Adobe Type Library General Information | English

Classifying Letterforms

VENETIAN OLDSTYLE

A Moderate contrast between thick and thin strokes B Axis curves inclined to the left C Irregular or lightly bracketed serifs D Diagonal bar on e

GARALDE

A More contrast between thick and thin strokes B Axis curves inclined to the left C Bracketed serifs D Horizontal bar on e

TRANSITIONAL

A Slight contrast B Curved strokes on a vertical axis or barely inclined C Thin, flat, and bracketed serifs

DIDONE (MODERN)

A Strong contrast between thick and thin strokes B Curved strokes on a vertical axis C Serifs without brackets

SLAB SERIF

A Slab serifs have square, unbracketed serifs B Clarendons have square bracketed serifs C Typewriter faces have similar weights of stems and serifs

SANS SERIF

A Serifs—a stroke added to the beginning or the end of the letter’s main strokes B Sans serif—without serifs

GEOMETRIC

A Circular or otherwise geometric- or mechanical-looking o’s B One story a and g C Little modulation of stroke contrast

HUMANIST

A Noncircular organic-looking bowl with arch shapes B The a and g are usually two-story C Wildly varying letter widths and at least some modulation in stroke contrast

Today, designers and desktop publishers have thousands of typefaces in the Adobe Type Library to choose from, with new designs added on a regular basis. To help make the job of selecting type easier, we’ve organized the library according to a simplified classification system based on type styles. Most of the categories are drawn from the internationally recognized system adopted by the Association Typographique Internationale (ATypI). However, many typefaces fit into more than one category, and even the experts can’t agree. In addition, we’ve added categories unique to the Adobe Type Library, such as Opticals.

VENETIAN OLDSTYLE VÉNITIENNES VENEZIANISCHE RENAISSANCE-ANTIQUA

GARALDE OLDSTYLE GARALDES FRANZÖSISCHE RENAISSANCE-ANTIQUA

Serif The serif, or cross-line at the end of a stroke, probably dates from early Rome. Father Edward Catich proposed in his seminal work, The Origin of the Serif, that the serif is an artifact of brushing letters onto stone before cutting them. Serif, or roman, types are useful in text because the serifs help distinguish individual letters and lead the eye along a line of type. Serif typefaces fall into four main categories: Venetian, Garalde, Transitional, and Didone (Modern), as described next.

Venetian Oldstyle Named after the first roman typefaces that appeared in Venice in 1470, Venetian typefaces were initially designed to imitate the handwriting of Italian Renaissance scholars. These typefaces originated as book type and still serve that function well because of their clarity and legibility.

Garalde Oldstyle Garalde typefaces include some of the most popular serif types in use today. They were first designed during the 16th and 17th centuries by such masters as the French printer Claude Garamond and the Venetian printer Aldus Manutius. The distinguishing features of Garalde typefaces are apparent in Adobe Garamond, which has a horizontal bar on the lowercase e, a slightly greater contrast between thick and thin strokes than Venetian types, axis curves that are inclined to the left, and bracketed serifs.

Transitional In typography, the 18th century was a time of transition. Containing elements of both Garalde and Didone (Modern) typefaces, Transitional typefaces such as ITC New Baskerville and Caslon are beautifully suited for text because of their regularity and precision. The axis of the round characters is vertical or barely inclined, the contrast between hairlines and main strokes is slightly pronounced, and serifs are thin, flat, and bracketed.

Didone (Modern) Improvements in paper production, composition, printing, and binding in the late 18th century profoundly affected the course typography would take. It was possible to develop a type style with strong vertical emphasis and fine hairlines; this is what the French family Didot did, and what the Italian printer Bodoni perfected. It is for these designers that the Didone type category is named. Characteristics of Didone types include strong contrast between thick and thin strokes, curved strokes on a vertical axis, and often serifs with no brackets.

Slab Serif The Industrial Revolution of the early 19th century encouraged the development of very bold printing types that could be used for a new vehicle of communication: advertising. Posters, flyers, and broadsides competed for attention. They were often created using slab serif typefaces, which, with their strong, square finishing strokes, proved extremely effective for commanding the reader’s attention.

There are actually three kinds of slab serif typefaces: slab serifs, Clarendons, and typewriter types. Slab serifs have a square, unbracketed serif; Clarendons have a square, bracketed serif; and typewriter types feature stems and serifs of similar weight as well as constant character widths.

Sans Serif Though the first sans serif (without serif) typeface was issued in 1816, another hundred years passed before this style gained popularity. Then, in the 1920’s, when typography was heavily influenced by the “less is more” philosophy of Germany’s Bauhaus school of design, designers began creating typefaces without serifs. Ornamentation almost vanished. These typefaces are highly legible as display types and may also be used successfully in text. They generally fall into one of four categories: Grotesque, Neo-Grotesque, Geometric, and Humanist, as described next.

