternate characters, multiple character sets, and much else. Their Adobe Originals series of fonts is also well-respected[[note]]and also omnipresent, since they come bundled with Adobe software[[/note]], although their curious penchant for including an ahistorical "Th" ligature in with the standard set[[note]]i.e., it's on by default and can't be individually turned off[[/note]] on revivals of historical typefaces has been known to drive some creative professionals a little batty. They also run the [[http://typekit.com Typekit]] service for Creative Cloud apps and hosted webfonts.

A subset of this category is fonts for comic book lettering. These aim to mimic the all-caps lettering drawn by hand with a fine-nib pen and the aid of an Ames guide, which was common in mainstream comics right up to the TurnOfTheMillennium (this is in opposition to Japanese manga, which has been typeset nearly from its inception and makes no effort to hide it). Comic book fonts have a number of conventions derived from the hand-lettering tradition, including distinguishing between single-stroke capital "I" in words and serif "I" on its own, "crow's feet" (groups of three horizontal lines) on either side of non-word utterances, and specific uses for italic and especially bold italic. The best of these will include the serif-I rule as an automatic substitution, as well as multiple variants of each glyph to more closely approximate the look of lettering by hand. The two most ubiquitous foundries producing such fonts are Comicraft and Blambot, with the former's John Roshell and Richard Starkings coming up through mainstream superhero comics, and the latter's Nate Piekos getting his start in the indie scene; this differing heritage can be seen most clearly in their licensing options. More independent designers (including current letterers) are starting to get in on the act in response to the more varied needs of modern comic typography, however, including mixed-case fonts (more acceptable now that print quality is vastly better on paper and irrelevant on screens) and glyph support for the hearts, stars, and wavy dashes commonly seen in Japanese manga.

A subset of this category is fonts for comic book lettering. These aim to mimic the all-caps lettering drawn by hand with the aid of an Ames guide, which was common in mainstream comics right up to the TurnOfTheMillennium (this is in opposition to Japanese manga, which has been typeset nearly from its inception). Comic book fonts have a number of conventions derived from the hand-lettering tradition, including distinguishing between single-stroke capital "I" in words and serif "I" on its own and in initialisms, "crow's feet" to surround non-word utterances, and specific uses for italic and especially bold italic. The best of these fonts will include the serif-I rule as an automatic substitution, as well as multiple variants of each glyph to more closely approximate the look of lettering by hand. The two most ubiquitous foundries producing such fonts are Comicraft and Blambot, with the former's John Roshell and Richard Starkings coming up through mainstream superhero comics, and the latter's Nate Piekos getting his start in the indie scene; this differing heritage can be seen most clearly in their licensing options. More independent designers (including current letterers) are starting to get in on the act in response to the more varied needs of modern comic typography, however, including lowercase fonts (more acceptable now that print quality is vastly better on paper and irrelevant on screens) and glyph support for the hearts, stars, and wavy dashes commonly seen in Japanese manga.

* '''[[https://blambot.com/collections/dialogue-fonts/products/anime-ace-3 Anime Ace]]''': A comic book font first released by Blambot in the early aughts, now up to version 3.[[note]]They still offer version 2 on their site, perhaps to help designers avoid breaking layouts done with older versions of the font.[[/note]] Between its free-for-nonprofit license, its release just as {{Scanlation}}s of Japanese manga were really taking off, and its name, it can be found in numerous unofficial manga translations, to the point that it's become known as "the manga font" in some circles. That said, it's looked down upon by professional letterers, and is rarely (if ever) found in official releases, perhaps out of fear that readers might mistake the title for a pirate edition. Maybe the ultimate case of [[HypeBacklash its very popularity being its undoing]].

Typefaces meant to imitate handwriting or calligraphy. Script fonts are display fonts by necessity; they can add a bit of flair and informality to a document or design, but they detract from things in a big way when overused or used inappropriately. When overused, the typographic nature of the font reveals itself, with letters that look interesting and original at first glance repeating over… and over… ad nauseam, until they've gone from "clever," to "cute," to "cliché". When used in the wrong way, they can invite ridicule or scorn, as in formal spaces where handwriting fonts have no place. (See, for instance, [[http://fontsinuse.com/uses/2274/war-memorial-in-geffen-nl this poorly thought through]] UsefulNotes/WorldWarII [[DueToTheDead memorial]].) That said, here's some you're likely to encounter frequently:

Modern computer fonts are stored in font description files, which contain the information for rendering the font on the screen (or on a printed page). There are several formats for font description files, with '''Bitmap''', '''[=TrueType=]''', '''[=OpenType=]''', and '''[=PostScript=]''' being the most widely used (with ''[=TrueDoc=]'', ''Embedded [=OpenType=]'', ''Web Open Font Format'' and ''SVGT'' being variants that can be embedded in web pages). Bitmap fonts have glyphs as [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin bitmaps]] at different point sizes. Most of these have only one bit to tell the system if a specified pixel is used by the character or not. Most systems will allow you to use bitmap fonts at point sizes other than what the font has, but results aren't pretty. [=PostScript=] fonts are the first vector-based font, used by printers that supported the [=PostScript=] language. The first iterations of [[Platform/MicrosoftWindows Windows]] and Platform/MacOS couldn't actually ''show them on screen'', so a bitmap version of the font was still needed. Adobe Type Manager, available for [=macOS=] and Windows, would let you see the fonts and even anti-alias them, but current versions of Windows and [=macOS=] do this by themselves. [=TrueType=] was made by Apple to compete with [=PostScript=], with Apple granting a royalty-free license to Microsoft to further help [=TrueType=] compete with [=PostScript=], and a bitmap font is not needed. (Microsoft and Adobe eventually made the similar [=OpenType=] format as a replacement for [=TrueType=].) It also uses a different way of doing curves than [=PostScript=].

* '''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baskerville Baskerville]]'''. A late 18th-century face named for its designer, the calligrapher and printer John Baskerville. Baskerville was a master of pointed-pen "copperplate" calligraphy, and it shows in the fine details and pronounced stroke contrast of his typeface. Upon its introduction in the 1750s, it received both acclaim and scorn, with proponents such as Ben Franklin praising its beauty, and critics suggesting prolonged reading of text set in it could cause blindness. Baskerville himself always took care to use plenty of whitespace to offset the fine-lined nature of his type, however, which is not always followed by others who have used his work. The Monotype version bundled with [=macOS=] is not especially robust, which makes it especially necessary to handle with care. ('''Baskerville Old Face''', bundled with Windows, isn't Baskerville's at all, but based on a copy by Isaac Moore for the Fry Type Foundry of Bristol.[[note]]Baskerville's original types were unavailable because his widow had sold them to the predecessor of Deberny & Peignot in France, so it is necessarily a somewhat loose interpretation.[[/note]])

