typeface classification

Old Style (1475)
- Have more fluent transitions and narrower proportions than humanists
- Contrast is greater
- Cross bars are horizontal on lowercase 'e'
- Top serifs are roof shaped
Fonts: Bembo, Palatino, Garamond, Sabon, Albertina, Lectura

Transitional (1750)

- Designed for a specific purpose

- Axis of the thick and thin contrast is almost vertical or slopes very slightly to the left

- The lowercase e has a horizontal crossbar

- The top serifs of lowercase letters are roof shaped

- The base serifs are slightly or not rounded at the bottom

Fonts: Baskerville, Conrode, Fournier, Perpetue, Caslon Old Face, Times New Roman

Modern (1775)

- Shows a strong emphasis on vertical stroke

- Sharp contrast & transition to straight serifs

- Symmetry

- Axis of the thick-thin contrast is vertical

- Some typefaces have many variants because it was very easy to adjust thickness and width

Fonts: Didot, Bodoni, Walbaum

Slab Serif (1800)

- Hardly have any thick-thin contrast

- The Clarendon typeface is so typical for this group that in some English classifications the term 'slab-serif' is replaced with 'Clarendon'

- Heavy rectangular serifs are as thick as the letters themselves 

Fonts: Clarendon, Memphis, Joanna

Sans Serif: Grotesque (1920)

- Appeared at the time of clinical Swiss Typography after WWII

- No serifs

- Lines thickness seems equal but have a slight visual thick-thin contrast

- The ascender height is usually equal to the capitol height
Fonts: Akzidenz Grotesk, Helvetica, Univers, Arial, Trade Gothic

Sans Serif: Geometric (1920)

- The axis of the rounding is vertical

- The letters sometimes seem to have been drawn using ruler and compass

- Line thicknesses are only visually and minimally corrected

Fonts: Futura, Gotham, Avenir

Sans Serif: Humanist (1920)

- The line widths are visually equal, though in fact most sans-serifs show some contrast between thick and thin

- The extension on the lowercase 'e' points to the right instead of turning toward the cross-bar

- The lowercase 'g' often has a classic form with two 'bowls'

Font: Gill Sans, Profile, Syntax

Group Fonts:

Me: Trade Gothic

- Gothic Font

- Jackson Berc in 1948

- Apex is very horizontal on A

- Spurs in b and d curve out a bit

- Very vertical font, less round

- "squiggle" for a tail on Q

- 2 story g

- Not serif, but big spur on G

- K's leg connects to arm

- Dots are square

Sally: Gotham

- Created in 2000, so its a pretty new font

- Sans Serif Geometric

- A's apex is flat

- All lines end parallel

- K's leg comes off the arm in upper and lowercase version

- Very rounded font

- 1 story g

- The tail of the Q doesn't go below the baseline

- The W looks like two V's next to each other

Molly: Paletino

- Old Face/Humanist

- Designed by Hermand Zapf in 1948

- Based off of handwritten type in the Renaissance

- Serifs at the top are more triangular

- All descenders drop below the baseline

- K's leg meets the arm, but makes a point

Stephanie: Clarendon

- Slab Serif

- Made by Robert Besley in 1845

- 2 story g

- K's leg meets arm

- Horizontal crossbar

- Balls/Circles on several letters

- Horizontal Apex