Editing Typeface (section)

====Serif typefaces====
{{Main|Serif}}
[[File:Three ages.png|thumb|The three traditional styles of serif typefaces used for body text: old-style, transitional and Didone, represented by [[Garamond]], [[Baskerville]] and [[Didot (typeface)|Didot]].]]Serif, or ''Roman'', typefaces are named for the features at the ends of their strokes. [[Times New Roman]] and [[Garamond]] are common examples of serif typefaces. Serif fonts are probably the most used class in printed materials, including most books, newspapers and magazines. Serif fonts are often classified into three subcategories: '''Old Style''', '''Transitional''', and '''[[Didone (typography)|Didone]]''' (or Modern), representative examples of which are [[Garamond]], [[Baskerville]], and [[Bodoni]] respectively.

Old Style typefaces are influenced by early Italian lettering design.<ref>Carter, Day, and Meggs. ''Typographic Design: Form and Communication''. Third Edition. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley and Sons, 2002: 34.</ref> Modern fonts often exhibit a bracketed serif and a substantial difference in weight within the strokes. Though some argument exists as to whether Transitional fonts exist as a discrete category among serif fonts, Transitional fonts lie somewhere between Old Style and Modern style typefaces. Transitional fonts exhibit a marked increase in the variation of stroke weight and a more horizontal serif compared to Old Style. Slab serif designs have particularly large serifs, and date to the early nineteenth century. The earliest known slab serif font was first shown around 1817 by the English typefounder [[Vincent Figgins]].<ref>Carter, Day, and Meggs. ''Typographic Design: Form and Communication''. Third Edition. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley and Sons, 2002: 35.</ref>

''Roman'', ''italic'', and ''oblique'' are also terms used to differentiate between upright and two possible slanted forms of a typeface. Italic and oblique fonts are similar (indeed, oblique fonts are often simply called italics) but there is strictly a difference: ''italic'' applies to fonts where the letter forms are redesigned, not just slanted. Almost all serif faces have italic forms; some sans-serif faces have oblique designs. (Most faces do not offer both as this is an artistic choice by the font designer about how the slanted form should look.)<ref>Williams, Robin. ''The Non-Designer's Type Book''. Berkeley, CA: Peachpit Press, 1998: 16.</ref>