Serif

File:Serif and sans-serif 01.svg	Sans-serif font
File:Serif and sans-serif 02.svg	Serif font
File:Serif and sans-serif 03.svg	Serif font (red serifs)

In typography, a serif (Template:IPAc-en) is a small line or stroke regularly attached to the end of a larger stroke in a letter or symbol within a particular font or family of fonts. 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 sans-serif. Some typography sources refer to sans-serif typefaces as "grotesque" (in German, {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}) or "Gothic"<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> (although this often refers to blackletter type as well). In German usage, the term Antiqua is used more broadly for serif types.

Serif typefaces can be broadly classified into one of four subgroups: Old-style, Transitional, Didone, and Slab serif, in order of first emergence.

Origins and etymology

Serifs originated from the first official Greek writings on stone and in Latin alphabet with inscriptional lettering—words carved into stone in Roman antiquity. The explanation proposed by Father Edward Catich in his 1968 book The Origin of the Serif is now broadly but not universally accepted: the Roman letter outlines were first painted onto stone, and the stone carvers followed the brush marks, which flared at stroke ends and corners, creating serifs. Another theory is that serifs were devised to neaten the ends of lines as they were chiselled into stone.<ref name=Samara>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

The origin of the word 'serif' is obscure, but apparently is almost as recent as the type style. The book The British Standard of the Capital Letters contained in the Roman Alphabet, forming a complete code of systematic rules for a mathematical construction and accurate formation of the same (1813) by William Hollins, defined 'surripses', usually pronounced "surriphs", as "projections which appear at the tops and bottoms of some letters, the O and Q excepted, at the beginning or end, and sometimes at each, of all". The standard also proposed that 'surripsis' may be a Greek word derived from {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} (Template:Transliteration, "together") and {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} (Template:Transliteration, "projection").

In 1827, Greek scholar Julian Hibbert printed with his own experimental uncial Greek types, remarking that the types of Giambattista Bodoni's Callimachus were "ornamented (or rather disfigured) by additions of what [he] believe[s] type-founders call syrifs or cerefs". The printer Thomas Curson Hansard referred to them as "ceriphs" in 1825.<ref name="Typographia, an Historical Sketch of the Origin and Progress of the Art of Printing">Template:Cite book</ref> The oldest citations in the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) are 1830 for 'serif' and 1841 for 'sans serif'. The OED speculates that 'serif' was a back-formation from 'sanserif'.

Webster's Third New International Dictionary traces 'serif' to the Dutch noun {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, meaning "line, stroke of the pen", related to the verb {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, "to delete, strike through" ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}} now also means "serif" in Dutch). Yet, {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} is the past tense of {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} (to write). The relation between {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} and {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} is documented by Van Veen and Van der Sijs.<ref>Etymologisch Woordenboek (Van Dale, 1997).</ref> In her book {{#invoke:Lang|lang}},<ref>(Veen, 2001).</ref> Van der Sijs lists words by first known publication in the language area that is the Netherlands today:

• {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, 1100;
• {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, 1350;
• {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, 1406 (i.e. {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} is from {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} (to write), not from {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} (to scratch, eliminate by strike-through)).

The OEDTemplate:'s earliest citation for "grotesque" in this sense is 1875, giving 'stone-letter' as a synonym. It would seem to mean "out of the ordinary" in this usage, as in art 'grotesque' usually means "elaborately decorated". Other synonyms include "Doric" and "Gothic", commonly used for Japanese Gothic typefaces.<ref name="A Neo-Grotesque Heritage">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Classification