* '''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caslon Caslon]]''' is a style of type first made by William Caslon I in London in the early 18th century and carried on by his descendants.[[note]]The "Caslon & Sons" type foundry existed until 1937, when it was purchased by Stephenson, Blake & Co., which eventually ended up under the Monotype umbrella; Caslon's descendant William Caslon IV was also influential in Victorian typographic trends.[[/note]] His style was heavily influenced by "Dutch-taste" or "Baroque" old-style types, then popular in the Netherlands, which had a taller lowercase and a darker, more condensed appearance on the page, influenced by blackletter. Caslon was eventually eclipsed in popularity by the types of John Baskerville and then by the so-called "Modern" types, but they are still heavily associated with colonial-era America, and modern revivals remain popular in printing. '''Adobe Caslon''' is among the most common (because it comes with Adobe software), but others exist; '''Big Caslon''', meant for headings and other large print, comes standard with [=macOS=], while '''Williams Caslon Text''' attempts to match the feel of 20th-century metal revivals. '''ITC Founders Caslon''', meanwhile, is meant to capture the look of the type printed letterpress, imperfections and all. '''Benguiat Caslon''' is a loopy, swashy take that owes much to the version of Bookman (see above) from the same era, and is particularly associated with Blaxploitation films of TheSeventies[[note]]especially Film/FoxyBrown and references to it[[/note]], as well as the novels of Creator/PhilipRoth.

* '''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_(2019_typeface) New York]]''': Apple’s in-house serif interface font, introduced in 2018 in its Books app and made available for use in all macOS and iOS apps in 2019. It comes in four optical sizes and six weights, and is available for free, although like its sans counterpart '''San Francisco''', Apple's licensing means it's technically not allowed to be used outside app development.[[note]]Like that’ll stop anyone.[[/note]]

* '''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Times_New_Roman Times New Roman]]''': A transitional serif font[[note]]technically, a baroque design with the contrast increased to neoclassical levels[[/note]] originally commissioned for ''The Times'' of London and thus designed to fit the maximum amount of text into narrow newspaper columns without sacrificing either readability or aesthetics. Was for many years the default font in most word processors, mainly due to being one the only fonts available by default on Windows, but is still a major standard.[[note]]Anyone who's had to write a university term paper in Microsoft Word will know the phrase "12-point Times New Roman, double-spaced" by heart. So will any attorney who has had to draft a submission to a [[UsefulNotes/AmericanCourts U.S. federal district court]] (although in some places it's ''14''-point Times New Roman, double-spaced"--looking at ''you'', Eastern District of Michigan). Craftier college students will have discovered that "Times", the Linotype-licensed version included with [=macOS=], has looser spacing, allowing a marginally higher page count with the same number of words.[[/note]] Ubiquitous as a result, especially in non-professional work. Although not really anything special, [[BoringButPractical it does its job]] with a good balance of readability and economy of space. Used in several books and newspapers. Before the advent of digital typesetting almost all British paperbacks were set in either Times New Roman or its forebear, the more bookish '''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plantin_%28typeface%29 Plantin]]'''. Using it on a Web site, however, tends to brand the creator as a noob. By the late 1970s, it had become a traditional partner with Helvetica and Courier in technical publishing, likely influencing Adobe's choice of the three as base fonts for the earliest versions of [=PostScript=].

** '''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avenir_%28typeface%29 Avenir]]''': Adrian Frutiger's answer to Futura, released some six decades after most of its competitors. It is on the whole very similar[[note]](the name even means "future" in French!)[[/note]], but with Frutiger's characteristic humanist touches softening the geometry, such as a curved "t" and "j" and an "M" with straight sides. Fairly common since it's a standard install with both [=macOS=] and iOS, in both its original and '''Avenir Next'''[[note]]featuring an expanded weight/width range[[/note]] incarnations.

* '''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnston_(typeface) Johnston]]''': An early "humanist" sans-serif font, designed 1916 by Edward Johnston for the UsefulNotes/LondonUnderground, designed to be clean and modern but also friendly. Very useful for signage, rather like Frutiger. Transport for London keeps the official version[[note]]currently '''[=Johnston100=]''', created in 2016 for the typeface’s centennial and ahead of the Elizabeth Line’s completion[[/note]] under tight licensing restrictions for official applications only, but several retail versions, such as '''P22 Underground'''[[note]]commissioned by the London Transport Museum[[/note]], exist for use by the public.

* '''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco_(2014_typeface) San Francisco]]''' is the second Apple font by that name; the first was a [[CutAndPasteNote ransom note-style]] typeface designed in 1983 by Susan Kare for the original Macintosh and shipped until System 7 came out, while the new one was designed for the Apple Watch and replaces Helvetica Neue on OS X 10.11 and iOS 9. At a quick glance, it looks very much like Roboto, although on closer examination there are significant differences. A monospaced version, apparently developed for [=macOS=] 10.12 Sierra and iOS 10, shipped at Apple's June 2016 Worldwide Developer Conference, buried deep inside Xcode 8.

* '''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elephant_(typeface) Elephant]]''': Matthew Carter's 1992 revival of Vincent Figgins's "Five Lines Pica"[[note]]roughly 60 point[[/note]], an archetypical ultra-bold Didone ''fatface'', essentially RegencyEngland's equivalent of fonts like Impact. Thanks to its inclusion in Microsoft software throughout TheNineties, it's been quite common in amateur graphic design. It was re-released later on as '''Big Figgins''' (matching Carter’s '''Big Caslon''' and '''Big Moore'''), with minor revisions to the character set, although it's been missing as a standard Windows pack-in for some time now. Available equivalents include '''[[https://www.type-together.com/abril-font Abril Fatface]]''' (a display weight of [=TypeTogether=]’s Abril series) and '''[[https://www.fontspring.com/fonts/dunwich-type-founders/sybarite Sybarite Medium]]''' by Dunwich Type, both of which are free. The most comprehensive take out there is probably the Black weight of Hoefler & Co.'s '''[[https://www.typography.com/fonts/surveyor/overview Surveyor]]''' typeface, which includes contextual substitution of swash forms in the italic, along with a companion "handtooled"/"engraved" version known as '''[[https://www.typography.com/fonts/obsidian/overview Obsidian]]''', which has ''insane'' levels of detailing across the entire character set; both require a commercial license, though.

** '''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chalkboard_%28typeface%29 Chalkboard]]''': The [=MacOS=] equivalent. Mac users looking for an informal font will find '''Marker Felt''' also included for free.

* '''[[http://www.galapagosdesign.com/original/maiand.htm Maiandra GD]]''' is a font based on an early example of Oswald Cooper’s hand lettering in an advertisement for a book on home furnishing in the early 20th century, which was itself [[ArtImitatesArt based on examples of letterforms from Greek epigraphy]]. Similar to Comic Sans without falling into ItsPopularNowItSucks mentality; Maiandra can be used in many of the places where Comic Sans would actually be ''appropriate'' without inciting "RAWR COMIC SANS!" rage.
* '''[[http://www.whizbangfont.com WhizBang]]''': ''The'' original "comic book lettering" font, by André Kuzniarek of Studio Daedalus and dating back all the way to the early 1990s. Because it was the [[UrExample first of its kind]] (and also because it was widely pirated), it has made its way into far too many published comics to list. It continues to be used to this day, although it also has a fairly large number of detractors due to both its ubiquity and its decidedly ''rough'' nature as an early "faux hand-lettering" font. A good many "legacy" properties (e.g. ''Manga/DragonBall'') are now stuck with it, though, and can't very well go changing it, lest the fans sense something amiss.

