A Little Bit About Fonts

(Just the basics)

What are fonts?

• A font is a family of typefaces such as “Times New Roman”

• A font can include multiple type faces, such as “Times New Roman Bold” and “Times New Roman Italic”

• Each typeface is created individually by a type designer.

Where are Fonts?Font files are stored on your computer in several locations

On the Mac:Library > Fonts

And Users > Username >Library > Fonts

Applications can have their own fonts too

Fonts on WindowsMostly in the Windows > Fonts folder, although occasionally inside a program folder

Managing Fonts

• The Mac comes with Font Book, but there are multiple 3rd party applications for managing fonts

• Windows has a very simple control panel. There are 3rd party applications for windows too.

Font Book on the Mac

Control Panel on Windows

A Little History

• Adobe developed Type 1 Postscript Fonts– These came in two parts: bitmap files for viewing

on screen and postscript files for printing

• Apple developed TrueType– These have both the screen rendering pieces and

the printer info in one file.– They are good for printing to printers without

postscript, like inkjet printers.

History Continued…• Apple Licensed the technology to Microsoft– MS TrueType fonts are in a slightly different format

and Windows can not use Mac TrueType fonts.

• Microsoft and Adobe teamed up to create OpenType format for fonts.– OpenType uses both postscript and TrueType

technologies– OpenType is cross platform and holds a lot more

characters (glyphs) than earlier formats.

A Little Bit About Typography

• Old style serif– Has serifs– Has a diagonal relationship between thick and thin

parts of the letters.

A Little Bit About Typography

• Modern style serif– Has serifs– Has a vertical relationship between thick and thin

parts of the letters.

A Little Bit About Typography

• Sans serif– Has no serifs

Sans serif

A Little Bit About Typography

• Script– Resembles hand letering

Script

A Little Bit About Typography

• Decorative– Anything goes…

A Few Typography Terms

• Leading – how much space between lines of text

• Kearning – how much space between letters• x Height – How tall is the lower case x in a

typeface• Decenders / Ascenders – letters that stick

below or above the x-height lines.