In
typographyTypography is the art and technique of arranging type, type design, and modifying type glyphs. Type glyphs are created and modified using a variety of illustration techniques...
, a
sans-serif or
sans serif typefaceIn typography, a typeface is a set of one or more fonts, in one or more sizes, designed with stylistic unity, each comprising a coordinated set of glyphs. A typeface usually comprises an alphabet of letters, numerals, and punctuation marks; it may also include ideograms and symbols, or consist...
is one that does not have the small features called "
serifIn typography, serifs are semi-structural details on the ends of some of the strokes that make up letters and symbols. A typeface that has serifs is called a serif typeface . A typeface without serifs is called sans-serif, from the French sans, meaning “without”...
s" at the end of strokes. The term comes from the Latin word
sans, meaning "without".
In print, sans-serif fonts are more typically used for headlines than for body text. The conventional wisdom holds that serifs help guide the eye along the lines in large blocks of text.
 |
Sans-serif font |
 |
Serif font |
 |
Serif font
(serifs in red) |
In
typographyTypography is the art and technique of arranging type, type design, and modifying type glyphs. Type glyphs are created and modified using a variety of illustration techniques...
, a
sans-serif or
sans serif typefaceIn typography, a typeface is a set of one or more fonts, in one or more sizes, designed with stylistic unity, each comprising a coordinated set of glyphs. A typeface usually comprises an alphabet of letters, numerals, and punctuation marks; it may also include ideograms and symbols, or consist...
is one that does not have the small features called "
serifIn typography, serifs are semi-structural details on the ends of some of the strokes that make up letters and symbols. A typeface that has serifs is called a serif typeface . A typeface without serifs is called sans-serif, from the French sans, meaning “without”...
s" at the end of strokes. The term comes from the Latin word
sans, meaning "without".
In print, sans-serif fonts are more typically used for headlines than for body text. The conventional wisdom holds that serifs help guide the eye along the lines in large blocks of text. Sans-serifs, however, have acquired considerable acceptance for body text in
EuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus Mountains , and the Black Sea to the southeast...
.
Sans-serif fonts have become the
de factoDe facto is a Latin expression that means "by [the] fact". In law, it is meant to mean "in practice but not necessarily ordained by law" or "in practice or actuality, but without being officially established"...
standard for body text on-screen, especially online. This is partly because interlaced displays may show twittering on the fine details of the horizontal serifs. Additionally, the low resolution of digital displays in general can make fine details like serifs disappear or appear too large.
Before the term “sans-serif” became standard in English typography, a number of other terms had been used. One of these outmoded terms for sans serif was gothic, which is still used in East Asian typography and sometimes seen in font names like
Century GothicCentury Gothic is a geometric sans-serif typeface designed for Monotype Imaging in 1991. Century Gothic takes inspiration from Sol Hess's Twentieth Century, which was drawn between 1937 and 1947 for the Lanston Monotype Company as a version of the successful Futura typeface, but with a larger...
.
Sans-serif fonts are sometimes, especially in older documents, used as a device for
emphasisIn typography, emphasis is the exaggeration of words in a text with a font in a different style from the rest of the text—to emphasize them.-Methods and use of emphasis:...
, due to their typically blacker
type colorIn typography, type color refers to the weight or boldness of a typeface and is used by designers and typographers to describe the visual tone of a mass of text on a page. The type color of a particular typeface affects the amount of ink on the page, also known as its blackness...
.
Ancient usages
Sans-serif letter forms can be found in Latin,
EtruscanThe Etruscan language was spoken and written by the Etruscan civilization in the ancient region of Etruria and in parts of Lombardy, Veneto, and Emilia-Romagna , in Italy...
, and Greek inscriptions, for as early as 5th century BC. The sans serif forms had been used on
stoichedonThe stoichedon style of epigraphy was the practice of engraving ancient Greek inscriptions in capitals such that the letters were aligned vertically as well as horizontally. Texts of this form give the appearance of being composed in a grid with the same number of letters in each line and each...
