In my experience, typefaces are either indistinct or invisible to many people so most terms of reference are irrelevant.” “The distinction between the two definitely serves a purpose,” says McNeil, “but only for those who understand what it is – typically people who have trained in graphics, typography or type design. And any potential confusion can usually be cleared up quite easily. As we've mentioned, many people use the terms interchangeably, even when they're aware of the historic difference. Whether the difference in font vs typeface matters in the industry is a different question. With a focus on food branding, Sweet Sneak has crafted lettering out of biscuits, cold meats, pasta and more (Image credit: Sweet Sneak) Font vs typeface: does the difference matter? Ironically, although it irks typographers that people mix up the terms font and typeface, people today actually know far more about type than ever before thanks to their computers. “The book’s editors would not accept this word, probably correctly: typographers can be too myopic.” “Instead I referred to the embodiment of type in metal with the word ‘fount’ in order to be accurate,” he says. When he wrote The Visual History of Type, published by Laurence King in 2017, typographic designer Paul McNeil of MuirMcNeil avoided using the word ‘font’ to describe anything before the digital era. When you click it, you get a list of typefaces to choose from – Arial, Baskerville, Caslon etc – and from there you set the specifics of the font – Medium Italic 16 point, for example. The reason we focus on fonts today is largely as a result of desktop publishing and word processing applications, which have a Font menu. A traditional typesetter might have had a font labelled Times Roman 7pt back in the day, but on your Mac the size isn’t important because your font file will contain all the data needed to change it in an instant. Each letter is completely scalable, based on the same vector formulae. If you have the Helvetica font data installed on your computer, you’ll be able to render the entire typeface. In pure computing terms, there actually isn’t any distinction between a font and a typeface. With the advent of digital typesetting, much of the hot metal terminology was maintained, but the context and the possibilities changed completely. Blocks of text were assembled letter by letter to form a page layout, which was then rolled with ink and pressed onto paper to make prints. In a box containing a specific font were two cases – one for capitals and one for small letters – which is where upper and lower case comes from. Fonts with a common design made up a typeface. Printers cast complete sets of metal letters to make up a font. The word font itself comes from the Middle French 'fonte', meaning cast in metal. The difference between a font and a typeface has its roots in the history of printing. MuirMcNeil’s Cut typeface is a modernist homage to 18th and 19th century typefaces such as Didot (Image credit: MuirMcNeil) If the font is the song, the typeface is the artist. For example, you might love the typeface Futura because of its modernist look, and so the font you used for the captions on your site is Futura Condensed Extra Bold 8 point. Then we refine it down to a specific font by setting its size, weight, style and sometimes the character set such as Roman, Cyrillic or Greek when we use it. We choose a typeface because of its common aesthetic qualities. Usually it doesn’t matter, but when the distinction is important it might help to look at it like this. “For most people these days, the terms ‘font’ and ‘typeface’ are often used interchangeably and most clients probably don’t know the difference either so when we’re presenting directly to them we use simple, straightforward terminology that doesn’t suggest we’re attempting to overcomplicate things.”Īnd he’s right. “It’s probably sacrilege but I’m not sure I’ve ever known the difference,” says Dave Sedgwick, founder of Studio DBD in Manchester. However, in most circumstances even experienced designers alternate between the two and we’re not ashamed to admit that it even happens right here on Creative Bloq.įor most people these days, the terms ‘font’ and ‘typeface’ are often used interchangeably Dave Sedgwick For example, EU law stipulates a minimum size for the text in the nutrition declaration. In the world of packaging, there are consumer protection regulations to adhere to. Studio DBD asked font foundry F37 to create a bespoke typeface for its Foilco rebrand (Image credit: Studio DBD)īrand guidelines (see our favourite example style guides) are another case in point with identity designers choosing typefaces in certain sizes and weights to support the brand aesthetic they want to portray.
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