96 TUGboat, Volume 20 (1999), No. 2 same amount of space can be distinguished from Fonts proportionally spaced fonts. Computer Modern typewriter (monospaced): Winmvw A short introduction to font characteristics∗ ÅÓ ÖÒ Maarten Gelderman ÓÑÔÙØÖ ´ÔÖÓÔ ÓÖØÓÒÐÐÝ ÏÒÑÚÛ Abstract Hardly anyone will dispute the statement that Almost anyone who develops an interest in fonts is proportionally spaced fonts are more beautiful and bound to be overwhelmed by the bewildering variety legible than monospaced designs. In a monospaced of letterforms available. The number of fonts avail- design the letter i takes as much space as a letter m able from commercial suppliers like Adobe, urw, or W. Consequently, some characters look simply LinoType and others runs into the thousands. A too compressed, whereas around others too much recent catalog issued by FontShop (Truong et al., white space is found. Monospaced fonts are simply 1998) alone lists over 25 000 different varieties.1 And not suited for body text. Only in situations where it somehow, although the differences of the individual is important that all characters are of equal width, letters are hardly noticable, each font has its own e.g., in listings of computer programs, where it may character, its own personality. Even the atmosphere be important that each individual character can be elucidated by a text set from Adobe Garamond discerned and where the layout of the program may is noticably different from the atmosphere of the depend on using monospaced fonts, can the usage same text set from Stempel Garamond. Although of a monospaced font be defended. In most other decisions about the usage of fonts will always remain situations, they should simply be avoided. in the realm of esthetics, some knowledge about font characteristics may nevertheless help to create some Romans, italics, and slant. A second typeface order and to find out why certain design decisions characteristic that will hardly be new for any TEX- just do not work. The main aim of this paper is user is the difference between italic, oblique (slanted) to provide such background by describing the main and roman fonts. The difference between italic fonts aspects that might be used to describe a font. and the roman fonts lies in their history. Italic fonts The outline of the remainder of this paper is are the descendants of handwritten letter shapes, as follows. First I will discuss some basic font whereas the roman fonts were originally chiselled in characteristics. Next some elementary, numerical di- stone. Consequently, the romans look more rigid; mensions along which properties of a typeface design the italics, to the contrary, show more elegance and can be assessed will be discussed. The next section are more ‘curvy’. Furthermore, the shapes of some elaborates on those measures and some additional individual characters differ; this difference is most aspects of ‘contrast’ will be discussed. The final apparent when we look at a, g and a, g (here two sections briefly present a font classification along in the italic and roman variant respectively). The the dimensions discussed in the previous section and origins of the italics being in handwriting, they are some implications. usually slanted, whereas the romans are typically typeset upright. This, however, is not strictly nec- Some elementary differences essary. Italics can theoretically be typeset upright Proportional and monospaced. Afirstdiffer- and romans may be slanted: ence that can be recognized between typeface de- An upright italic and a slanted or oblique signs is the spacing of fonts. Monospaced or type- italic writer fonts in which each character occupies the ∗ An upright roman and a slanted or oblique Apart from some minor modifications, this article is roman identical to an earlier publication in MAPS, the communi- cations of the Dutch TEX User Group, Nummer 22, Voor- Generally designers agree that text set in roman jaar 1999, pp. 81–93. is more legible than text set in italic, although the 1 This enormous variety is partially made possible by the introduction of electronic typefaces, which allows for world- readability of italics accompanying different fonts wide distribution without exceptional cost. In 1950, that may differ considerably, which is important if large is before the advent of electronic typesetting, Groenendaal pieces of text are typeset in italics. Compare for could still attempt to list all typefaces readily available to an instance: ordinary typesetter. TUGboat, Volume 20 (1999), No. 2 97 A block of text set A block of text set do not read individual characters, but read from Utopia Italics. from Computer Modern words and mainly use the upper half of a line of Generally designers italics. Generally text for this purpose. The general claim is that the serifs facilitate this process. Just check it agreethattextset designers agree that