English 570: Multimedia Design
Fall 2003
Fonts

For a good review on fonts, please see the Robin William’s Non-Designer Design Book.

Background Discussion:

For this class, I want you to remember that there’s Serif, Sans Serif, and Ornate.

Serif: Think of calligraphy where the letters have little “feet” or those extended lines at the end of each end point.

Sans Serif: For those of you who know some French, it’s the same sans. Sans means “without”, so think of it as without feet.

Ornate: Pretty much what you’d imagine. Think of these as the artist-takes-liberties fonts. Notice how small "Aristocrat" 11 pt., is.

For this class, 3 types of font to know and to recognize on your adventures out of class. I also want you to notice how the fonts change the meaning of the words. The meaning of fonts is often cultural, generational, but mostly social. You probably won’t find any legislation printed in “Sand”, or any Boy Scout literature in “Aristocrat” (I think). For the most part we expect certain fonts for certain literature. Start noticing when something is not quite right, or cool, or when you don’t even notice the font.

Your Assignments