Conventional design wisdom can often be a good thing. I love typography ilt fonts, typefaces, the the lettering arts. These fonts are not new in the true sense of the word their history can be traced back almost 200 years. The authors employ their decades of combined experience as art directors to present hundreds of wonderful examples in a. Bembo caslon garamond minion pro baskerville janson sabon. Serif is a small line placed at the top and bottom end of letters stroke. Of course, that just made us all bigger fans of david carson and raygun. I still recommend serif type for books, including glass books, which have basically the same form factor as paper books. These were punchier, bolder incarnations of existing serif styles, and they still give a lovely antiquated feel to titles in contemporary design. Uniquely, these serifs took the world by storm all of a sudden back in the early part of the 19 th century, when more and more typographers and designers began to use them in widespread fashion. Big, bold and sometimes beautiful serif slab fonts sitepoint. The sans model is the youngest model of letterform construction, coming after the serif and slab, and perhaps also the most selfconscious. Garamond, agmena, bodoni are well known as icons of serif font families. Tschichold not only designed typefaces, he showed how they could be used in the design of book printing.
He was a chief designer for penguin books after the second world war. These typefaces have very heavy serifs with minimal or no bracketing. Slab serifs slab serif typefaces became popular in the 19th century for advertising display. May 29, 20 i still recommend serif type for books, including glass books, which have basically the same form factor as paper books. See more ideas about typography, typography fonts and lettering.
There are typefaces with little stroke contrast, e. Fonts resources andrian valeanu january 09, 2015 minutes read the early 1800 saw the birth of the egyptian typeface, technically known as slab serif. Vintage palace theater playbill margaret penney is the managing editor of notes on design. Even if youre an experienced designer, its never a bad time to refresh your memory a little with the structure of serif typefaces, a few recommendations and a little history. Typewriter slab serif typefaces are named for their use in strikeon typewriting. Jul 27, 2015 in todays post i give a brief overview of the main typeface classifications of serif and sans serif fonts that have emerged throughout the history of movable type. Over the past few weeks ive put up posts about old style, modern and slab serif typefaces. Some typography sources refer to sansserif typefaces as grotesque in german, grotesk or gothic, 1 and serif typefaces as roman. A typeface or font family making use of serifs is called a serif typeface or serifed typeface, and a typeface that does not include them is a sansserif one. Newer since 1990 type designs are excellent but do not improve upon the look of the classics.
To many readers, slab serif type styles look like sans serif designs with the simple addition of heavy stroke weight serifs. The anatomy of a thousand typefaces florian schulz medium. May 11, 2018 slab serif typefaces generally have no bracket feature connecting the strokes to the serifs. As the printing of advertising material began to expand in the early nineteenth century, new and notionally more attentiongrabbing letterforms became popular. Almost, all situations can be handled with three good compatible choices. Nadia serif is a tall, thin slab serif font that would look amazing on elegant titles with a softer look, different from other bold slab serif fonts on this list. Courier, also have slab serifs to prevent damage to the type stems during printing. Part of the serif family of typefaces, slab serifs feature those oneofakind feet or little attachments at the ends of the strokes of individual characters in a typeface. This list may not reflect recent changes learn more. The slab serif or egyptian is also home to further subsets of typeface styles, like the fat faces which are fundamentally didones or moderns on steroids. The earliest recorded slab serif typeface for job printers, antiqua. However in a book, legibility or rather readability really is the point. A 1930s version is aptly named girder, a reference to the skyscraper construction wave.
The principal characteristics of these typefaces are very low contrast and rectangular slab serifs. In typography, a slab serif typeface is a type of serif typeface characterized by. For loos, as heller and anderson note in their book on new ornamental type. A typeface or font family making use of serifs is called a serif typeface or serifed typeface, and a typeface that does not include them is a sans serif one. Whether in a magazine article or an advertisement, on a book cover or signage, slab serif often called square serif or egyptian designs, with their geometric. The apostle of sans serif was jan tschichold 2 april 1902 leipzig, germany 11 august 1974 locarno, switzerland, a germanswiss graphic designer. Generally, changes in stroke weight are imperceptible. Once viewed as uncivilized, sans serif typefaces somehow became the. Generally, youll need a legible serif family forbody copy, a basic san serif family for contrast and a. Dec 03, 2019 slab serif fonts can be used for a variety of purposes, ranging from general body text to headlines, to display copy. Fonts resources zolani stewart february 01, 20 6 minutes read. Because of their bold appearance, they are most commonly used in large headlines and advertisements but are seldom used in body text.
Uniquely, these serifs took the world by storm all of a sudden back in the early part of the 19 th century, when more and more typographers and designers began to use them. Slab serif fonts can be used for a variety of purposes, ranging from general body text to headlines, to display copy. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Its a typography variant that has been used widely for digital as well as print purposes, and devices such as amazon kindle even use a slab serif as their default fo. During the early 20 th century especially the 1920s, sans serif became the typeface for its nononsense, utilitarian appeal. These 21 independent typefaces share widths and other metric information so that they can be recombined. These faces feature formatted, fixedwidth, meaning that every. My favorite book text faces, more or less in order.