* '''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITC_Zapf_Chancery ITC Zapf Chancery]]''': A chancery italic font by Hermann Zapf, with longish extenders and a hand-lettered, calligraphic flow. Long included as a standard font on [=macOS=], though it's gone missing since the Classic days (Apple still ships '''Apple Chancery''', which is somewhat similar).[[note]]The earliest Macs had a Susan Kare-designed bitmap chancery italic called '''Venice''', which disappeared after the switch to outline fonts with System 7.[[/note]] It can be used to add an elegant feeling to invitations, personal cards, and ad copy. The current version uses standard capitals by default but includes swash caps via [=OpenType=] features, which means you can dress it up or down depending on the occasion.

* '''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zapfino Zapfino]]''' is a famously elaborate script typeface, originally designed in 1944 by Hermann Zapf but not released until 1998 because of its sheer complexity. It features a plethora of ligatures and alternate characters, allowing near-limitless customizability in the hands of a skilled typographer. Originally offered in four complementary font files, it's now available as a single file with alternates accessible via [=OpenType=] features. Though a standard install with [=macOS=], the bundled system version has a much higher x-height than the regular Zapfino; this version is known commercially as "'''Zapfino X'''" (for "Mac OS '''X'''" and/or "'''x'''-height").

* '''[[https://www.dardenstudio.com Freight]]''' is a fairly large family by Joshua Darden, used, among other places, by Facebook in some of their branding, and as the main text font for most Gawker sites. It sets itself apart in that the serif version's different optical size ranges are quite distinct from each other, rather than simply being designed on a linear continuum of contrast or proportion. The “micro” cut, while intended for very small sizes, also sees quite a bit of use blown up for headings and the like, the better to show off its angular faceting (done to aid legibility at its intended size range). More recently, Darden has collaborated on the sans-serif '''Halyard''' series, which employs similar techniques across its different optical sizes.

* Adrian Frutiger (Switzerland, 1928–2015): Creator of Univers, Avenir, and the eponymous Frutiger, the last of which was ancestral to (among others) Microsoft Segoe and Adobe Myriad, the latter of which very likely might be the defining font of the early 21st century. His OCR-B font is a common stylistic choice for movies with techie or spy themes. Despite his “humanist” reputation, he was adamant about only using obliques (slanted versions of the upright forms) with his sans serifs; the decision to release Frutiger Next with a true cursive italic [[note]]a blatant nod to the popularity of Adobe's '''Myriad'''[[/note]] in 2000 caused something of a scandal at Linotype, so much so that they released ''Neue'' Frutiger[[note]]with Frutiger’s own obliques[[/note]] less than a decade later.

* Akira Kobayashi (Japan / United Kingdom / Germany, born 1960): The current head honcho of type design at Monotype, who took that position after his previous company, Linotype, was bought out by them. He got his start working for Japanese photosetting firm Sha-Ken[[note]]whose fonts you’ve almost certainly seen before if you’re a manga or anime fan[[/note]] and has gone on to work on typefaces with other greats on this list, such as Adrian Frutiger and Hermann Zapf.

* Max Miedinger (Switzerland, 1910–1980) created an intentionally dull, unassuming font called Neue Haas Grotesk, which, with a few tweaks and some genius marketing, went on to become the ubiquitious Helvetica.
* Othmar Motter (Austria, 1927–2010): A graphic designer of the phototypesetting era who specialized in modern, even futuristic-looking display fonts [[https://fontsinuse.com/uses/20281/schary-reisen-buses#comment-637841 influenced by the Blackletter tradition]]. His '''Motter Tektura'''[[note]]a portmanteau of “technology” and “textura”, a style of Blackletter[[/note]] is well-known to Gen-Xers and older Millennials in the Trapper Keeper logo and on [[Platform/AppleII early Apple products]], although it’s probably most ubiquitous in the logo of Reebok athletic shoes.
* Toshi “Tosche” Omagari (Japan / United Kingdom, born 1984): The current “golden boy” of Monotype, who has had a hand in nearly all their major releases since he joined the company. One of the more active type designers on social media in both English and Japanese, tweeting about type design and random Twitter things. Also operates the one-man Tabular Type Foundry, which specializes in monospaced fonts.

* Apple Inc.: Along with Adobe, almost singlehandedly responsible for the boom in desktop publishing from the 1980s onward. The company's focus on typography owes entirely to college dropout Creator/SteveJobs dropping in on a calligraphy class at his erstwhile alma mater. Employed designer Susan Kare (see above) to create most of the bitmap typefaces for the original [[Platform/AppleMacintosh Macintosh]], before eventually licensing some of the most iconic fonts in the biz. Most recently known for '''San Francisco''' ("[=SF=]" for short), a Helvetica-esque neo-grotesque used for its corporate identity and throughout its operating systems ([=iOS=], [=watchOS=], [=tvOS=] and [=macOS=]). Apple's Core Text API is capable of adjusting character spacing and even switching optical sizes on the fly, which will be immensely useful to developers if it ever applies to anything beyond [=SF=].

* [[http://www.blambot.com Blambot]]: A foundry specializing in comic book lettering, founded by indie comic book artist and letterer Nate Piekos in the late 1990s. Though its initial fonts were relatively straightforward, more recent releases have lots of [=OpenType=] bells and whistles in order to do fancy things like distinguish between barred “I” for personal pronouns and non-barred everywhere else, as well as offer variants of each letter to ease monotony in repetition. Its offerings have since gone on to appear in all manner of comics, major and minor, as well as translations of Japanese manga, both official and [[{{Scanlation}} otherwise]].

* The [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Font_Bureau Font Bureau]] is a UsefulNotes/{{Boston}}-based company founded in 1989 by publication designer Roger Black and type designer David Berlow. They specialize in creating high-quality types for professional clients, including some of the most influential publications in the U.S. and around the world. They do occasionally indulge in whimsical creations or passion projects, but most of their catalogue consists of commissions. They've also developed a knack for shepherding young type designers who've gone on to do great things, such as Tobias Frere-Jones and Cyrus Highsmith. Known for their rights structure, wherein individual designers retain ownership of the typefaces they've made and can take them elsewhere when they leave the company. (Most former employees return the favor by staying within the fold on [=FB=]'s [[http://www.typenetwork.com TypeNetwork]] digital storefront / distribution hub.)

* [[http://www.typography.com Hoefler & Co.]]: Formerly '''Hoefler & Frere-Jones''', a Manhattan-based foundry run by Jonathan Hoefler (previously together with Tobias Frere-Jones) that has produced a number of high-profile typefaces, including Hoefler Text (standard on [=macOS=]) and the ubiquitous Gotham. In 2014, Hoefler and Frere-Jones had a falling-out over Frere-Jones's position with the company, with Hoefler arguing that, foundry name notwithstanding, Frere-Jones was merely an employee and not a full partner. Frere-Jones ended up leaving the company (and the entire body of work he'd done there) to [[StartMyOwn start]] [[http://www.frerejones.com Frere-Jones Type]].