Greek inscriptions.
Non-Latin types
The first known usage of Etruscan sans-serif foundry types was from
Thomas DempsterThomas Dempster was a Scottish scholar and historian. Born into the aristocracy in Aberdeenshire, which comprises regions of both the Scottish highlands and the Scottish lowlands, he was sent abroad as a youth for his education. The Dempsters were Catholic in an increasingly Protestant country and...
's
De Etruria regali libri VII (1723). Later at about 1745, Caslon foundry made its the first sans-serif types for Etruscan languages, which was used by University Press, Oxford, for pamphlets written by Etruscan scholar
John SwintonJohn Swinton was a British writer, Fellow of the Royal Society, Church of England clergyman and orientalist. In 1731 he was a fellow of Wadham College, Oxford, but migrated to Christ Church in 1745. He contributed to George Sale's Universal History. Swinton also contributed articles on the...
.
Revival of Latin characters
According to James Mosley's
TypographicaTypographica was the name of a journal of typography and visual arts founded and edited by Herbert Spencer from 1949 to 1967. Spencer was just 25 years old when the first Typographica was issued....
journal titled
The Nymph and the Grot: the revival of the sanserif letter, the sans serif letters had appeared as early as 1748, as an inscription of Nymph in the Grotto in
StourheadStourhead is a 2,650 acre estate at the source of the River Stour near Mere, Wiltshire, England. The estate includes a Palladian mansion, the village of Stourton, gardens, farmland, and woodland...
. However, it was classified as an experiment rather than a sign of wide-scale adoption.
In late 18th century,
NeoclassicismNeoclassicism is the name given to quite distinct movements in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that draw upon Western classical art and culture...
movement led to architects to increasingly incorporating ancient Greek and Roman designs in contemporary structures. Among the architects,
John SoaneSir John Soane, RA was an English architect who specialised in the Neo-Classical style. His architectural works are distinguished by their clean lines, massing of simple form, decisive detailing, careful proportions and skilful use of light sources...
was noted for using sans serif letters on his drawings and architectural designs, which were eventually adopted by other designers, such as
Thomas BanksThomas Banks , English sculptor, son of a surveyor who was land steward to the Duke of Beaufort, was born in London. He was taught drawing by his father, and in 1750 was apprenticed to a woodcarver. In his spare time he worked at sculpture, spending his evenings in the studio of the Flemish émigré...
,
John FlaxmanJohn Flaxman , was an English sculptor and draughtsman.-Early life:He was born in York. His father was also named John, after an ancestor who, according to family tradition, had fought for Parliament at the Battle of Naseby, and afterwards settled as a carrier or farmer in Buckinghamshire...
.
Sans-serif letters began to appear in printed media as early as 1805, in
European Magazine. However, early 19th-century commercial sign writers and engravers had modified the sans-serif styles of neoclassical designers to include uneven stroke weights found in serif Roman fonts, producing sans-serif letters.
In 1816, the
Ordnance SurveyOrdnance Survey is an executive agency of the United Kingdom government. It is the national mapping agency for Great Britain, and one of the world's largest producers of maps...
began to use 'Egyptian' type, which was printed using copper plate engraving of monoline sans-serif capital letters, to name ancient Roman sites.
Incorporation by typefounders
In 1786, a rounded sans-serif font was developed by
Valentin HaüyValentin Haüy was the founder of the first school for the blind. His brother, René Just Haüy, is considered a founder of modern mineralogy....
, first appeared in the book titled "Essai sur l'éducation des aveugles" (
An Essay on the Education of the Blind). The purpose of this font was to be invisible and address accessibility. It was designed to emboss paper and allow the blind to read with their fingers. The design was eventually known as
Haüy type.
