The difference between a font and a typeface. Is there one?

[Member Joh…]

megax:Very simply put: A typeface is a set of one or more fonts.
Typeface = Parent;
Font = Child;

Nope, that doesn't work, because a ‘set of fonts’ may also imply a typeface family, which consists of more than one typeface, e.g. Time Roman, Times Italic, Times Bold, etc., all of which are separate typefaces. The best way to understand the distinction between typeface and font is not to try to define a relationship between the two -- e.g. parent and child --, but to realise that the distinction is meaningful precisely because the relationship is multivalent. And it is multivalent because of the variety of font technologies and how those technologies embody typefaces. For instance, a single typeface might be embodied in a single font (typically the case for OT fonts), but it might also be embodied in muliple fonts (as was the case with many typefaces in Type 1 format, requiring separate fonts for ligatures etc.), or multiple typefaces might be embodied in a single font (as is the case with individual Asian fonts containing both roman and italic Latin companions).

[Member Nac…]

I would agree with John's comments.

@ photosynthesize - Was there a specific instance in which you were confused on what term to use? Or was this just a general question to the typeaholics at large?

Looking forward to seeing those survey results Thomas.

[Member Nac…]

Sorry about the double post.

[Member Don…]

> Times Roman, Times Italic, Times Bold, etc., all of which are separate typefaces

No they aren't. They are all members of the Times typeface. They are separate fonts. (And at one time each size of them would be a separate font.)

[Member Chr…]

Tracking

[Member Joh…]

Sorry, Don, but there has been consistent use of the term typeface in a way that distinguishes between major styles, weights and widths. Historically, the reason for this is obvious, because the idea of marketing e.g. roman and italic typefaces under a single name is a relatively recent phenomenon. Even as late as the 1930s, Eric Gill conceived his roman (Perpetua) and italic (Felicity) under separate names. It is also worth noting that some typefaces were independently conceived and only later, and sometimes erroneously, associated, e.g. the pairings of Garamond romans with Granjon italics.

We have a separate term -- typeface family -- to refer to a collection of separate-but-related typefaces under a single name.

[Member Nic…]

Are Bodoni and Garamond typefaces?

[Member wil…]

They must be typefaces, Nick, for we often see colophons that tell us books have been set in "Bodoni" or "Garamond."

But maybe there is more than one kind of Garamond, for sometimes we see colophons that tell us a book has been set in "A Garamond." This leads me to believe there must be more than one type named Garamond, but I still don't know which of those possible Garamonds. This is all very confusing.

Still more confusing are some of the other (often strange) words appended to typeface names. I see colophons that mention "ITC" or "Monotype" or "Linotype" Baskerville, for instance. And what is this "Adobe" I see with typefaces names? Is that stuff not mud and straw and ox blood?

Maybe someone can help clear this up for me. Good night.

powers

[Member meh…]

Oh, c'mon, Bodoni and Garamond were people. ;)

But what I tell my students is the metal type definition (see above) and then relate that 'font' is a cool sounding word that we now apply to the whole thing.

I even know someone who will refer to the plural, fonts, as font. Like: "I use a lot of font."

And I don't have the heart to correct her. Anymore. She wasn't listening. Hell, it might catch on eventually.

"I make font."

"I use font."

"Font: gooood."

Then I point out: right now there really is no master committee that oversees all this, so like the English language, "font" is now a funky term that everyone knows, is used to sell a product; but at this point, who knows what it really, really is ... today.

(if we actually knew, there wouldn't be so many posts on this page)

So ...

This is bugging me:

Anyone have any idea what the term "logo" means these days??

[Member Tho…]

I'll say this much about my survey results: I believe each of the statements below, made in this thread, would get a bit over half of all respondents agreeing.

Goran (in post #2): Font = Software, Typeface = Letters

Metalfoot (in post #5): The typeface is the design and the font is the means of reproducing that design.

megax (in post #12): A typeface is a set of one or more fonts. Typeface = Parent; Font = Child.

Cheers,

T

[Member Mar…]

Even though, in my mind, there is a difference, I think Steve (mehallo) makes a good point. Words derive meaning from the way they are used, not from what people say they mean (or should mean).

[Member Ric…]

This issue is also discussed in Font or Typeface?, on The FontFeed.

And Allan Haley has his say on the matter in "They're Not Fonts!", on AIGA's website.

[Member Ric…]

Words derive meaning from the way they are used, not from what people say they mean (or should mean).

Yeah, that's true. The way the word "font" was used in the days of lead type has changed because the technology (and the access to that technology) has changed.

[Member sat…]

Font is no longer size-specific, but still refers to a single style. Bulmer regular, Bulmer italic, Bulmer bold and Bulmer bold italic are four fonts, but one typeface.

[Member sat…]

Wikipedia says that font has now become a metonym for typeface. It's great people here are trying to prevent that. Metonymy (IPA: /mɨˈtɒnɨmi/) (from the Greek: μετωνυμία, metōnymía, "a change of name", a suffix used to name figures of speech, "name") is a figure of speech used in rhetoric in which a thing or concept is not called by its own name, but by the name of something intimately associated with that thing or concept.

[Member Tho…]

Wikipedia is wrong on this. That may be the trend, but we're not *quite* there yet. At least, not among graphic designers. Maybe among the general public.