Template:AnchorOld-style

File:Garamond sample.svg

Adobe Garamond, an example of an old-style serifTemplate:Efn

Old-style typefaces date back to 1465, shortly after Johannes Gutenberg's adoption of the movable type printing press. Early printers in Italy created types that broke with Gutenberg's blackletter printing, creating upright ("roman") and then oblique ("italic") styles that were inspired by Renaissance calligraphy.<ref name="The first roman fonts" /><ref name="Venetian origins of roman type">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Old-style serif fonts have remained popular for setting body text because of their organic appearance and excellent readability on rough book paper. The increasing interest in early printing during the late 19th and early 20th centuries saw a return to the designs of Renaissance printers and type-founders, many of whose names and designs are still used today.<ref name="Garamond, Griffo and Others: The Price of Celebrity">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name="Coles Top Ten">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="Old-Face Types in the Victorian Age">Template:Cite journal</ref>

Old-style type is characterized by a lack of large differences between thick and thin lines (low line contrast) and generally, but less often, by a diagonal stress (the thinnest parts of letters are at an angle rather than at the top and bottom). An old-style font normally has a left-inclining curve axis with weight stress at about 8 and 2 o'clock; serifs are almost always bracketed (they have curves connecting the serif to the stroke); head serifs are often angled.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Old-style faces evolved over time, showing increasing abstraction from what would now be considered handwriting and blackletter characteristics, and often increased delicacy or contrast as printing technique improved.<ref name="Venetian origins of roman type" /><ref name="Unusual fifteenth-century fonts: part 1">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="Unusual fifteenth-century fonts: part 2">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Old-style faces have often sub-divided into 'Venetian' (or 'humanist') and 'Garalde' (or 'Aldine'), a division made on the Vox-ATypI classification system.<ref name="Type anatomy: Family Classifications of Type">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Nonetheless, some have argued that the difference is excessively abstract, hard to spot except to specialists and implies a clearer separation between styles than originally appeared.<ref name="Dixon 2002">Template:Citation</ref>Template:Efn Modern typefaces such as Arno and Trinité may fuse both styles.<ref name="Arno Pro specimen">Template:Cite book</ref>

Early "humanist" roman types were introduced in Italy. Modelled on the script of the period, they tend to feature an "e" in which the cross stroke is angled, not horizontal; an "M" with two-way serifs; and often a relatively dark colour on the page.<ref name="The first roman fonts" /><ref name="Venetian origins of roman type" /> In modern times, that of Nicolas Jenson has been the most admired, with many revivals.<ref name="Olocco Jenson">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="The first roman fonts">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Garaldes, which tend to feature a level cross-stroke on the "e", descend from an influential 1495 font cut by engraver Francesco Griffo for printer Aldus Manutius, which became the inspiration for many typefaces cut in France from the 1530s onwards.<ref name="palaeotypography" /><ref name="A View of Early Typography up to about 1600">Template:Cite book</ref> Often lighter on the page and made in larger sizes than had been used for roman type before, French Garalde faces rapidly spread throughout Europe from the 1530s to become an international standard.<ref name="Stanley Morison's Aldine Hypothesis Revisited" /><ref name="palaeotypography">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Aldine: the intellectuals begin their assault on font design">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Also during this period, italic type evolved from a quite separate genre of type, intended for informal uses such as poetry, into taking a secondary role for emphasis. Italics moved from being conceived as separate designs and proportions to being able to be fitted into the same line as roman type with a design complementary to it.<ref name="i love typography">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="Vervliet2008 Aldine Italic">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Lane JPHS">Template:Cite journal</ref>Template:Efn

Examples of contemporary Garalde old-style typefaces are Bembo, Garamond, Galliard, Granjon, Goudy Old Style, Minion, Palatino, Renard, Sabon, and Scala. Contemporary typefaces with Venetian old style characteristics include Cloister, Adobe Jenson, the Golden Type, Hightower Text, Centaur, Goudy's Italian Old Style and Berkeley Old Style and ITC Legacy. Several of these blend in Garalde influences to fit modern expectations, especially placing single-sided serifs on the "M"; Cloister is an exception.<ref name="Searching for Morris Fuller Benton">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Dutch taste

