Typography + Form type classification Blackletter With the multitude of typefaces readily available it becomes Humanist/Old Style Italic essential to help to classify them to provide organization and Script continuity in type selection processes. A type family consists of Transitional Modern/Didot any number of typefaces that resemble one another in appear- Clarendon ance, proportion, weight, angle, texture, and sometimes design. Egyptian or Slab Serif Sans Serif Humanist Sans Serif Transitional Sans Serif Geometric Digital/Postmodern Handlettering University of Houston Type Classification ART 4395 / 6395 / 3330 Blackletter Blackletter is the earliest printed type, and is based on hand-copied texts. It is traditionally associated with medieval German and English (Old English). Blacklet- ter was revived as a ‘pure German’ form in Nazi Germany, and is extensively used by (particularly) Latino gangs as implying officialness or deep seriousness. Blackletter dates from around 1450. Humanist or Oldstyle Humanist, humanistic, or humanes include the first Roman typefaces created during the 15th century by Venetian printers, such as Nicolas Jenson. Oldstyle has uppercase letter forms based on Roman inscriptions, and lowercase based on Italian humanist book copying. It is typified by a gradual thick-to-thin stroke, gracefully bracketed serifs, and slanted stress, as indicted by the line through the uppercase ‘O’, and as measured through the thinnest parts of a letter form. It remains one of the most readable classes for text, due to the moderate stroke variations and good distinction between letter forms. Oldstyle dates from around 1475. > Garamond, Jenson, Caslon, Sabon, Palatino, Bembo, Hoefler Text. Italic Usually considered a component of the roman family of a font, italic really deserves its own class. Based on Renaissance Italian Humanist handwriting, italics are casual as opposed to the more formal roman forms of a font. Italics are generally used for emphasis, captions, and the like, and not for body text. It is important to remember to use true italics as opposed to digitally generated versions. Italics for sans-serif (and occasionally other) fonts are often called obliques. Date from around 1500. Script As mentioned above, oftentimes anything seemingly based on handwriting is lumped under script. To be more precise, script is a formal replication of calligraphy. Script may also be based on engraved forms. As type, script is unsuitable for text, but is widely used to lend a formal element to a layout. Dates from 1550. Transitional As the name implies, transitional bridges the gap between oldstyle and modern. Largely due to technological advances in casting type and printing, transitional embodies greater thick-to-thin strokes, and smaller brackets on serifs. Stress moves to be more vertical. Dates around 1750. > Baskerville, Times Roman, Perpetua, Caledonia, Bookman, Century, Georgia, Plantin. Didone or Modern Didone or Modern serif typefaces, which first emerged in the late 18th century, are characterized by extreme contrast between thick and thin lines. These typefaces have a vertical stress, long and fine serifs, with minimal brackets. Serifs tend to be very thin and vertical lines are very heavy. Most modern fonts are less readable than transition- al or old style serif typefaces. Furthering the trends started with transitional, modern pushes to extreme thick-to-thin strokes, and unbracketed (square) serifs. Many modern typefaces lose readability if set too tight, or at too small a size, particularly with strong vertical stress. Dates from 1775. > Bodoni, Didot, and Walbaum. University of Houston Type Classification ART 4395 / 6395 / 3330 Blackletter Blackletter is the earliest printed type, and is based on hand-copied texts. It is traditionally associated with medieval German and English (Old English). Blacklet- ter was revived as a ‘pure German’ form in Nazi Germany, and is extensively used by (particularly) Latino gangs as implying officialness or deep seriousness. Blackletter dates from around 1450. Humanist or Oldstyle Humanist, humanistic, or humanes include the first Roman typefaces created during the 15th century by Venetian printers, such as Nicolas Jenson. Oldstyle has uppercase letter forms based on Roman inscriptions, and lowercase based on Italian humanist book copying. It is typified by a gradual thick-to-thin stroke, gracefully bracketed serifs, and slanted stress, as indicted by the line through the uppercase ‘O’, and as measured through the thinnest parts of a letter form. It remains one of the most readable classes for text, due to the moderate stroke variations and good distinction between letter forms. Oldstyle dates from around 1475. axis curves to the left serifs are bracketed/curve into