-->'''Joyce:''' Um, Walky, the baby can only really hear ''me'', like, through vibrations in my body.\\

-->'''Faz:''' What is wrong with Comic Sans? Faz has spotted it everywhere, such as a drug store logo, the local accounting firm, gravestones, my Starkist tuna packaging, Angelfire websites, emails from my grandmother, rape assistance brochures...

You’re looking at one right now.

What a font is, precisely, has varied in meaning over time. In letterpress printing using metal type, a “font” was a complete set of characters in a specific size and style of typeface (a set of characters that share a common design structure). So for a typesetter working with metal type, a typeface would be Times New Roman, a font family within it would be Times New Roman demi-bold, and a font within that would be 12-point Times New Roman demi-bold. Since the advent of digital media, the term “font” has largely taken over, particularly since outline fonts can[[note]]that’s not to say “should”[[/note]] be scaled to any size. Many experts [[InsistentTerminology still insist]] that what most people call a "font" is technically a "typeface".

!! Points and Picas and Ems, oh my!

The basic unit of type is the '''point''', which defines the height of a given glyph's '''bounding box''' (not the letter itself -- a holdover from the days of metal type). The size of a point once varied by country, but the Linotype and Monotype machines helped spread the use of Anglo-American printers' points, which were a hair smaller than 1/72 inch, and modern desktop publishing software now defines a point as exactly 1/72 inch, simplifying the math considerably[[note]]unless you’re accustomed to the metric system, in which case, maybe not[[/note]]. Depending on the relative height of the lowercase and capitals, the length of the extenders, and the amount of whitespace at the top and bottom of the bounding box, different fonts can appear different sizes at the same point size, so it's not a reliable indicator for apparent size; you'll have to trust your eyes for that.

!! The space between: Leading, Letterspacing, and Kerning

'''Letterspacing''' (defined by the font's '''metrics''', or built-in space parameters set by the designer) determines how far apart any given letter is from its neighbors. It has default values that are attuned to the font's intended size or use, although it can be adjusted through the judicious use of '''tracking''', which increases or decreases the overall spacing between letters in a text. Tight spacing usually benefits large types[[note]]and has some leftover associations with TheSixties and TheSeventies, when the "tight-but-not-touching" style, made possible via phototypesetting, was at its peak[[/note]], but it has a subjective feeling ("fast talking like in advertising") whereas wider spacing increases legibility of small fonts, and creates an association of a more “objective voice”. Used in excess, tracking can make the text look affected.

!! The Cutting Edge: [=OpenType=] Alternates, Web Fonts, Variable Fonts, Responsive Typography

Digital typography, long encumbered by hard limitations of encoding, screen rendering, and web display, is now reaching a state of relative maturity. Unicode and [=OpenType=] have pointed the way toward standardization of character sets and font formats, and CSS on the web at last liberating designers from their reliance on Microsoft’s now quarter-century-old “fonts for the web” package. But that doesn’t mean type designers and developers are standing still.

'''[=OpenType=] Alternates''' are different versions of particular glyphs that can be substituted in manually or automatically through code. At their most basic level, they can be used to provide common ligatures (fi, fl, etc.) as well as localized forms (such as getting ß for “ss” where appropriate in German), but type designers have also exploited them to allow for different number styles[[note]]“lining” capital-height and “old-style” lowercase in equal-width and proportional versions, fractions, superior/inferior, etc.[[/note]], exuberant swash forms, and even complex joined or interlocking forms for cursive and display fonts.

'''Web fonts''' (implemented through CSS), which hit their stride early in TheNewTens, allow web designers to specify fonts other than those on the end-user’s device, for display on web pages. This may seem trivial today, but for those who suffered through 20-odd years of Times, Georgia, Verdana and Arial, it was a major sea-change. As a consequence, plenty of new fonts aimed squarely at web display have come to the market, and font-hosting services such as Google Web Fonts and Adobe Fonts (formerly Adobe [=TypeKit=]) have carved out a space for themselves. And the possibilities are still growing.

A further outgrowth of [=OpenType=], introduced in 2016, is '''Variable Fonts'''. What this means, at its most basic level, is that the user is allowed to control certain parameters set by the type designer (weight and width being the two most common) to an exact degree, all within a single font file. This means that the user (in programs that support the technology, as it’s still relatively new) can easily achieve a custom setting (in between, say, “regular” and “bold”) to achieve just the right look to their layout. As a bonus for web typography, the single file allowing multiple styles means that it’s a lot smaller (and so a lot less of a drag on server calls/loading times) than using multiple static font files to achieve the same thing. This actually has its roots in Adobe’s '''Multiple Master''' technology from the 1990s, which stumbled because users had to first ''generate the actual font file'' at the desired setting before they could use it, and Apple’s '''[=TrueType GX Variable=]''', which never caught on, because, well, it was Apple in TheNineties. But for once, with full industry support[[note]]helped along by the fact that multiple masters have been integral to the font ''design'' process ever since they were introduced, even if they weren't viable as a commercial format[[/note]] (including in all major browsers as of 2018) and designers actively experimenting with the format’s possibilities, its future seems bright.

Of course, with the rise of both web typography and variable fonts comes one major upshot: Designers can no longer control exactly how things are going to display on the end-user’s device. The solution that’s shaking out is '''responsive typography''', in which designers (both the web designers encoding pages and the type designers providing the necessary fonts) use tricks such as variable size, boldness, width, and even intended apparent (optical) size to make things work, whatever the size, resolution or viewing distance. Although these techniques have been used piecemeal for years now, with the technological puzzle-pieces falling into place, this seems to be the way forward for screen typography in the future.

!! Choosing (or making your own) fonts

** '''Humanist''', '''Jensonian''' or '''Venetian Old-Style''': The earliest printed serif fonts, making a break with the earlier Blackletter tradition (e.g. the Gutenberg bible). More-or-less codified by the work of Nicolas Jenson c.1470, it is a close copy of the formal book-hand then in use by scribes in Venice, with mild line contrast as though written with a broadnib pen held at a shallow angle. The crossbar of the lowercase "e" sits at an angle, and the whole thing feels more "written" than "designed". Italic type doesn't exist yet.

** '''Neoclassical''' or '''Réalist''': Coming in for a relatively brief period in the late 18th century, these types reflect a growing obsession with geometric purity[[note]]As in the grid-drawn ''Romain du Roi'' by Philippe Grandjean[[/note]], with types designed with a ruler and compass rather than by eye. Contrast is much more pronounced than before, and italic types more closely resemble their roman counterparts, being more readily intermixed. Key output from this period comes from John Baskerville in England, along with Pierre-Simon Fournier in France and Joan Michael Fleischman in Holland. Technical improvements in ink and punchcutting allow much sharper corners and thinner strokes on type, and in combination with smooth, bright white "wove" paper, there was a belief among critics that reading them for long stretches would cause blindness. Others were more enthusiastic; Benjamin Franklin actually wrote to Baskerville, praising his work. Although in vogue as printing type for only a short time during their heyday, they left a lasting impression on sign-lettering and engraving, where the style is known as “English Vernacular”.

