4 Type Classifications

Typography plays one of the biggest roles in design by setting the mood and tone for the design. Type can be loud, soft. It could be bold and settled, it can create a sense of Elegance, Grace or it can create a sense of urgency.

First of all, typography is the art or technique of displaying words of text in a way that is easy to read, digestible, and appealing. This is an art form for a reason as typefaces can Arrange in so many ways.

Typefaces are groups of fonts that share a similar style of characteristic. For instance Roboto is a very popular type base consisting of different fonts, these fonts consist of different sizes and weights, but they’re all part of the same Roboto typeface. 

You most often hear and refer to one of the many fonts that make up a whole type base or type family. Sometimes when people say I found a really cool font. They really mean that they find a really cool typeface, as a font refers to just one style or weight in any given font in the typeface.

So each font is broken down into a collection of glyphs that represent an individual character number or punctuation mark.

Typefaces are split up into several main classifications:

Serif

Serif fonts are fonts that have these little Tails or accents at the end of each letter. It’s easier to read and that’s why you see serif fonts like a Playfair Display up here frequently used in books, magazine and in print.


Sans-serif

Sans-serif fonts Sans meaning without in French is without those little accents or tails at the end of each letter, example of a Sans serif font you may have seen is Roboto, used in many modern website and apps, another example uses is for headlines because of the Simplicity and clean lines.


Script

Script fonts take on a whole nother life with beautiful curves and stroke weights. They can be very precise with the defined structure of handwritten and take on a very unique characteristic.

Script fonts can be one of the harder ones to use because they demand attention and certain script fonts can be hard to read for someone who may not speak the language as their primary language. They can look custom and authentic giving the design a very unique look.


Decorative

The last typeface is decorative, these feel more like Graphics instead of type, these typefaces are so detailed that they can even stand alone as a statement without the need for photos or other design elements because of the detail, but be careful not to overuse. They can easily be overwhelming If not used correctly, to understand how to use in typography and design we need to first understand the anatomy of type.

Share