A new genre of serif type developed around the 17th century in the Netherlands and Germany that came to be called the "Dutch taste" ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}} in French).<ref name="Dutch Taste Johnson" /> It was a tendency towards denser, more solid typefaces, often with a high x-height (tall lower-case letters) and a sharp contrast between thick and thin strokes, perhaps influenced by blackletter faces.<ref name="Printing Types vol 2">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="typo-history-1">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="Dutch Taste Johnson">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name="Type and its Uses, 1455-1830">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="The Briot project. Part I">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Artists in the "Dutch taste" style include Hendrik van den Keere, Nicolaas Briot, Christoffel van Dijck, Miklós Tótfalusi Kis and the Janson and Ehrhardt types based on his work and Caslon, especially the larger sizes.<ref name="Type and its Uses, 1455-1830" />

Transitional

File:Times New Roman sample.svg

Times New Roman, a modern example of a transitional serif design.

Transitional, or baroque, serif typefaces first became common around the mid-18th century until the start of the 19th.<ref name="Shaw2017">Template:Cite book</ref> They are in between "old style" and "modern" fonts, thus the name "transitional". Differences between thick and thin lines are more pronounced than they are in old style, but less dramatic than they are in the Didone fonts that followed. Stress is more likely to be vertical, and often the "R" has a curled tail. The ends of many strokes are marked not by blunt or angled serifs but by ball terminals. Transitional faces often have an italic 'h' that opens outwards at bottom right.<ref name="Type Designs of the Past and Present, Part 3">Template:Cite journal</ref> Because the genre bridges styles, it is difficult to define where the genre starts and ends. Many of the most popular transitional designs are later creations in the same style.

Fonts from the original period of transitional typefaces include early on the {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} in France, then the work of Pierre Simon Fournier in France, Fleischman and Rosart in the Low Countries,<ref name="Middendorp2004 Fleischman">Template:Cite book</ref> Pradell in Spain and John Baskerville and Bulmer in England.<ref name="Eighteenth Century Spanish Type Design">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name="Unger 2001">Template:Cite journal</ref> Among more recent designs, Times New Roman (1932), Perpetua, Plantin, Mrs. Eaves, Freight Text, and the earlier "modernised old styles" have been described as transitional in design.Template:Efn

Later 18th-century transitional typefaces in Britain begin to show influences of Didone typefaces from Europe, described below, and the two genres blur, especially in type intended for body text; Bell is an example of this.<ref name="The Evolution of the Modern-Face Roman">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name="Transitional Faces">Template:Cite book</ref>Template:Efn

Didone

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File:Bodoni sample.svg

Bodoni, an example of a modern serif

Didone, or modern, serif typefaces, which first emerged in the late 18th century, are characterized by extreme contrast between thick and thin lines.Template:Efn These typefaces have a vertical stress and thin serifs with a constant width, with minimal bracketing (constant width). Serifs tend to be very thin, and vertical lines very heavy. Didone fonts are often considered to be less readable than transitional or old-style serif typefaces. Period examples include Bodoni, Didot, and Walbaum. Computer Modern is a popular contemporary example. The very popular Century is a softened version of the same basic design, with reduced contrast.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Didone typefaces achieved dominance of printing in the early 19th-century printing before declining in popularity in the second half of the century and especially in the 20th as new designs and revivals of old-style faces emerged.<ref name="Ovink I">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name="Ovink II">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name="Ovink III">Template:Cite journal</ref>

In print, Didone fonts are often used on high-gloss magazine paper for magazines such as Harper's Bazaar, where the paper retains the detail of their high contrast well, and for whose image a crisp, "European" design of type may be considered appropriate.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="HFJ Didot introduction">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> They are used more often for general-purpose body text, such as book printing, in Europe.<ref name="HFJ Didot introduction"/><ref name="HFJ Didot">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> They remain popular in the printing of Greek, as the Didot family were among the first to establish a printing press in newly independent Greece.<ref name="A primer on Greek type design">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="GFS Didot">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The period of Didone types' greatest popularity coincided with the rapid spread of printed posters and commercial ephemera and the arrival of bold type.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Affichen-Schriften">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> As a result, many Didone typefaces are among the earliest designed for "display" use, with an ultra-bold "fat face" style becoming a common sub-genre.<ref name="Fat Faces: Their History, Forms and Use">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Fat faces Phinney">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="The Story of Our Friend, the Fat Face">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Slab serif