* '''Slab serif''' or '''mécane''': A style that grew out of the 19th-century "Modern", except with all strokes (including serifs) readjusted to more-or-less equal width in monoline, mechanistic fashion. Subtypes are '''Clarendon''', with smoother transitions between the serifs and the main strokes (akin to Scotch Romans), and '''Egyptian'''/'''Antique''', with mechanical, sharp corners (akin to Didone models). Originally conceived as type for headings and ads, they eventually found their way into more traditional roles, and the 20th century saw them following similar trends to sans serifs, giving rise to '''geometric''' (e.g. '''Memphis''') and even '''humanist''' (e.g. '''PMN Caecilia''') varieties.

* Greek capitals can have serifs, of course, but the lowercase is more calligraphic (and drawn at a completely different pen angle!), so attempts to give serifs to Greek minuscule or otherwise make it as regular as the Latin lowercase just look bizarre to readers. Usually, type designers are just extra careful to match the level of stroke contrast to the Latin. There’s also no “italic” in Greek, but there are recognizably upright (orthotic) styles and more flowing, cursive styles, which are often (but not always) used to approximate Roman and Italic.
* Cyrillic was overhauled under the Russian Tsar Peter the Great as part of his efforts to “catch up” to contemporary Western Europe, so it has much in common with Latin fonts. That said, the fact that it didn’t evolve organically means that it can look clunky or contrived in Venetian or Garalde humanist styles, as the Modern structure of the letters means it’s really, really hard to escape the logic of writing with a flexible pointed pen. The lowercase also has a lot ''more'' serifs than the Latin equivalent, which can give a “picket fence” effect not present in the Latin range of an identical font. Italic is largely derived from Russian cursive, which follows the same logic as Latin but has many more “false friend” lettershapes than even the Roman.
* CJK (Chinese, Japanese, and Korean) scripts usually use the Song/Ming style[[note]]originally used in woodblock printing[[/note]], with its similar “thick vertical / thin horizontal” stroke axis[[note]]adapted for carving wood printing blocks[[/note]] and triangular finials on the stroke-ends that resemble serifs. More calligraphic Latin faces may be better suited with a Regular Script companion, however, as this has softer, more calligraphic (but still clear) influenced by writing with a brush and ink. There is no italic, however, and these scripts don’t use slanted letters for emphasis[[note]]they’re considered a display style since they’re not native to them[[/note]], instead relying on boldface, underlining, or dots next to the characters being emphasized. The main challenge is figuring out relative sizing, as without descenders, CJK characters are significantly larger at the same point size as their Latin counterparts, and companion Latin faces specifically for CJK fonts tend to get their descenders mangled. A common compromise is to use separate but complementary fonts, and then adjust the size of one or the other until they look roughly equal next to each other.
* There are far more scripts around the world, each with their own wrinkles. Scripts that are connected or that contain many combining forms by default were for many years difficult to adapt to typography, but that’s changing as digital fonts reach maturity. Consider this space one with room to grow.

* '''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Typewriter ITC American Typewriter]]''': A 1974 creation of Joel Kaden and Tony Stan for International Typeface Corporation, mimicking the overall aesthetic of [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin typewriter fonts]] (despite being neither monospaced nor a typewriter font itself). It’s a slab serif on the thin side, with some blobbiness at the ends of strokes that’s probably meant to evoke the way that typewriter ink spreads. It’s a standard pack-in with macOS/iOS and is probably most famous for its use in the [[BigApplesauce I♡NY]] logo by [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milton_Glaser Milton Glaser]].
* '''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athelas_(typeface) Athelas]]''': A serif font designed to be equally at home both on screen and in print. Designed by José Scaglione and Veronika Burian of [[http://www.type-together.com TypeTogether]] and released in 2008, it's one of several fonts included in Apple's suite of [=iApps=] (including Keynote, [=iMovie=] and [=iBooks=]), yet hidden from the user in word-processing applications. And yes, the name is inspired by ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings''. (The same designers also have an unrelated sans/slab family called '''Bree'''.)
* '''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baskerville Baskerville]]'''. A late 18th-century face named for its designer, the calligrapher and printer John Baskerville. Baskerville was a master of pointed-pen “copperplate” calligraphy, and it shows in the fine details and pronounced stroke contrast of his typeface. Upon its introduction in the 1750s, it received both acclaim and scorn, with proponents such as Ben Franklin praising its beauty, and critics suggesting prolonged reading of text set in it could cause blindness. Baskerville himself always took care to use plenty of whitespace to offset the fine-lined nature of his type, however, which is not always followed by others who have used his work. The Monotype version bundled with [=macOS=] is not especially robust, which makes it especially necessary to handle with care. ('''Baskerville Old Face''', bundled with Windows, isn’t Baskerville’s at all, but based on a copy by Isaac Moore for the Fry Type Foundry of Bristol.[[note]]Baskerville’s original types were unavailable because his widow had sold them to the predecessor of Deberny & Peignot in France, so it is necessarily a somewhat loose interpretation.[[/note]])
** As with other historical revivals, there are multiple versions of “Baskerville”, some better than others. The most usable modern versions include '''[[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mrs_Eaves Mrs. Eaves]]''' by Zuzana Licko, an elegant display version named for Baskerville’s housekeeper-turned-wife, and '''[[https://www.stormtype.com/families/baskerville-original Baskerville Original]]''', a direct revival by František Štorm of Baskerville’s original types, available in two optical sizes. A free version geared towards body text, '''[[https://github.com/impallari/Libre-Baskerville Libre Baskerville]]''' by Pablo Impallari, is also available.
** Baskerville’s types were influential among his contemporaries, and they produced designs that were similar to (or outright copies of) his work. As mentioned above, Isaac Moore’s version is widely avaialble as Baskerville Old Face; '''[[https://store.typenetwork.com/foundry/cartercone/fonts/big-moore Big Moore]]''' by Matthew Carter is a modern display version intended for large headings. Elsewhere, William Martin, the brother of the chief assistant to Baskerville’s punchcutter, went on to design and cut his own version for the printer William Bulmer around 1790; this was revived in the 20th century under the '''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulmer_(typeface) Bulmer]]''' name. Richard Austin cut similar types, but with even greater contrast, for publisher John Bell's British Letter Foundry in 1788, which were revived by Monotype in 1931 as '''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_(typeface) Bell]]'''; they were revived again in the 21st century by Commercial Type as '''[[https://commercialtype.com/catalog/austin_and_austin_news/austin Austin]]''', supporting a large character set in a wide variety of styles.

