Typeface vs Font, what’s the difference?

The words “Typeface” and the word “Font” are often used incorrectly by many people, even in articles or on famous websites. It is still found that the two words are misused. This article explains the meanings and differences between them, and where they came from. Let’s see if you’re using these two words correctly?

Typeface vs Font

The typeface is the type of font. designed or invented by The “typography designer” is that each typeface has a different shape, while the font is just a “form” or “style” of the typeface. For example, “Helvetica Bold Condensed Italic” is a different font from “Helvetica Condensed Italic” and “Helvetica Bold Condensed”, but all three fonts are considered to be in the same typeface, “Helvetica”.  Simply put, a typeface is a group of different fonts that have the same design but are different in terms of design. “Thickness (font-weight),” “width (font-stretch)” and “tilt (font-style)”.

Origin of the word “Font”

Many people may wonder why this is the case. Some people may have always understood that a font is a type of font (Typeface). If you want to recover, you need to study its origin. “font” comes from the word “fount” which means “thing that has been forged” in the past. To print a letter on something, you will need a “printer”, which is usually made of metal that is melted into a mold. which means If we want to be bold, wide, italic, or even larger. We need to create a new type of “typeface” to accommodate that particular type of font, and this leads us to call the “format” of different fonts “font”. which changed from the metal era to the digital era, the font size can be easily increased or decreased. The definition of the word “font” has therefore changed slightly. The only difference is in terms of thickness, width, and inclination.

Get to know Glyph in Typeface.

Reputed to be a typeface, it must have a “Glyph” because it is a “character” that represents letters, numbers, signs, and symbols. Some typefaces may support multiple languages, so there are many glyphs. For this reason, Therefore, there is a process of “Subsetting” which is to cut off the glyph that we do not want. to reduce the size of the font file to make it smaller

What is the difference between Serif and Sans-Serif typefaces?

I believe that many people have heard the word “Serif” since the beginning of using computers. But there must be a small number of people “Serif” is “cursive.” Whatever typeface is a serif, it means that every glyph has a tail flick. didn’t end in a hurry In contrast to the “Sans-serif fonts” typeface, there is no cursive at all (the word “sans” comes from the French “none”). Surveys have shown that serif typefaces are easier to read when used with long text, which is why this typeface is used by print media. However, sans-serif typefaces are more popular on websites. Because serif’s cursive can make it harder to read. If viewing with a screen with a low resolution.

Familiarize yourself with Proportional and Monospaced Typefaces.

Proportional” typefaces have different glyph widths. For example, glyphs representing “i” and “w” have different widths, as opposed to “Monospaced” typefaces, where each glyph has a different width. always the same width. In general, proportional typefaces are beautiful. and easier to read which we often see typeface like this in everyday life Whether it is print media, making a website, including a GUI of various applications. But monospaced typefaces are not without advantages at all. Due to the fact that all glyphs have the same width, this typeface is commonly used with typewriters, screens that only display characters (eg digital clock), including the Terminal screen, etc.

And why is there a need for fonts?

The reason why the same typeface must be divided into different font foundry is for “Readability”. On the same page, we may use only one typeface. But may choose to use many fonts to suit the content of each section, such as header, article, aside, footer, etc. Each type of font differs in thickness, width, and slant. If all three of these fonts are normal, we call that font “Roman” or “Regular”, while non-Roman fonts can have two. The same case is those patterns are inserted into a font file (e.g. font “Helvetica Condensed Bold Italic”), or the format is rendered with the web browser’s “Algorithm” (e.g. font “Helvetica” + font-weight: bold).

According to the CSS3 specification, if the style we define exists in a font file, the web browser will use that font to display it immediately, but if it cannot be found, the web browser will “synthesize” that font from Roman or Regular typefaces. which the font may not be as beautiful Because it is computationally generated. For example, we want to render the typeface “Helvetica” in bold. If we have the font “Helvetica Bold”, the display font looks perfect, but if we don’t, we use the font “Helvetica” instead of the web browser. I will render by adding a thicker outline to make the text appear thicker.

Summary of Typeface vs Font

Typefaces are fonts that designers have designed, while fonts are typefaces that differ in thickness, width, and slant. So you readers who are about to create a website or are looking for a website development company You should study in this section what is Typeface and what is Font, otherwise, your readers may not be able to talk to  Web Design!