![]() ![]() The capital letter case was placed above the drawer of minuscules, which is where we get the terms “uppercase” and “lowercase.” We also get the idiom "mind your p’s and q’s" from hand typesetting, since metal type displays the letters backwards, it was common to mistake p’s for q’s and vice versa. Older styles of type cases organized the capital letters in a separate case from the minuscules. In the United States, the most popular style of type case was the California Job Case, where the layout of glyphs was organized so that a typesetter would be able to quickly find the correct glyph from memory, just like typing on a keyboard (but slower). The type was stored in shallow wooden drawers, called job cases, that were divided into small compartments for each letter, numeral, ligature, punctuation mark, and varying widths of spacing. For centuries, a printer or typesetter would set type letter by letter from a type case. The reason for this distinction isn't as important today as it was historically when a page of text was set by hand before printing, and meticulous organization of thousands of small pieces of metal was essential. Two examples of font comparisons from the A. Sometimes there is just one typeface to that name, period: Michelangelo, Caliban, Harrington. They are different fonts, but the same typeface. A typeface is one specific style of lettering: Times, Helvetica, Poetica, Adobe Garamond. The same goes for different weights – a 14 point Helvetica Bold is a different font than a 14 pt Helvetica Light. ![]() So, 12 point Helvetica is a font, and 10 point Helvetica is a separate font. In simple terms, a typeface refers to a set of design features chosen for letters and other characters, while fonts refer to the variation in a size and weight. A font is a particular set of glyphs within a typeface. For example, Helvetica is a well known typeface. If you're curious what the difference is and don't mind a little print history, read on, it's actually pretty simple!Ī typeface is a particular set of glyphs or sorts (an alphabet and its corresponding accessories such as numerals and punctuation) that share a common design. Have you ever wondered if a font is the same thing as a typeface? Or is typeface just a term that historians and academics use? Maybe one refers to digital media and the other to analog? The simple answer is that they do have different meanings, but since the term “font” is so widely used and misused, it doesn't really matter anymore (unless you're a type designer, then it matters). The terms "typeface" and "font" are used interchangeably today, but how did we get there? Terminology surrounding typography has morphed and found its place in our modern day vernacular. ![]()
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