* '''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITC_Benguiat ITC Benguiat]]''' is a decorative "transitional" display typeface designed in 1977 by Ed Benguiat. Inspired by the curvy Arts and Crafts and ArtNouveau fonts of the ''fin de siècle'' and Edwardian periods as part of a general mid-70s revival of interest in the aesthetics of that period (look at the album covers for Music/FleetwoodMac's 1975 self-titled album and their 1977 masterpiece ''Music/{{Rumours}}''[[note]]Both of which feature ArtNouveau-style type and some Edwardian/fin-de-siècle Bohemian fashions[[/note]] for other examples of this trend), the typeface became inextricably linked in the popular imagination with SpeculativeFiction in the 1980s after being prominently used the covers of Creator/StephenKing's novels and innumerable science-fiction and fantasy books of the era (e.g. ''The Literature/HyperionCantos'' and 1980s-90s print runs of Creator/IsaacAsimov's ''Robot'' and ''Foundation'' series). Later associated with 1980s nostalgia; not for nothing does ''Series/StrangerThings'' use it for all display purposes (to the point that as of the late 2010s, ITC Benguiat is often just called "the ''Stranger Things'' font").

* '''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caslon Caslon]]''' is a style of type first made by William Caslon I in London in the early 18th century and carried on by his descendants.[[note]]The "Caslon & Sons" type foundry existed until 1937, when it was purchased by Stephenson, Blake & Co., which eventually ended up under the Monotype umbrella; Caslon's descendant William Caslon [=IV=] was also influential in Victorian typographic trends.[[/note]] His style was heavily influenced by "Dutch-taste" or "Baroque" old-style types, then popular in the Netherlands, which had a taller lowercase and a darker, more condensed appearance on the page, influenced by blackletter. Caslon was eventually eclipsed in popularity by the types of John Baskerville and then by the so-called "Modern" types, but they are still heavily associated with colonial-era America, and modern revivals remain popular in printing. '''Adobe Caslon''' is among the most common (because it comes with Adobe software), but others exist; '''Big Caslon''', meant for headings and other large print, comes standard with [=macOS=], while '''Williams Caslon Text''' attempts to match the feel of 20th-century metal revivals. '''ITC Founders Caslon''', meanwhile, is meant to capture the look of the type printed letterpress, imperfections and all. '''Benguiat Caslon''' is a loopy, swashy take that owes much to the version of Bookman (see above) from the same era, and is particularly associated with Blaxploitation films of TheSeventies[[note]]especially Film/FoxyBrown and references to it[[/note]], as well as the novels of Creator/PhilipRoth.

* '''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garamond Garamond]]''': Typefaces based on the work of Claude Garamont[[note]]The attested spelling of his name, homophonous with the name of the type[[/note]], whose types cut in Paris during the first half of the 16th century set such a high bar that they replaced Aldus Manutius's original types at the Aldine Press in Venice, and were imitated in and out of France well into the next century. There is a more "sculptural" quality to the letterforms compared to Italian predecessors, along with some intentional irregularity in the mix, most noticeable in the varying slant of the italics (designed by Garamont's contemporary, Robert Granjon). Good for setting a classy, readable text with an "old world" flair[[note]]such as the U.S. editions of the ''Literature/HarryPotter'' books[[/note]]. Note, however, that the name "Garamond" has been applied to a great many typefaces of widely varying quality. You can't go wrong with '''Adobe Garamond''' or (more recently) '''Garamond Premier''', however. For those without a budget or access to Adobe software, '''[=EB=] Garamond''' is a free offering with an extensive character set (including Cyrillic and Greek), which even the [[CausticCritic famously opinionated]] Erik Spiekermann has praised as "one of the best open source fonts around"[[http://twitter.com/espiekermann/status/434362030552657920]].

* '''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_(2019_typeface) New York]]''': Apple’s in-house serif interface font, introduced in 2018 in its Books app and made available for use in all macOS and iOS apps in 2019. It comes in four optical sizes and six weights, and is available for free, although like its sans counterpart '''San Francisco''', Apple’s licensing means it’s technically not allowed to be used outside app development.[[note]]Like that’ll stop anyone.[[/note]]
** The font by [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_(1983_typeface) that name]] available on early Macs was originally a bitmap font by Susan Kare before being reworked by Bigelow & Holmes. Despite sharing a name and more obvious similarities than the two fonts named “San Francisco”, the design is entirely separate. The name, part of Apple's "world cities" theme for early Mac typefaces, is probably a subtle reference to the font it was intended to substitute for ('''Times New Roman''', i.e., "''The New York Times''", although the original was of course for ''The Times'' of ''London'', not New York). Later Macs would include the actual (Linotype cut of) Times alongside it.

* '''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Times_New_Roman Times New Roman]]''': A transitional serif font[[note]]technically, a baroque design with the contrast increased to neoclassical levels[[/note]] originally commissioned for ''The Times'' of London and thus designed to fit the maximum amount of text into narrow newspaper columns without sacrificing either readability or aesthetics. Was for many years the default font in most word processors, mainly due to being one the only fonts available by default on Windows, but is still a major standard.[[note]]Anyone who’s had to write a university term paper in Microsoft Word will know the phrase “12-point Times New Roman, double-spaced” by heart. So will any attorney who has had to draft a submission to a [[UsefulNotes/AmericanCourts U.S. federal district court]] (although in some places it's ''14''-point Times New Roman, double-spaced"--looking at ''you'', Eastern District of Michigan). Craftier college students will have discovered that “Times”, the Linotype-licensed version included with [=macOS=], has looser spacing, allowing a marginally higher page count with the same number of words.[[/note]] Ubiquitous as a result, especially in non-professional work. Although not really anything special, [[BoringButPractical it does its job]] with a good balance of readability and economy of space. Used in several books and newspapers. Before the advent of digital typesetting almost all British paperbacks were set in either Times New Roman or its forebear, the more bookish '''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plantin_%28typeface%29 Plantin]]'''. Using it on a Web site, however, tends to brand the creator as a noob. By the late 1970s, it had become a traditional partner with Helvetica and Courier in technical publishing, likely influencing Adobe's choice of the three as base fonts for the earliest versions of [=PostScript=].

* '''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trajan_%28typeface%29 Trajan]]''': ''The'' Roman font, as well as the [[FilmPosters film poster font]]. It’s based on the lettering found on the 2nd-century Trajan Column in Rome, which defined what we think of as “Roman letters” (or at least the capitals) today. Because of that stately heritage (giving it the same sort of gravitas as a deep-voiced narrator of a movie trailer), it became the font of choice to set the titles on posters for films of epic scale… but as time went on, usage creep saw it become more and more genre-neutral, until it began to be seen on posters for just about any movie. It probably doesn’t help that it’s one of the fonts that come bundled with Adobe software.

** What appears to be Eurostile in many products of Japanese origin (such as video games; ''VideoGame/MarioKart8'' and ''VideoGame/MegaMan11'' spring to mind) is actually (the Latin-character range of) '''Shin-Go''', produced by Japanese foundry Morisawa.[[note]]Shin-Go itself was originally created as a SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute for '''[=GoNa=]''', by photo-setting firm Sha-Ken, and was even subject to a lawsuit over being ''too'' similar to the latter, though it's largely replaced its erstwhile competitor as Sha-Ken's fonts have never been released digitally.[[/note]] In the absence of any actual Japanese characters, it’s distinguishable mainly by its two-story lowercase “g”.

