Monday, September 01, 2008

Fonts !

John Holbo at CT does a not-review of books on fonts (or faces ? I'm confused now). In any case, this is clearly a book I need to get.

2 comments:

  1. Fonts v/s typefaces:

    In the old meaning, a "font" (or "fount") was a specific set of pieces of hot lead coming from a foundry (letters, numbers, etc... probably containing lots of Es and very few Xs!) which were all "similar" -- in particular, same size, style, weight.

    A typeface was (and is) more of a distinctive visual look.

    E.g. A set of pieces that we might call "12 point italic Arial" was a font. "Arial" is a typeface.

    Or, in terms more familiar to TeX users:
    Computer Modern Roman 10 pt (cmr10),
    Computer Modern Sans Serif 8 pt (cmss8),
    etc. are fonts.
    "Computer Modern" is a typeface, and includes all of them.

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