In 1816, William Caslon IV produced the first sans-serif printing type in England for Latin characters under the title 'Two Lines English Egyptian', where 'Two Lines English' referred to the font's body size, which equals to about 28 points. Originally cut in 1812.
The term
Sans-serif was first employed in 1830 by Figgins foundry.
In 1832, Thorowgood of Fann Street Foundry introduced Grotesque, which include the first commercial Latin printing type to include lowercase sans-serif letters.
Other names for sans-serif
- Egyptian: The term was first used by Joseph Farington
Joseph Farington was an eighteenth-century English landscape painter and diarist.Born in Leigh, Lancashire, Farington was the second of seven sons of William Farington and Esther Gilbody. His father was the rector of Warrington and vicar of Leigh...
after seeing the sans serif inscription on John Flaxman's memorial to Isaac Hawkins Brown in 1805, though today the term is commonly used to refer to slab serif, not sans serif.
- Antique: In about 1817, the Figgins foundry in London made a type with square or slab-serifs which it called 'Antique', and that name was adopted by most of the British and US typefounders. An exception was the typefounder Thorne, who confused things by marketing his Antique under the name 'Egyptian'. In France it became Egyptienne, and to worsen the confusion, the French called sans-serif type 'Antique'. Some fonts, such as Antique Olive, still carry the name.
- Grotesque: It was originally coined by William Thorowgood of Fann Street Foundry, the first person to produce a sans-serif type with lower case, in 1832. The name came from the Italian word 'grottesco', meaning 'belonging to the cave'. In Germany, the name became Grotesk. German typefounders adopted the term from the nomenclature of Fann Street Foundry, which took on the meaning of cave (or grotto) art. Nevertheless, some explained the term was derived from the surprising response from the typographers.
- Doric: It was the term first used by H. W. Caslon Foundry in Chiswell Street in 1870 to describe various sans-serif font at a time the generic name 'sans-serif' was commonly accepted. Eventually the foundry used Sans-serif in 1906. At that time, Doric referred to a certain kind of stressed sans-serif types.
- Gothic: Not to be confused with blackletter
Blackletter, also known as Gothic script or Gothic minuscule, was a script used throughout Western Europe from approximately 1150 to 1500. It continued to be used for the German language until the 20th century. Fraktur is a notable script of this type, and sometimes the entire group of faces is...
typeface, the term was used mainly by American type founders. The term probably derived from the architectural definition, which is neither Greek or Roman; and from the extended adjective term of 'Germany', which was the place where sans-serif typefaces became popular in 19th to 20th century. Early adopters for the term includes Miller & Richard (1963), J. & R. M. Wood (1865), Lothian, Conner, Bruce McKellar. Although the usage is now rare in the English-speaking world, the term is commonly used in Japan and South Korea.
- Heiti (Chinese: ): Literally meaning 'black type', the term probably derived from the mistranslation of Gothic as blackletter typeface, even though actual blackletter fonts have serifs.
- Lineale, or Linear: The term was defined by typographic historian Maximilien Vox
Maximilien Vox was a French writer, cartoonist, illustrator, publisher, journalist, critic art theorist and historian of the French letter and typography. He was born on 16 December 1894 in Condé-sur-Noireau and died on 18 December 1974 in Lurs where he is buried. He created the VOX-ATypI...
in the VOX-ATypI classificationIn typography, the Vox-ATypI classification makes it possible to classify typefaces in eleven general classes. Devised by Maximilien Vox in 1954, it was adopted in 1962 by the Association Typographique Internationale and in 1967 as a British Standard, as British Standards Classification of...
to describe sans-serif types. Later, in British StandardsBritish Standards are produced by BSI Group which is incorporated under a Royal Charter and is formally designated as the National Standards Body for the UK...
Classification of Typefaces (BS 2961:1967), lineale replaced sans-serif as classification name.
- Simplices: In Jean Alessandrini's désignations préliminaries (preliminary designations), simplices (plain typefaces) is used to describe sans-serif on the basis that the name 'lineal' refers to lines, whereas, in reality, all typefaces are made of lines, including those that are not lineals.