The upside of all this typographic freedom during the 19th century was the development of slab serif, or egyptian, typefaces. Rockwell is a slab serif typeface designed by the monotype corporation and released in 1934. In this article i will offer a brief overview of the history of roman typefaces. Postersize types began to be developed that were not merely magnified forms of book type, but very different and bolder. Dec, 2016 typewriter slab serif typefaces are named for their use in strikeon typewriting. History of roman typefaces the educational blog quora. Slab serif lettering and typefaces appeared rapidly in the early nineteenth century, having little in common with previous letterforms. It is a widely usable text type suited equally well to advertising, books, publications, and corporate literature where large amounts of reading matter call for distinction and style without sacrificing readability. More about design concept international typography. Here is a survey of seven of the most useful and welldesigned slab serifs. There was a time when slabs were a subset of serif typefaces, but that has changed, and slab fonts refer to almost any style of typeface with super thick stroke weights for all of the letters. The earliest recorded slab serif typeface for job printers, antiqua, was introduced in 1815 by the legendary vincent figgins foundry in london. Because of their bold appearance, they are most commonly used in large headlines and advertisements but.
We love these chunky monkeys and use them regularly for attention seeking headers and when we really, really just need to make a statement. Slab serif typefaces include rockwell and clarendon, among others. The first known example of a slab serif letterform is woodblock lettering on an 1810 lottery advertisement from london. Blackletter aka gothic 1400s theres a whole series of subcategories of blackletter typefaces each with its own characteristics, but theyre all based on the original calligraphic style with tall, narrow letters and sharp angular lines. The slab serif had a lot of visual impact and in a postindustrial world becoming more builtup and crowded, it said look at me at just the right time. Take a modern style typeface, give its thicker strokes even more weight, triangulate some of those serifs, and you have a fat face.
Since being introduced in the nineteenth century, slabs have become ubiquitous and are today as popular as ever. Jun 16, 2016 clarendon text, designed by canadatype, is a contemporary remake of this truly classic slab serif typeface. At the end of the 19 th century, there has been a considerable disuse and unpopularity towards the use of egyptian slab serif. The ibm logo is one of the most famous slab serif marks. Egyptian slate the egyptian slate typeface family is a recent addition to the slate family, both designed by rod mcdonald. Slabs in the clarendon style can bring to mind the old west, while other slabs based on neogrotesque and geometric models can take on a more contemporary feel. Clarendon text, designed by canadatype, is a contemporary remake of this truly classic slab serif typeface. With the abundant availability of slab serif typeface families in digital form, it can be daunting to select just the right one. Thus history has the potential to generate thousands of different unique styles. Slab serif typefaces typography 1 city tech openlab. This answer will be an analysis of the benefits of serifs, as well as reasons for why serif typefaces are used predominantly in print, which concerns history. Samples of serif typefaces typeface name example 1 example 2 example 3 adobe jenson designer.
Pages in category slab serif typefaces the following 25 pages are in this category, out of 25 total. This list of samples of serif typefaces details standard serif fonts used in printing, classical typesetting and printing. These faces feature formatted, fixedwidth, meaning that every character takes up exactly the same amount of. Slab serif type was perhaps first commercially introduced by london typefounder vincent figgins under the name antique, appearing in a typespecimen dated 1815 but probably issued in 1817. Vincent figgins created egyptian, or slab serif the first time a typeface had serifs that were squares or boxes. Slab serif type artfully selects classic examples to present fresh and unexpected typographic ideas, bringing together material from across europe and the united states, from vintage handlettering to iconic company logos. This typeface is distinguished by a serif at the apex of the uppercase a, while the lowercase a has two storeys. Back in typography class, we were taught that the point of typography is legibility. In part six of a brief history of type we move on to the sans serifs, so stay tuned. Mar 11, 2019 the sans model is the youngest model of letterform construction, coming after the serif and slab, and perhaps also the most selfconscious. It was until the 1930s when slab serif would become visible again. Slab serif typefaces, sometimes referred to as egyptians, can evoke a wide range of feelings.
English in the bottom two samples refers to the font size. Nilland it has round and even counters, especially for the letters o, p, q, b, c, d and g. All three of these font categories cover fonts that are described as serif typefaces. To confuse things, the slab serif types were initially called antique. The serifs were often exaggerated so they would not result in simply beautiful letterforms but would be functionally superior to other faces. And conventional wisdom tell us,that even the most complex projects require no more than three typefaces. In 1931, morris fuller benton created the stymie typeface, a reworking of a slab serif type popular in europe at that time.
Some two decades later, a very heavy serifless font appeared under the name that we use today, sans serif, in the vincent figgins specimen book. A brief history of sans serif typefaces by peter bilak typotheque. A document printed in 1836, showing didone body text, italian the word proceedings and early sansserif fonts. The typefaces are blackletter, slab serif and the italian type at the bottom. We have 381 free slabserif fonts to offer for direct downloading 1001 fonts is your favorite site for free fonts since 2001. Traditionally, slab serifs have been used for display text, however, some slab serifs can. Slab serif typefaces generally have no bracket feature connecting the strokes to the serifs.
This was the start of what we now consider sans serif typefaces. Some consider slab serifs to be a subset of modern serif typefaces. While serifs were the first typefaces to evolve after the original blackletters, sans serif typefaces largely came on to the design scene in the early 20th century. Serifs enhance the appearance and readability of the letter thus serif fonts are considered to be more suitable for large bodies of text that the sansserif or script ones. A document printed in 1836, showing didone body text, italian the word proceedings and early sans serif fonts. Theyre sometimes thought of as typewriter fonts but were used much more extensively throughout the 20th century. Some typography sources refer to sans serif typefaces as grotesque in german, grotesk or gothic, 1 and serif typefaces as roman. Top 10 most popular slab serif fonts of 2020 typewolf. Welcome to the early 1800s and the birth of the slab serif, otherwise. Sans serif simple english wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
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