Different types of fonts

Question

First, my apologies if this question has been asked before. I did search here but found nothing and the almighty google was more than confusing (I mean the websites I got from the search).

So I was reading two documents on typography and each classifies font types in completely different categories.

• One document says we have : serif, sans serif, text, script, display and dingbats.
• The other document says we have : roman, egyptian, sans serif, script and miscellaneous (to attract attention).

I went over different websites and each seems to "make up" their own categories (like slab serif).

So is there a standard way of categorizing fonts or every one is free to invent his/her own categories?

Answer 1

Typefaces are a fairly rich area of creative evolution so there are a lot of different facets to them that can be described in a lot of ways.

The categories you give overlap each other, even within the same document. For example, a display typeface can also be serif or sans-serif. So they aren't all divided up into mutually exclusive categories; a typeface can belong to multiple categories based on its features.

Roughly put

• Serif/sans-serif refer to the presence or absense of serifs.
• Script typefaces are based on calligraphy (but usually not including blackletter, which is in a specific category of its own).
• Display/book refers to whether the typeface is intended for large short words like posters and logos, or lengthy body text such as in a book. Not every typeface is one or the other, though.
• Roman is often used to describe traditional/transitional serif typefaces that aren't italics.
• Egyptian has been used in a couple of different ways; sometimes to describe a "slab serif" and at other times it's even been used to describe sans-serif.

There are also lots of other terms such as

• Grotesque, grotesk and gothic have been used as alternative terms for sans-serif.
• Blackletter is a specific type of hand-lettering very popular before the printing press. Sometimes also called gothic script (not to be confused with either gothic or script).
• Italics are slanted forms of typefaces with some changes made to look more like hand-lettered text (that is a pretty basic, and inelegant, description).

and many more.

I'd probably generally group fonts into serif, sans-serif, script, and other (and possibly blackletter). Other may include stuff like this.

Answer 2

When it gets down to the really useful classifications, no there isn't consensus. The agreed upon categories are very broad and even there consensus is tentative.

Broadly accepted categories include Garalde, Venetian, Transitional, Scotch Roman, Slab or Egyptian, Modern, Clarendon, Grotesque, Humanist, Script, Blackletter, Fraktur, Inscriptional. There are countless variations within the realm of type used for display.

If you're really interested in this topic, checkout Robert Bringhurst's Elements of Typographic Style. He has an interesting historical model that makes good sense.