Classification
For the purposes of type classification sans-serif designs broadly divide into four major groups:
- Grotesque, early sans-serif designs, such as Grotesque, Helvetica
Helvetica is a widely used sans-serif typeface developed in 1957 by Swiss typeface designer Max Miedinger and Eduard Hoffmann.-History:Helvetica was developed in 1957 by Max Miedinger with Eduard Hoffmann at the Haas'sche Schriftgiesserei of Münchenstein, Switzerland...
, UniversUnivers is the name of a realist sans-serif typeface designed by Adrian Frutiger in 1954.Originally conceived and released by Deberny & Peignot in 1957, the type library was acquired in 1972 by Haas. Haas'sche Schriftgiesserei was later folded into the D...
, Akzidenz GroteskAkzidenz-Grotesk is a realist sans-serif typeface originally released by the H. Berthold AG type foundry in 1896 under the title Accidenz-Grotesk. It was the first sans serif typeface to be widely used and influenced many later neo-grotesque typefaces...
, Franklin GothicFranklin Gothic is a realist sans-serif typeface designed by Morris Fuller Benton in 1902. The typeface is one of over 200 typefaces designed by Benton. There is an assumption that this typeface was named after Benjamin Franklin...
and Royal Gothic.
- Neo-grotesque or Transitional or Realist, modern designs such as Standard, Bell Centennial
Bell Centennial is a sans-serif typeface designed by Matthew Carter in the period 1975–1978. The typeface was commissioned by AT&T as a proprietary type to replace their then current directory typeface Bell Gothic on the occasion of AT&T's one hundredth anniversary...
, MS Sans SerifMS Sans Serif is a proportional raster font introduced in Windows 1.x as "Helv". It changed to its current name starting with Windows 3.1. It is the default system font on Windows 3.1, Windows 95, Windows NT 4.0, Windows 98, Windows 98SE, and Windows ME. Starting from Windows 2000, the default...
, Highway Gothic, and ArialArial, sometimes marketed as Arial MT, is a sans-serif typeface and computer font packaged with Microsoft Windows, other Microsoft software applications, Apple Mac OS X, Openoffice.org, and many PostScript computer printers. The typeface was designed in 1982 by Robin Nicholas and Patricia Saunders...
. These are the most common sans-serif fonts. They are relatively straight in appearance and have less line width variation than Humanist sans-serif typefaces. Transitional sans-serif is sometimes called "anonymous sans-serif" due to its relatively plain appearance.
- Humanist (Calibri
Calibri is a humanist sans-serif typeface family under the Microsoft ClearType Font Collection.In Microsoft Office 2007, it replaced Times New Roman as the default typeface in Word and replaced Arial as the default in PowerPoint, Excel and Outlook....
, JohnstonJohnston is a humanist sans-serif typeface designed by and named after Edward Johnston. The capitals of the typeface are based on Roman square capitals, and the lower-case on the humanistic minuscule, the handwriting in use in Italy in the fifteenth century...
, Lucida GrandeLucida Grande is a humanist sans-serif typeface included with the Mac OS X operating system. It is a member of the Lucida family of typefaces designed by Charles Bigelow and Kris Holmes...
, Segoe UISegoe is a series of typefaces named after Segoe Road in Madison, Wisconsin, where one of Monotype's engineers lived. The Segoe name, although originally registered to Monotype, is a registered trademark of the Microsoft Corporation.- History :...
, Gill SansGill Sans is a humanist sans-serif typeface designed by Eric Gill.The original design appeared in 1926 when Douglas Cleverdon opened his own bookshop in his home town of Bristol, where Eric Gill painted the fascia over the window in sans-serif capitals that would be later be known as Gill Sans...