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File:Rockwell sample.svg

Rockwell, an example of a more geometric slab serif

File:Clarendon sample.svg

Clarendon, an example of a less geometric slab serif

Slab serif typefaces date to about 1817.Template:Efn<ref name="Three chapters in the development of clarendon/ionic typefaces">Template:Cite thesis</ref> Originally intended as attention-grabbing designs for posters, they have very thick serifs, which tend to be as thick as the vertical lines themselves. Slab serif fonts vary considerably: some, such as Rockwell, have a geometric design with minimal variation in stroke width—they are sometimes described as sans-serif fonts with added serifs. Others, such as those of the "Clarendon" model, have a structure more like most other serif fonts, though with larger and more obvious serifs.<ref name="Sentinel: historical background">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="Know your type: Clarendon">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> These designs may have bracketed serifs that increase width along their length.

Because of the clear, bold nature of the large serifs, slab serif designs are often used for posters and in small print. Many monospace fonts, on which all characters occupy the same amount of horizontal space as in a typewriter, are slab-serif designs. While not always purely slab-serif designs, many fonts intended for newspaper use have large slab-like serifs for clearer reading on poor-quality paper. Many early slab-serif types, being intended for posters, only come in bold styles with the key differentiation being width, and often have no lower-case letters at all.

Examples of slab-serif typefaces include Clarendon, Rockwell, Archer, Courier, Excelsior, TheSerif, and Zilla Slab. FF Meta Serif and Guardian Egyptian are examples of newspaper and small print-oriented typefaces with some slab-serif characteristics, often most visible in the bold weights. In the late 20th century, the term "humanist slab-serif" has been applied to typefaces such as Chaparral, Caecilia and Tisa, with strong serifs but an outline structure with some influence of old-style serif typefaces.<ref name="Phinney Chaparral">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="LuptonArt2014">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Bringhurst Caecilia">Template:Cite book</ref>

Other styles

During the 19th century, genres of serif type besides conventional body text faces proliferated.<ref name="Nineteenth-century Ornamented Typefaces">Template:Cite book</ref> These included "Tuscan" faces, with ornamental, decorative ends to the strokes rather than serifs, and "Latin" or "wedge-serif" faces, with pointed serifs, which were particularly popular in France and other parts of Europe including for signage applications such as business cards or shop fronts.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Well-known typefaces in the "Latin" style include Wide Latin, Copperplate Gothic, Johnston Delf Smith and the more restrained Méridien.

Readability and legibility

Serifed typefaces are widely used for body text because they are considered easier to read than sans-serif typefaces in print.<ref>Merriam-Webster's Manual for Writers and Editors, (Springfield, 1998) p. 329.</ref> Colin Wheildon, who conducted scientific studies from 1982 to 1990, found that sans serif typefaces created various difficulties for readers that impaired their comprehension.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> According to Kathleen Tinkel, studies suggest that "most sans serif typefaces may be slightly less legible than most serif faces, but ... the difference can be offset by careful setting".<ref>Kathleen Tinkel, "Taking it in: What makes type easy to read", adobe.com Template:Webarchive Accessed 28 December 2010. p. 3.</ref>