stroke calligraphic > Garamond, Jenson, Caslon, Sabon, Palatino, Bembo, Hoefler Text. Bembo —Axis of curved strokes normally to left Belwe Italic —Weight stress of angle at two or eight o’ clock. ITC Benguiat Usually considered a component of the roman family of a font, italic really deserves Berkeley Old Style —No dramatic stroke weight changes. Caslon its own —Serifs class. are Based bracketed on Renaissance (curve into Italian stroke). Humanist handwriting, italics are casual Centaur as opposed —Serifs at to topthe ofmore letters formal are roman often angled.forms of a font. Italics are generally used for Cloister emphasis,Old Style can captions, be broken and downthe like, into and Venetian not for Old body Style, text. Aldine It is important Old Style, to Dutch remember Old Cooper Black toStyle, use trueand Olditalics Style/Revivals as opposed tofor digitally further generateddetail classification. versions. Italics for sans-serif Esprit (and occasionally other) fonts are often called obliques. Date from around 1500. Galliard Garamond Goudy Old Style Script Janson As mentioned above, oftentimes anything seemingly based on handwriting is lumped Palatino under script. To be more precise, script is a formal replication of calligraphy. Script Plantin Sabon may also be based on engraved forms. As type, script is unsuitable for text, but is Souvenir widely used to lend a formal element to a layout. Dates from 1550. Times Roman Trump Mediaeval Weiss Roman Transitional As the name implies, transitional bridges the gap between oldstyle and modern. Largely due to technological advances in casting type and printing, transitional embodies greater thick-to-thin strokes, and smaller brackets on serifs. Stress moves to be more vertical. Dates around 1750. > Baskerville, Times Roman, Perpetua, Caledonia, Bookman, Century, Georgia, Plantin. Didone or Modern Didone or Modern serif typefaces, which first emerged in the late 18th century, are characterized by extreme contrast between thick and thin lines. These typefaces have a vertical stress, long and fine serifs, with minimal brackets. Serifs tend to be very thin and vertical lines are very heavy. Most modern fonts are less readable than transition- al or old style serif typefaces. Furthering the trends started with transitional, modern pushes to extreme thick-to-thin strokes, and unbracketed (square) serifs. Many modern typefaces lose readability if set too tight, or at too small a size, particularly with strong vertical stress. Dates from 1775. > Bodoni, Didot, and Walbaum. University of Houston Type Classification ART 4395 / 6395 / 3330 Blackletter Blackletter is the earliest printed type, and is based on hand-copied texts. It is traditionally associated with medieval German and English (Old English). Blacklet- ter was revived as a ‘pure German’ form in Nazi Germany, and is extensively used by (particularly) Latino gangs as implying officialness or deep seriousness. Blackletter dates from around 1450. Humanist or Oldstyle Humanist, humanistic, or humanes include the first Roman typefaces created during the 15th century by Venetian printers, such as Nicolas Jenson. Oldstyle has uppercase letter forms based on Roman inscriptions, and lowercase based on Italian humanist book copying. It is typified by a gradual thick-to-thin stroke, gracefully bracketed serifs, and slanted stress, as indicted by the line through the uppercase ‘O’, and as measured through the thinnest parts of a letter form. It remains one of the most readable classes for text, due to the moderate stroke variations and good distinction between letter forms. Oldstyle dates from around 1475. > Garamond, Jenson, Caslon, Sabon, Palatino, Bembo, Hoefler Text. Italic Usually considered a component of the roman family of a font, italic really deserves its own class. Based on Renaissance Italian Humanist handwriting, italics are casual as opposed to the more formal roman forms of a font. Italics are generally used for emphasis, captions, and the like, and not for body text. It is important to remember to use true italics as opposed to digitally generated versions. Italics for sans-serif (and occasionally other) fonts are often called obliques. Date from around 1500. Script As mentioned above, oftentimes anything seemingly based on handwriting is lumped under script. To be more precise, script is a formal replication of calligraphy. Script may also be based on engraved forms. As type, script is unsuitable for text, but is widely used to lend a formal element to a layout. Dates from 1550. Transitional As the name implies, transitional bridges the gap between oldstyle and modern. Largely due to technological advances in casting type and printing, transitional embodies greater thick-to-thin strokes, and smaller brackets