, MyriadMyriad is a humanist sans-serif typeface designed by Robert Slimbach and Carol Twombly for Adobe Systems.Myriad is easily recognized due to its special "y" descender , slanting "e" cut, and rounded curves.-Myriad MM:...
, FrutigerFrutiger is a series of typefaces named after its designer, Adrian Frutiger. Initially available as a sans serif, it was later expanded to include ornamental and serif typefaces.-Frutiger:...
, Trebuchet MSTrebuchet MS is a humanist sans-serif typeface designed by Vincent Connare for the Microsoft Corporation in 1996. It is named after the trebuchet, a medieval siege engine. The name was inspired by a puzzle question that Vincent Connare heard within Microsoft headquarters...
, TahomaTahoma is a humanist sans-serif typeface designed by Matthew Carter for the Microsoft Corporation in 1994 with initial distribution along with Verdana for Windows 95....
, VerdanaVerdana is a humanist sans-serif typeface designed by Matthew Carter for Microsoft Corporation, with hand-hinting done by Tom Rickner, then at Monotype. Demand for such a typeface was recognized by Virginia Howlett of Microsoft's typography group...
and OptimaOptima is a humanist sans-serif typeface designed by Hermann Zapf between 1952-1955 for the D. Stempel AG foundry, Frankfurt, Germany.-Characteristics:...
, a.k.a. Zapf Humanist). These are the most calligraphic of the sans-serif typefaces, with some variation in line width and more legibility than other sans-serif fonts.
- Geometric (Futura
Futura is a geometric sans-serif typeface designed between 1924 and 1926 by Paul Renner. It is based on geometric shapes that became representative visual elements of the Bauhaus design style of 1919–1933. Commissioned by the Bauer type foundry, Futura was commercially released in 1927.The family...
, ITC Avant GardeITC Avant Garde Gothic is a font family based on the logo font used in the Avant Garde Magazine. Herb Lubalin devised the logo concept and its companion headline typeface, then he and Tom Carnase, a partner in Lubalin's design firm, worked together to transform the idea into a full-fledged...
, Century GothicCentury Gothic is a geometric sans-serif typeface designed for Monotype Imaging in 1991. Century Gothic takes inspiration from Sol Hess's Twentieth Century, which was drawn between 1937 and 1947 for the Lanston Monotype Company as a version of the successful Futura typeface, but with a larger...
, GothamGotham is a family of geometric sans serif typefaces designed by American type designer Tobias Frere-Jones in 2000. Gotham's letterforms are inspired by a form of architectural signage that achieved popularity in the mid-twentieth century, and are especially popular throughout New York City.Since...
, or Spartan). As their name suggests, Geometric sans-serif typefaces are based on geometric shapes. Note the optically circular letter "O" and the simple construction of the lowercase letter "a". Geometric sans-serif fonts have a very modern look and feel. Of these four categories, geometric fonts tend to be the least useful for body text.
Note that in some sans-serif fonts, such as Arial, the capital-i and lowercase-L appear identical. Verdana, however, keeps them distinct because Verdana's capital-i, as an exception,
has serifs. Other fonts may have two horizontal bars on the capital-i, a curved tail on the lowercase-L, or both.
British Standards classification
In British Standards Classification of Typefaces (BS 2961:1967), the following are defined:
- Grotesque: Lineale typefaces with 19th century origins. There is some contrast in thickness of strokes. They have squareness of curve, and curling close-set jaws. The R usually has a curled leg and the G is spurred. The ends of the curved strokes are usually horizontal. Examples include Stephenson Blake
Stephenson Blake is a British Type foundry, based in Sheffield, England. Active from the 19th century until the 1990s, it remained the last active typefoundry in Britain...
Grotesque No. 6, Condensed Sans No. 7, Monotype Headline Bold.