Sans-serif are considered to be more legible on computer screens. According to Alex Poole,<ref name="alexpoole">Literature Review Which Are More Legible: Serif or Sans Serif Typefaces? alexpoole.info Template:Webarchive.</ref> "we should accept that most reasonably designed typefaces in mainstream use will be equally legible". A study suggested that serif typefaces are more legible on a screen but are not generally preferred to sans serif typefaces.<ref name="bernardliaomills">Effects of Font Type on the Legibility The Effects of Font Type and Size on the Legibility and Reading Time of Online Text by Older Adults. psychology.wichita.edu Template:Webarchive.</ref> Another study indicated that comprehension times for individual words are slightly faster when written in a sans serif typeface versus a serif typeface.<ref name="morettatay">Moret-Tatay, C., & Perea, M. (2011). Do serifs provide an advantage in the recognition of written words? Journal of Cognitive Psychology 23, 5, 619-24.. valencia.edu Template:Webarchive.</ref>

When size of an individual glyph is 9–20 pixels, proportional serifs and some lines of most glyphs of common vector typefaces are smaller than individual pixels. Hinting, spatial anti-aliasing, and subpixel rendering allow to render distinguishable serifs even in this case, but their proportions and appearance are off and thickness is close to many lines of the main glyph, strongly altering appearance of the glyph. Consequently, it is sometimes advised to use sans-serif typefaces for content meant to be displayed on screens, as they scale better for low resolutions. Indeed, most web pages employ sans-serif type.<ref>The Principles of Beautiful Web Design, (2007) p. 113.</ref> Recent introduction of desktop displays with 300+ dpi resolution might eventually make this recommendation obsolete.

As serifs originated in inscription, they are generally not used in handwriting. A common exception is the printed capital I, where the addition of serifs distinguishes the character from lowercase L (l). The printed capital J and the numeral 1 are also often handwritten with serifs.

Gallery

Below are some images of serif letterforms across history:

• Jenson006.jpg

  The roman type of Nicolas Jenson

• De Aetna 1495.jpg

  De Aetna, printed by Aldus Manutius

• Houghton TypTS 515.52.370 - Alphabetum Graecum.jpg

  Title page printed by Robert Estienne

• Garamond's Second Great Primer Roman Vervliet.png

  Great Primer type (c. 18 pt) by Claude Garamond

• Claude Garamond Gros Canon image basic characters.jpg

  Gros Canon type by Garamond

• Michael Praetorius Missodia Sionia (1611).jpg

  1611 book, with arabesque ornament border

• Hendrik van den Keere La Plus grande Romaine from Plantin specimen c. 1585.jpg

  Large roman by Hendrik van den Keere, introducing the "Dutch taste" style

• Christoffel van Dijck Ascendonica Romein.jpg

  Type by Christoffel van Dijck

• Romain du roi sample (1702).png

  The Romain du roi, the first "transitional" typeface

• Ehrhardt specimen.png

  Condensed, high x-height types in the "Dutch taste" style, Template:Circa

• Publii Virgilii Maronis Bucolica, Georgica, et Æneis by John Baskerville 1757.jpg

  Title page by John Baskerville, 1757

• Type sample, Pierre Simon Fournier, Manuel Typographique 1766.png

  Alphabet by Pierre-Simon Fournier in his Manuel typographique, 1760s

• Fleischman Paragon roman & italic.jpg

  Transitional type by Joan Michaël Fleischman of Amsterdam, 1768

• Feria Sexta.jpg

  Modern-face types by the Amoretti Brothers, 1797

• Code civil des Français (Firmin-Didot).jpg

  Didone type in a book printed by the company of Firmin Didot, 1804

• Manuale-Tipografico1.jpg

  Bodoni's posthumous Manuale Tipografico, 1818

• Caslon inline Great Primer Columbia specimen.jpg

  Inline modern face

• Austin Foundry 1838 12 Lines Ornamented, No. 4.jpg

  Display type with pattern inside

• Redford & Robins - poster - Google Art Project.jpg

  "Fat face" ultra-bold Didone type

• Fann Street Foundry Clarendon image with text for emphasis.jpg

  The original Clarendon typeface

• Boston Type Foundry Clarendon.jpg

  Display-size slab-serifs

• Miller & Richard Old Style Type Specimen (15399996818).jpg

  Miller and Richard's Modernised Old Style, a reimagination of pre-Didone typefaces