for yourself by looking at the next set of lines: in roman is more text set in roman is legible than text set more legible than text Now you miss the upper half of this line in italic, although set in italic, although the readability of the readability of This is a text: quer auer galapagos italics accompanying italics accompanying different fonts may different fonts may differ considerably, differ considerably, This is a text: quer auer galapagos which is important if which is important if Furthermore, serifs have an important function large pieces of text are largepiecesoftextare in shaping the personality of a type design. Differ- typeset in italics. typeset in italics. ent serifs — a set of possible serifs is presented in Figure 1 — give a typeface design a clearly distinct If multiple slanted fonts are used in one piece personality. of running text, it is important to ensure that the The first serif actually is no serif at all. The angle of slant is comparable, otherwise a page will second one, the slab serif, is orthogonal to the stem look rather uneven. to which it is attached and has about the same width as this stem. Slab serifs are generally, but not neces- Serif and sans serif. An issue that raised much sarily (Lucida Typewriter is a well-known example), discussion in the first half of this century (see e.g., used for monospaced fonts like Courier and Com- Tschichold, 1991) but on which a communis opinio puter Modern Typewriter. Some proportionally- now seems to have been reached is the usage of spaced fonts, like the Computer Modern Concrete serifed or sans serif fonts: we encountered earlier in this paper, also have slab Computer Modern (with serifs) serifs. Those fonts are generally called Egyptiennes Computer Modern sans (sans serif) and are normally used for two purposes: display text in advertising, and typesetting labels on maps. A Whereas at the beginning of this century a large well known example is ‘Atlas’, by the Amsterdam group of designers were of the opinion that sans Typefoundry (see Figure 2). An important reason serif designs were to be preferred as they were more for using slab serifs in this latter type of copy may modern, emphasizing the pure shape of the individ- well be that the serifs clearly belong to the letters ual characters and omitting superfluous elements, and consequently are not likely to be confused with it is now generally recognized that the serifs have other elements on the map.2 an important function for the following, not always The next type of serif, the wedge serif, has independent, aspects of legibility: been popular in advertising and for book covers Serifs make individual characters more distinct. during the fifties and sixties of this century, but In their sans serif variant many characters look is hardly used nowadays. The main, and probably remarkably, if not exactly, like mirror images only, advantage of this design is that is is easily of each other. During the reading process they drawn by hand and still looks somewhat unusual. are easily confused, especially by persons suf- The hairline or modern serif is typical of ‘mod- fering from dyslexia. The advantage of serifed ern’ typefaces like Didot or Bodoni (see Figure 3). typefaces over their non-serif counterparts, in Such serifs became popular in the second half of this respect, is easily seen from the following the eighteenth century. Great craftmanship was example: required to make the matrices needed to cast letters bd bd with those extremely thin serifs. Furthermore, great pq pq care had to be taken during printing, as the hair- line serifs were very fragile and could easily break. Serifs emphasize the beginning and ending of 2 individual characters, compare e.g., rn with rn. A second reason for the preference for Egyptiennes and sans serif fonts in applications like map printing is that Serifs emphasize the shape of words. It is the contrast of those fonts typically is near unity; see the generally recognized that experienced readers discussion on contrast later in this paper. 98 TUGboat, Volume 20 (1999), No. 2 sans serif slab serif wedge serif hairline/modern serif bracketed/oldstyle serif bracketed/oldstyle serif Figure 1: Different types of serifs. are shown in Figure 1). This is the traditional serif, found in fonts like Garamond, Bembo and Times.3 The dimensions of a typeface design Size and design size. The best known, and prob- ably least useful, dimension of a font is its ‘size’. Everyone has encountered remarks like ‘this text is set from a 10-point Bembo’ and ‘papers should be submitted in 12-point Times Roman’. Traditionally the size of a font is the height of the piece of lead from which the text is set. Nowadays the size of a font can generally be considered an almost useless figure. In most fonts it is equal to the height of the parentheses (‘()’), but even that is not always the case.