** '''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myriad_(typeface) Myriad]]''': Adobe's SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute in the "Adobe Originals" series, designed by Robert Slimbach and Carol Twombly and released in 1992. Made on the same humanist model as Frutiger and equally at home in long-form text as on signs and ads, it's most distinguishable by the splayed legs of capital "M" and the true (cursive) italic, which uses different forms for letters such as "a" and "e". Since its introduction, it has been incredibly popular across a wide range of uses. It's probably best known as Apple's corporate typeface from the [=iPod=] era up until it was replaced by '''San Francisco'''. The range of weights and widths makes it quite versatile, although its inclusion with Adobe software makes it inescapable, which undercuts its otherwise solid credentials.

** Its Bauhaus style is good for a movie set in TheFifties or early-to-mid Sixties and you want to show signage at a research laboratory or tables in a science textbook. (It was largely replaced in these contexts with Helvetica by the end of the ’60s.)

** '''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avenir_%28typeface%29 Avenir]]''': Adrian Frutiger's answer to Futura, released some six decades after most of its competitors. It is on the whole very similar[[note]](the name even means "future" in French!)[[/note]], but with Frutiger's characteristic humanist touches softening the geometry, such as a curved "t" and "j" and an "M" with straight sides. Fairly common since it's a standard install with both [=macOS=] and [=iOS=], in both its original and '''Avenir Next'''[[note]]featuring an expanded weight/width range[[/note]] incarnations.

** '''Neue Helvetica''' (or "Helvetica Neue" as it appears in font menus) is a 1983 revision to bring order to the haphazardly-expanded Helvetica family, adopting a numbered classification system for its various weights and widths akin to '''Univers''' (described below). On the whole, it looks nearly identical, but it's slightly boxier. The razor-thin end of its weight range was employed by Apple in the [=iOS=] 7 interface overhaul before they ditched it in [=iOS=] 9 for their own '''San Francisco''' (described below).
** '''[[https://www.monotype.com/fonts/helvetica-now Helvetica Now]]''': Monotype’s 2019 re-envisioning of (Neue) Helvetica for the 21st century. Compared to the print-oriented “restoration” of Neue Haas Grotesk, this version is geared toward digital display, including a “Micro” cut that doesn’t become nigh-illegible at text sizes on the web. Whether it was really ''necessary'' depends largely on whom one asks, with a steep divide between skeptical type designers and enthusiastic graphic designers, but Monotype’s industry clout and flashy marketing (not to mention the “Helvetica” name) virtually guarantee its ubiquity in the near future.

* '''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco_(2014_typeface) San Francisco]]''' is the second Apple font by that name; the first was a [[CutAndPasteNote ransom note-style]] typeface designed in 1983 by Susan Kare for the original Macintosh and shipped until System 7 came out, while the new one was designed for the Apple Watch and replaces Helvetica Neue on OS X 10.11 and [=iOS=] 9. At a quick glance, it looks very much like Roboto, although on closer examination there are significant differences. A monospaced version, apparently developed for [=macOS=] 10.12 Sierra and iOS 10, shipped at Apple's June 2016 Worldwide Developer Conference, buried deep inside Xcode 8.

* '''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seravek Seravek]]''': A humanist sans serif by Eric Olson of Process Type Foundry, released in 2007. It's included with Apple's suite of [=iApps=] (including Keynote, [=iMovie=] and [=iBooks=]), but hidden from the user so it can't be used in other apps (like, say, word processors…). Nevertheless, it makes for a calm, eminently readable page of text.[[note]]Tellingly, it's the only other sans serif in [=iBooks=] besides Apple's own '''SF'''.[[/note]]

* '''Textura''' or '''Textualis''', the darkest, densest version, which was used for deluxe manuscripts. It was all angles and straight sides, with the letter "o" being a hexagon and (in handwritten books) many neighboring letters sharing these vertical strokes, "weaving" words and lines together into a sort of unbroken "cloth"[[note]](or "textile", hence "textura")[[/note]]. This, combined with the dearth of horizontal connecting strokes, could result in entire words looking like a bunch of verticals, with the word "minimum" being a typical example (it's why the letters "i" and "j" have dots). This version was often highly ornamented, the better to showcase the skill of the scribe, and is still the go-to style for newspaper mastheads[[note]]when they bother to use blackletter at all[[/note]]. On the other hand, the 1930s saw the introduction of an extremely pared-down style of Textura, akin to a sans-serif. Unfortunately, the era of their release meant they were inextricably linked with UsefulNotes/NaziGermany[[note]]which led to the unflattering nickname '''''Schaftstiefelgrotesk''''', or “'''Jackboot Grotesque'''”; the choice of nationalistic names such as “'''National'''” and “'''Deutschland'''” probably didn’t help[[/note]] and are now rarely used to portray anything else.

* '''[[https://blambot.com/collections/dialogue-fonts/products/anime-ace-3 Anime Ace]]''': A comic book font first released by Blambot in the early aughts, now up to version 3.[[note]]They still offer version 2 on their site, perhaps to help designers avoid breaking layouts done with older versions of the font.[[/note]] Between its free-for-nonprofit license, its release just as {{Scanlation}}s of Japanese manga were really taking off, and its name, it can be found in numerous unofficial manga translations, to the point that it’s become known as “the manga font” in some circles. That said, it’s looked down upon by professional letterers, and is rarely (if ever) found in official releases, perhaps out of fear that readers might mistake the title for a pirate edition. Maybe the ultimate case of [[HypeBacklash its very popularity being its undoing]].

* '''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comic_Sans Comic Sans MS]]'''. An informal script font for funny stuff, purportedly modeled after the hand lettering of comic book artist Dave Gibbons. It was never even meant to be used in print at all, but as the word-bubble text spoken by an early predecessor to Microsoft Office's talking paperclip. It has a reputation for awfulness that precedes it, and plenty of people [[HateDom hate it with a passion]], although it is fairly effective in things designed for children (e.g. Beanie Babies). The problem is that amateur typographers seem to find it irresistible to use in grossly inappropriate contexts — tombstones, presentations and serious academic conferences, architecture, and more — for no apparent reason other than the fact that it’s there in their font menu. No one would call it a “good” font, necessarily, but the hate is largely misplaced.

Modern computer fonts are stored in font description files, which contain the information for rendering the font on the screen (or on a printed page). There are several formats for font description files, with '''Bitmap''', '''[=TrueType=]''', '''[=OpenType=]''', and '''[=PostScript=]''' being the most widely used (with ''[=TrueDoc=]'', ''Embedded [=OpenType=]'', ''Web Open Font Format'' and ''SVGT'' being variants that can be embedded in web pages). Bitmap fonts have glyphs as [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin bitmaps]] at different point sizes. Most of these have only one bit to tell the system if a specified pixel is used by the character or not. Most systems will allow you to use bitmap fonts at point sizes other than what the font has, but results aren't pretty. [=PostScript=] fonts are the first vector-based font, used by printers that supported the [=PostScript=] language. The first iterations of [[UsefulNotes/MicrosoftWindows Windows]] and UsefulNotes/MacOS couldn't actually ''show them on screen'', so a bitmap version of the font was still needed. Adobe Type Manager, available for [=macOS=] and Windows, would let you see the fonts and even anti-alias them, but current versions of Windows and [=macOS=] do this by themselves. [=TrueType=] was made by Apple to compete with [=PostScript=], with Apple granting a royalty-free license to Microsoft to further help [=TrueType=] compete with [=PostScript=], and a bitmap font is not needed. (Microsoft and Adobe eventually made the similar [=OpenType=] format as a replacement for [=TrueType=].) It also uses a different way of doing curves than [=PostScript=].