• Kelmscott Press Typefaces.jpg

  William Morris's Golden Type in the style of Jenson and other typefaces of his Kelmscott Press

• ATF 1923 Garamond specimen page 22.jpg

  ATF's "Garamond" type, an example of historicist printing

• Sir Harry Johnston memorial plaque.JPG

  Memorial plaque by Eric Gill, Template:Circa

• Linotype Textype sample Legibility Group typeface.jpg

  Sample of the Linotype Legibility Group typefaces, the most popular newspaper typefaces during the twentieth century.<ref name="The Changing Newspaper">Template:Cite book</ref>

• Kindle3-it (cropped).png

  Humanist slab-serif PNM Caecilia on an Amazon Kindle

Analogues in other writing systems

East Asia

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File:Ming serif.svg

From left to right: a serif typeface with serifs in red, a serif typeface, and a sans-serif typeface

In the Chinese and Japanese writing systems, there are common type styles based on the regular script for Chinese characters akin to serif and sans serif fonts in the West. In Mainland China, the most popular category of serifed-like typefaces for body text is called Song ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, Template:Transliteration); in Japan, the most popular serif style is called Template:Nihongo; and in Taiwan and Hong Kong, it is called Template:Transliteration ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, Template:Transliteration). The names of these lettering styles come from the Song and Ming dynasties, when block printing flourished in China. Because the wood grain on printing blocks ran horizontally, it was fairly easy to carve horizontal lines with the grain. However, carving vertical or slanted patterns was difficult because those patterns intersect with the grain and break easily. This resulted in a typeface that has thin horizontal strokes and thick vertical strokesTemplate:Citation needed. In accordance with Chinese calligraphy (kaiti style in particular), where each horizontal stroke is ended with a dipping motion of the brush, the ending of horizontal strokes are also thickenedTemplate:Citation needed. These design forces resulted in the current Song typeface characterized by thick vertical strokes contrasted with thin horizontal strokes, triangular ornaments at the end of single horizontal strokes, and overall geometrical regularity.

In Japanese typography, the equivalent of serifs on kanji and kana characters are called Template:Transliteration—"fish scales". In Chinese, the serifs are called either Template:Transliteration ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, lit. "forms with legs")Template:Citation needed or Template:Transliteration ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, lit. "forms with ornamental lines").

The other common East Asian style of type is called black ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, Template:Transliteration) in Chinese and Template:Nihongo in Japanese. This group is characterized by lines of even thickness for each stroke, the equivalent of "sans serif". This style, first introduced on newspaper headlines, is commonly used on headings, websites, signs and billboards. A Japanese-language font designed in imitation of western serifs also exists.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Thai

Template:See also Farang Ses, designed in 1913, was the first Thai typeface to employ thick and thin strokes reflecting old-style serif Latin typefaces, and became extremely popular, with its derivatives widely used into the digital age. (Examples: Angsana UPC, Kinnari)<ref name="Farangses">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }} Originally exhibited 18–31 October 2002 at the Jamjuree Art Gallery, Chulalongkorn University, and published in Sarakadee. 17 (211). September 2002.</ref>

Compared to blackletter

In Germany and other Central European countries, blackletter remained the norm in body text for longer than in Western Europe; see the Antiqua–Fraktur dispute, often dividing along ideological or political lines. After the mid-20th century, Fraktur fell out of favor and Antiqua-based typefaces became the official standard in Germany. (In German, the term "Antiqua" refers to serif typefaces.<ref name="Renner-A">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>)

See also

• Homoglyph
• Ming (typeface), a similar style in Asian typefaces
  • The analogs of serifs, known in Japanese as {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} uroko, literally "fish scales"
• San Serriffe, an elaborate typographic joke