T

[Member sat…]

I completely agree! That's why i said it's really great that people here are trying to prevent that from happening

[Member Fee…]

When I'm talking to other designers I use the word "type," when talking to non-designers I say "fonts."

They are the same thing to 99% of the population, who has no need to make a distinction because their only dealing with fonts/type is in Microsoft Word.

Of course the distinction is an extremely important one to explain in design education, because talking about the aesthetic properties of a typeface is an entirely different conversation from the technical aspects of font production.

[Member Tho…]

I’ve really been cranking on the survey analysis write-up late tonight (instead of, say, hanging out with Paul Hunt who has been good enough to put me up for three nights in San Jose). But I’m *still* not done, and I need to get some sleep now. pfeh. Even if Tiffany isn’t free for brunch tomorrow, I don’t think I can get it done before my flight. Bah, humbug!

But mmm, sleep.

T

[Member enn…]

[Some of this repeats things already mentioned above. Following is my take.]

Like the term 'leading', 'typeface' and 'font' evoke the metal era.

A typeface was what was cut by the punchcutter, and a font or 'fount' was what was poured by the foundry. What was cut made up a cohesive set, and what was poured filled an order. In other words, the font was the deliverable, but what's on the face of the deliverable is what was categorized and named.

Punchcutters cut typical representatives of conventional or iconic letterforms. Hence the term 'type.' They cut them more or less according to a pattern, and as a set. The typeface is the 'cut set' originating in a specific time and place. It can be added to at a later date.

The cut set could include an italic and small caps. So that typeface encapsulates a roman, an italic and small caps. Another typeface might not. The italic, roman and small caps would be deliverable as separate fonts.

In the digital era a font became a deliverable item in a font-suitcase, and a typeface became what is digitally 'graphed.' As a design, for instance, the typeface univers has many weights and widths, as well as obliques; a full font suitcase contains a document for each of these. Some users will have univers but only as a selection of these fonts.

[Member ton…]

Well said enne_son, it's nice to know that not everyone has forgotten what type really used to be.

In my letterpress classes (and by my old-school design adviser) we were taught that a typeface is Helvetica and a font is Helvetica Bold (or italic, or whatever) and that point size usually didn't figure into the nomenclature, but I think that is mostly due to the digital age where point size is easily changed, and isn't a matter of going and finding the 35 pound drawer of type in a different size. I think all graphic designers should be required to take a letterpress class. It's one thing to say you get what leading is, it's another to hold a 10pt. lead in your hand and find out first hand why capital letters get called "upper case" and to smell the ink and... I'm getting all sentimental here.

Next all of us young designers can take a compositing class and find out why the white space around your InDesign document is called the pasteboard...

[Member meh…]

I know what a pasteboard is!

(used to be a damn good paste up artist too; doesn't come in handy much anymore) :(

[Member phr…]

I miss the old paste up days. The rush that comes from 5pm deadlines and its 4:30. Stripping and re-using ancient paste boards because the boss is too cheap to buy anything new. The smell of hot wax and pizza on those all nighters. And, barely dry PMTs and wax, that was good too. Clip art that was actually clipped.

I'm too old for that crap.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

...from the Fontry

[Member wil…]

Here's an OLD GUY checking in, phrostbyte.

When I was a young guy, daily working in letterpress book printing shops and in a Monotype house a "font" was a wrapped-up package of, say, 12-point Garamont. Another font would contain 12-point Garamont italic. Another would have 12-point Garamont small caps. Three other fonts would have those same typefaces, but in 11-point. And so forth.

The typeface was Garamont or Garamont italic or Garamont small caps. I disagree with enne_son that a typeface "encapsulates" roman, ital, and smalls. To the compositor on the floor, assembling a book or an ad, or to the guy who ties and wraps the fonts, the roman, the ital, and the smalls are different typefaces.

Yet it is indeed possible to speak of Garamont as a typeface in a more general sense, as in "That beautiful book is set in Garamont." A more thorough description of the book might note that three typefaces (rom, ital, and smalls) had been used, each in several sizes.

Nowadays, sitting in front of a computer, a font is the digital data that allows me to see a typeface on a screen or to allow that typeface to be printed on paper. MyFonts describes LTC Garamont as "a font family of 12 fonts."

The typeface is what I see on that screen or on that sheet of paper or on a tee shirt, etc.

B U T : This may be an issue on which we must agree to disagree. Just in this short thread there are quite a few differences between font and typeface, based on good thought and experience. And then there is the wider world's use of "font" to describe everything from printed typefaces to the words "I love Cheryl" scratched in the oceanside sand with a pointed stick.

powers

[Member enn…]

Will, I said: "The cut set could include an italic and small caps. So that typeface encapsulates a roman, an italic and small caps [my emphasis; gloss: meaning that particular]. Another typeface might not. [emphasis added]" I think 'typeface' is a plastic term -- it had and has an elastic use. I like to tie it to a deliberately cohesive set of punches cut at a particular time and place.

I suppose my post was as much a proposal as a description of actual or conventional use. ITC Garamond Italic can be the italic sorts in the ITC Garamond face. An added complication of course is that garamond became a generic name for a class of typefaces.