TRANSITIONAL TRANSITIONNELLES BAROCK-ANTIQUA
DIDONE (MODERN) DIDONES (MODERNES) KLASSIZISTISCHE ANTIQUA

Grotesque Early sans serif designs such as News Gothic are called Grotesque, a name coined by the English, who considered the first of these typefaces awkward and unappealing because they lacked the traditional serif.

Neo-Grotesque More recent sans serif Swiss-style designs are called Neo-Grotesque because they are more graceful versions of the earlier Grotesques.

Geometric Geometric sans serif typefaces were heavily influenced by the Bauhaus movement and are characterized by circular or otherwise geometric- or mechanical-looking o’s and other “bowl” and “arch” shapes. (Bowls are the round parts of a, b, c, d, e, g, p, and q. Arches are created where curves join the stems of h, m, n, and u.) Geometrics often have a one-story a and g, and very little modulation of stroke contrast.

Humanist Humanist sans serifs are characterized by noncircular, organic-looking bowl and arch shapes. They often exhibit widely varying letter widths and at least some modulation in stroke contrast. The a and g are usually two-story.

Script and Hand-Lettered Since a Parisian printer created the first one in 1643, script typefaces have become almost as numerous as the hand-writing instruments—brush, broad-edged pen, and pointed pen—that they were designed to imitate. Script typefaces often mimic handwriting techniques by joining letters with connecting lines. The variety of these free form typefaces makes them appropriate for anything from casual grocery store advertisements to formal wedding invitations.

Display While typefaces in this group incorporate elements from many different styles, they all have one thing in common: they are usually more effective when used at large sizes for display purposes, such as headlines and titles.

Glyphic Unlike most typefaces, which are based on forms created with pen or brush, glyphic designs are based on letters resembling those carved or chiseled in stone. Since most inscribed letters are capitals, glyphic typefaces also tend to have only capitals. Some can be used effectively for text, but most are better suited to display applications such as posters, packaging, and book titles.

Blackletter When Gutenberg produced his movable type, the letterforms mimicked contemporary manuscript handwriting, which was written with a wide, flat pen. This hand developed in the middle ages in Europe and remains popular around the world today. Blackletter typefaces—sometimes referred to as Old English or Gothic—were used for text in Germany until World War ii but now are primarily used as display types.

Monospaced Also known as fixed-pitch, monospaced type was popularized by the invention of the typewriter, which required all characters to use the same width. In fact, many monospaced designs aim to capture the familiar informality of typewritten text. They can be especially useful wherever it helps to have the letters align vertically, such as in some computercode listings.

SLAB SERIF POLICES À EMPATTEMENTS RECTANGULAIRES SERIFENBETONTE LINEAR-ANTIQUA

GROTESQUE GROTESQUES GROTESK

NEO-GROTESQUE NÉO-GROTESQUES NEO-GROTESK

Arabic The Arabic typeface is specifically designed to provide the characters used in the Arabic languages.

Cyrillic Cyrillic typefaces are specifically designed to provide the special characters and accents required by Russian, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Serbo-Croatian, Bulgarian, and Macedonian.

Greek Greek typefaces are specifically designed to provide the characters used in the Greek language.

Hebrew The Hebrew typeface is specifically designed to provide the characters used in the Hebraic language.

Japanese Japanese typefaces are specifically designed to provide the characters used in the Japanese language.

Korean Korean typefaces are specifically designed to provide the characters used in the Korean language.

Thai The Thai typeface is specifically designed to provide the characters used in the Thai language.

Ornament and Symbol These typefaces have been created for a variety of nontext uses: musical notation, map making, mathematics, newspaper and commercial publishing, and even desktop publishing. These packages can put the finishing touch on a project or help with specialized tasks.

Opticals Beginning in the 16th century, type designers often cut a series of point sizes for a particular type style. For every size that was hand-sculpted in metal, subtle adjustments were made to letter proportion, weight, contrast, and spacing so that the type would be comfortable to read. However, most type manufacturers abandoned the design of optical masters, because it was economically more viable to produce a single master which was then scaled photographically or algorithmically for a given point size. Several OpenType families aim to revive this typographic refinement by including four optical size variations: caption, regular, subhead, and display. Called Opticals, these variations have been optimized for use at specific point sizes and are designed for maximum legibility. The general size ranges include caption (6–8 point), regular (9–13 point), subhead (14–24 point), and display (25–72 point).

GEOMETRIC GÉOMÉTRIQUES GEOMETRISCH

HUMANIST HUMANISTES HUMANISTISCH