Since the majority of written words are now produced in one digital form or another, fonts and typefaces have become much more important than they used to be. And to the chagrin of graphic designers and generally nerdy people everywhere, those terms are often used interchangeably.
It doesn’t help that the technical terms for these tools, which first originated in the world of conventional paper publishing and printing presses, have been somewhat confused in the world of digital design and publishing. Let’s set the record straight, shall we?
Typeface: The Name of the Stylized Glyphs
The word “typeface” historically refers specifically to the shape and style of the letters, organized into a set based on the alphabet, numbers, and punctuation needed to completely express language. So, the collection of letter shapes that we know of as “Arial” or “Times New Roman” is called a typeface.
Font: The Specific Tool (or File) That Contains a Typeface
In the original, movable type publishing sense, a “font” was a collection of metal casts that contained letters and symbols in specific sizes—all based on the design of the typeface. To be even more precise, a specific font was a collection of glyphs in a specific size and weight (bold, italic, etc). So, the metal casts for “Times New Roman, size 12, regular” would be a different font than “Times New Roman, size 20, bold,” and the typesetter would select them as needed for specific parts of a page.
Modern printing and digital publishing doesn’t use these huge, complex collections of movable casts, but the word “font” still refers to the specific mechanism that contains those glyphs.
For any kind of digital writing or publishing, the “font” is the file that contains the typeface, just like the original collection of metal casts. Things are a little more streamlined now—a single font can be sized up or down by publishing software so there’s no need for multiple files…The post What’s the Difference Between a Font, a Typeface, and a Font Family? appeared first on FeedBox.