- Neo-grotesque: Lineale typefaces derived from the grotesque. They have less stroke contrast and are more regular in design. The jaws are more open than in the true grotesque and the g is often open-tailed. The ends of the curved strokes are usually oblique. Examples include Edel/Wotan, Univers
Univers is the name of a realist sans-serif typeface designed by Adrian Frutiger in 1954.Originally conceived and released by Deberny & Peignot in 1957, the type library was acquired in 1972 by Haas. Haas'sche Schriftgiesserei was later folded into the D...
, HelveticaHelvetica is a widely used sans-serif typeface developed in 1957 by Swiss typeface designer Max Miedinger and Eduard Hoffmann.-History:Helvetica was developed in 1957 by Max Miedinger with Eduard Hoffmann at the Haas'sche Schriftgiesserei of Münchenstein, Switzerland...
.
- Geometric: Lineale typefaces constructed on simple geometric shapes, circle or rectangle. Usually monoline, and often with single-storey a. Examples include Futura
Futura is a geometric sans-serif typeface designed between 1924 and 1926 by Paul Renner. It is based on geometric shapes that became representative visual elements of the Bauhaus design style of 1919–1933. Commissioned by the Bauer type foundry, Futura was commercially released in 1927.The family...
, Erbar, EurostileEurostile is a geometric sans-serif typeface designed by Aldo Novarese in 1962. Novarese originally made Eurostile for one of the best-known Italian foundries, Nebiolo, in Turin....
.
- Humanist: Lineale typefaces based on the proportions of inscriptional Roman capitals and Humanist or Garalde lower-case, rather than on early grotesques. They have some stroke contrast, with two-storey a and g. Examples include Optima
Optima is a humanist sans-serif typeface designed by Hermann Zapf between 1952-1955 for the D. Stempel AG foundry, Frankfurt, Germany.-Characteristics:...
, Gill SansGill Sans is a humanist sans-serif typeface designed by Eric Gill.The original design appeared in 1926 when Douglas Cleverdon opened his own bookshop in his home town of Bristol, where Eric Gill painted the fascia over the window in sans-serif capitals that would be later be known as Gill Sans...
, Pascal.
See also
- List of Sans Serif typefaces
- Serif
In typography, serifs are semi-structural details on the ends of some of the strokes that make up letters and symbols. A typeface that has serifs is called a serif typeface . A typeface without serifs is called sans-serif, from the French sans, meaning “without”...
- Roman type
In Typography, "roman" type has two principal meanings, both stemming from the stylistic origin of text typefaces from inscriptional capitals used in ancient Rome:* one of the major families of traditional typefaces as a synonym for serif or antiqua fonts....
- Italic type
In typography, italic type refers to cursive typefaces based on a stylized form of calligraphic handwriting. The influence from calligraphy can be seen in their usual slight slanting to the right. Different glyph shapes from roman type are also usually used—another influence from calligraphy...
- Monospace
Monospace may refer to:In typography* Monospaced font, any fixed-width typefaces whose glyphs have the same width* Monospace , the name of a Unicode font which carries said characteristicOther...
- Emphasis (typography)
In typography, emphasis is the exaggeration of words in a text with a font in a different style from the rest of the text—to emphasize them.-Methods and use of emphasis:...
- The British literary spoof
A parody , in contemporary usage, is a work created to mock, comment on, or poke fun at an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitation...
island San SerriffeSan Serriffe is a fictional island nation created for April Fools' Day, 1977, by Britain's Guardian newspaper. An elaborate description of the nation, using puns and plays on words relating to typography , was reported as legitimate news, apparently fooling many readers...
- Will Eisner
William Erwin Eisner was an acclaimed Jewish-American comics writer, artist and entrepreneur. He is considered one of the most important contributors to the development of the medium and is known for the cartooning studio he founded; for his highly influential series The Spirit; for his use of...
's comic The SpiritThe Spirit is a crime-fighting fictional character created by writer-artist Will Eisner. He first appeared in Spirit Section #1 , a seven-page insert into American Sunday-newspaper comics sections...
featured a female character named Sand Saref, clearly a pun on the type style.
External links