* '''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_%28typeface%29 Chicago]]'''. The default font for [[UsefulNotes/MacOS Macintosh]] computers for System 7 and earlier. Later [=Mac OSes=] replaced it with '''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charcoal_%28typeface%29 Charcoal]]''', '''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucida_Grande Lucida Grande]]''', '''Helvetica''', and most recently '''San Francisco''' (see below).

* Othmar Motter (Austria, 1927–2010): A graphic designer of the phototypesetting era who specialized in modern, even futuristic-looking display fonts [[https://fontsinuse.com/uses/20281/schary-reisen-buses#comment-637841 influenced by the Blackletter tradition]]. His '''Motter Tektura'''[[note]]a portmanteau of “technology” and “textura”, a style of Blackletter[[/note]] is well-known to Gen-Xers and older Millennials in the Trapper Keeper logo and on [[UsefulNotes/AppleII early Apple products]], although it’s probably most ubiquitous in the logo of Reebok athletic shoes.

* Apple Inc.: Along with Adobe, almost singlehandedly responsible for the boom in desktop publishing from the 1980s onward. The company's focus on typography owes entirely to college dropout Creator/SteveJobs dropping in on a calligraphy class at his erstwhile alma mater. Employed designer Susan Kare (see above) to create most of the bitmap typefaces for the original [[UsefulNotes/AppleMacintosh Macintosh]], before eventually licensing some of the most iconic fonts in the biz. Most recently known for '''San Francisco''' ("[=SF=]" for short), a Helvetica-esque neo-grotesque used for its corporate identity and throughout its operating systems ([=iOS=], [=watchOS=], [=tvOS=] and [=macOS=]). Apple's Core Text API is capable of adjusting character spacing and even switching optical sizes on the fly, which will be immensely useful to developers if it ever applies to anything beyond [=SF=].

* '''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mistral_(typeface) Mistral]]''': A casual script typeface by Roger Excoffon for France's Fonderie Olive, released in 1953. It's based on his own handwriting, and is fairly impressive for achieving a connected look with a minimum of ligatures (not that the most common digital version includes them anyhow). It's quite popular in advertising and on signage, especially for things (such as cafés) that want to evoke a certain [[JustForPun breezy]], French-adjacent ''je ne sais quoi''. Bonus points if the thing in question is [[http://fontsinuse.com/uses/5291/mistral-the-boat actually named "Mistral"]]. Fonderie Olive also produced a bolder, non-connecting companion, named '''Choc'''[[note]]meaning "collision", "clash", or, yes, "shock"[[/note]], though it doesn't see nearly as much use outside Asian restaurants.

You can, if you wish, make your own fonts; it used to be quite the expensive hobby for those without access to the financial resources of a type foundry, but the availability of free tools like [[http://fontforge.github.io [=FontForge=] ]], [[http://www.adobe.com/devnet/opentype/afdko.html Adobe's Font Development Kit for [=OpenType=],]] and the Web-based [[http://fontstruct.com [=FontStruct=] ]] has made it significantly cheaper. (That's "cheap" as in money, not time -- creating a typeface is a ''very'' tedious process, especially if you're including multiple character sets or styles; don't say you weren't warned when you're having nightmares about botched kerning and splines stretching like taffy off the screen to strangle you.)

* '''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobo_(typeface) Hobo]]''' is a face with almost no straight lines, characterized by its "bow-legged" stance and its lack of descenders (note in particular the oddly truncated "g"). Designed by Morris Fuller Benton in 1910, it (like many aspects of the late Victorian and Edwardian periods) suddenly came back into vogue in the 1960s, particularly for the closing credits of ''Series/RowanAndMartinsLaughIn'', and continues to be associated with psychedelica[[note]]perhaps because the letters look as though they've been distorted by a Lava Lamp?[[/note]], to the point that using it is often a lazy shorthand for anything "far out" or "groovy". (It's also developed a secondary association with the tropics, perhaps due to the stems' resemblance to the bowed trunk of a palm tree.) Since then, other designers have tried to smooth over the design's oddities and make it more generally useful; [[https://web.archive.org/web/20170912041515/http://www.ohnotype.co/product/hobeaux Hobeaux]] by James Edmondson is the go-to example, although his [[https://web.archive.org/web/20170614130657/http://www.ohnotype.co/product/hobeaux-rococeaux subsequent elaboration]] of the theme makes it ''even more'' of an [[WhatDoYouMeanItWasntMadeOnDrugs acid trip]] than the original. On the other extreme, '''[[http://fontsinuse.com/typefaces/47076/davison-arabesque Davison Arabesque]]''' (released in 1968) leans into the ''far-out'' uneven weight distribution and was pretty much left behind with the era.

* '''Revue''': An ArtNouveau-inspired sans serif released by Letraset in 1968, and heavily associated with the time of its release, especially on album artwork and cheap paperbacks (the latter of which often featured a swashy version of Bookman as well). Nowadays it's probably most recognizable as the font on the [[http://fontsinuse.com/uses/17702/the-room-movie-poster-and-billboard infamous poster]] for ''Film/TheRoom'', as well as its making-of dramatization, ''Film/TheDisasterArtist''. ''Franchise/DragonBall'' fans might also recognize it as the font used on Funimation's ''Anime/DragonBallZ'' DVD singles in the early 2000s. Additionally, the font is also frequently used in ''Videogame/MortalKombat3'' [[https://twitter.com/mk3font to the point there is a blog]] [[https://mortalkombat3font.tumblr.com/ documenting uses of Revue, the "MK3 font".]]

* '''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bauhaus_(typeface) Bauhaus]]''': A variety of stencil-style geometric fonts loosely based on [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbert_Bayer Herbert Bayer]]'s 1925 "Universal Alphabet", characterized by curves instead of corners and an overall aesthetic not unlike vintage neon signs. There are plenty of variations on this theme, but '''Bauhaus 93''', released by Monotype in 1993[[note]]and essentially a copy of the earlier phototype font '''Blippo Black'''[[/note]], is a standard install with Microsoft Office and especially ubiquitous. These were especially popular in the 1960s and '70s, which is where a lot of Bauhaus-style fonts come from, including '''Blippo''' from [=FotoStar=] (which graces the title screen of ''[[VideoGame/SuperMarioBros Super Mario Bros.]]''), '''ITC Ronda''' and '''ITC Bauhaus''' from ITC, '''Cut-In''' and '''Pump''' from Letraset, and a good many others. More recently, '''P22 Bayer Universal''' from International House of Fonts and '''Architype Bayer''' from The Foundry, both released in 1997, resurrect Bayer's original unicase designs.