Lists of serif typefaces

• List of serif typefaces
• List of typefaces#Serif
• Old-style
• Transitional
• Didone

Bibliography

• Robert Bringhurst, The Elements of Typographic Style, version 4.0 (Vancouver, BC, Canada: Hartley & Marks Publishers, 2012), Template:ISBN.
• Harry Carter, A View of Early Typography: Up to about 1600 (London: Hyphen Press, 2002).
• Father Edward Catich, The Origin of the Serif: Brush Writing and Roman Letters, 2nd ed., edited by Mary W. Gilroy (Davenport, Iowa: Catich Gallery, St. Ambrose University, 1991), Template:ISBN.
• Nicolete Gray, Nineteenth Century Ornamented Typefaces, 2nd ed. (Faber, 1976), Template:ISBN.
• Alfred F. Johnson, Type Designs: Their History and Development (Grafton, 1959).
• Stan Knight, Historical Types: From Gutenberg to Ashendene (Oak Knoll Press, 2012), Template:ISBN.
• Ellen Lupton, Thinking with Type: A Critical Guide for Designers, Writers, Editors, & Students, 2nd ed. (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2010), Template:ISBN, <www.thinkingwithtype.com>.
• Indra Kupferschmid, "Some Type Genres Explained," Type, kupferschrift.de (2016-01-15).
• Stanley Morison, A Tally of Types, edited by Brooke Crutchley et al., 2nd ed. (London: Cambridge University Press, 1973), Template:ISBN. (on revivals of historical typefaces created by the British company Monotype)
• ———, “Type Designs of the Past and Present,” was serialized in 4 parts in 1937 in PM Magazine (the last 2 are available online):
  • “Part 1,” PM Magazine, 4, 1 (1937-09);
  • “Part 2,” PM Magazine, 4, 2 (1937-12);
  • “Part 3 Template:Webarchive,” PM Magazine, 4, 3 (1937-11): 17–32;
  • “Part 4 Template:Webarchive,” PM Magazine, 4, 4 (1937-12): 61–81.
• Sébastien Morlighem, The 'modern face' in France and Great Britain, 1781-1825: typography as an ideal of progress (thesis, University of Reading, 2014), download link
• Sébastien Morlighem, Robert Thorne and the Introduction of the 'modern' fat face, 2020, Poem, and presentation
• James Mosley, Ornamented types: twenty-three alphabets from the foundry of Louis John Poucheé, I.M. Imprimit, 1993
• Paul Shaw, Revival Type: Digital Typefaces Inspired by the Past (Brighton: Quid Publishing, 2017), Template:ISBN.
• Walter Tracy, Letters of Credit: A View of Type Design, 2nd ed. (David R. Godine, 2003), Template:ISBN.
• Daniel Berkeley Updike, Printing Types, their History, Forms, and Use: A Study in Survivals, 2 vols. (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1922), volume 1 and volume 2—now outdated and known for a strong, not always accurate dislike of Dutch and modern-face printing, but extremely comprehensive in scope.
• H. D. L. Vervliet, The Palaeotypography of the French Renaissance: Selected Papers on Sixteenth-Century Typefaces, 2 vols., Library of the Written Word series, No. 6, The Handpress World subseries, No. 4 (Leiden: Koninklijke Brill NV, 2008-11-27), Template:ISBN.
• ———, Sixteenth Century Printing Types of the Low Countries, Annotated catalogue (Leiden: Koninklijke Brill NV, 1968-01-01), Template:ISBN.
• ———, French Renaissance Printing Types: A Conspectus (Oak Knoll Press, 2010).
• ———, Liber librorum: 5000 ans d'art du livre (Arcade, 1972).
  • Translation: Fernand Baudin, The Book Through Five Thousand Years: A Survey, edited by Hendrik D. L. Vervliet (London: Phaidon, 1972).
• James Mosley's reading lists: "Type and its Uses, 1455–1830", 1830-2000