A distinction in four classes of type serves the needs of most researchers. These classes are: Roman, Gothic, Script, and Block letter (Sanders and McCormick, 1993). The Roman class includes all typefaces with serifs; "the small terminal stroke[s] drawn at a right or oblique angle across the arm, stem, or tail of a letter" (Encarta 1995). Figure 1 shows the anatomy of type. Serifs and other features of type will be discussed in more detail in chapter 2. Gothic typefaces have to do without these serifs. Although the absence of serifs is not the only distinctive feature of typefaces belonging to this class, it is the feature that allows easy discrimination. Because of this, Gothic type is also called Sans Serif. Script type is simulated, flowing handwriting, whereas Block letter type is derived from the German manuscript handwriting (15th century).

Figure 1:
The Anatomy of Type: after Zachrisson (1965), Hartley (1978), and Søgren (1995)

Although this distinction in four classes might be useful for some purposes, it is too elementary to be of much use to designers. Often, a distinction is made between book type and display type. This distinction, however, is less specific than the one mentioned before and is said to be fading (Waller in Britton and Glynn, 1987). A more detailed grouping of typefaces is presented in table 1. The four general classes in this table have been divided into subclasses of which each is more homogenous with regard to shape than one of the general classes as a whole. The names for each of the four classes (Block, Serif, Sans Serif, Script), which have been printed larger than their aliases beside them, are not necessarily the names which are most commonly used. However, they are neutral and unambiguous. Were we to use the term Gothic, for example, this might lead to some confusion for those people who associate Gothic with 15th century, Gothic handwriting. Such handwriting, in fact, is the basis of Block-class type, not of Gothic-class type.

Included in table 1 are illustrations and short discussions of the typical features of each subclass. An addition of two general classes has been made as well; Glyphic type and Graphic type. These classes comprise typefaces which do not belong to any of the four ‘original’ classes. Glyphic type is characterized by its triangular serifs or the widening, in a flow, at the end of its strokes. Graphic typefaces have been constructed rather than ‘written’ (Haley, 1990). Among them, we can find much logotype and decorative type. Although they are assigned to one and the same class, these designs are often still radically different from each other.

Table 1 also indicates the time period in which each typeface subclass has its origin. This does not mean that each typeface as it appears today was actually designed at that time. Many current designs are simply based on original designs of the period mentioned. To understand the way the subclasses have been formed, their historical origin will be discussed briefly.

The first typefaces were designed in Germany, where Gutenberg had invented the printing press. These 15th century designs, which were cast in metal, were made to resemble the script of the monks in this part of Europe. This resulted in the class of type we now call Block letter or Broken type. When the use of the printing press had spread across Europe within a few decades, other kinds of type were produced to suit different local needs. Print in and around Italy mainly concentrated on Greek, Roman and Renaissance works. Those works were written in the Humanist style of handwriting, so type designs were made to resemble it. The resulting Roman type was a lot sleeker than the Block type from northern Europe. The Roman designs were partly derived from Roman inscriptional lettering and often had capital and ‘regular’ alphabets, based on the majuscule and miniscule variations in handwriting found in southern Europe. These two versions of the alphabet were stored in separate cases by the printer. Hence the terms upper case and lower case, corresponding with capitals and ‘regular’ letters respectively.

The early Renaissance-Roman typefaces were all clearly influenced by the broad-nib pen as a writing instrument. This is apparant in features such as slightly rounded serifss and a slanted stroke in the centre of the letter ‘e’. In the later (French) Renaissance-Romans, the influence of the broad-nib pen had diminished; the serifs had become more elegant and the centre stroke in the letter ‘e’ had become horizontal (Søgren, 1995).

In the course of time, printing type became accepted and typefaces started to lose their resemblance to handwriting. However, type that appeared to be handwritten still appealed. The familiar italic style of type, charactarized by the rightward slant, was introduced at the beginning of the 16th century. The reasons for the popularity of italic style type were again that it closely resembled handwriting and that it saved space because of its higher density, which was important at a time when paper was expensive. Unlike Gothic and Roman typefaces, italics are not a separate class of typefaces, since many typefaces have both regular and italic versions. Italic is called a style.

With time, the demand in the Renaissance for Block type decreased and the Roman typefaces departed increasingly from the forms that had been produced by broad-nib pens. Baroque-Roman typefaces show an increased contrast between the thickness of strokes within one character and serifs with brackets attached (figure 1). In the period of transition from Baroque to Classicism, the contrast between hairlines and stems increased and type designs showed no trace of the broad-nib pen any longer.

The development of typefaces is linked to changes in typecasting techniques. The popular use of copperplates in gravure printing near the end of th 18th century made it possible to create letters with very thin hairlines, resulting in Classicist Roman typefaces. Other features were bold stems and the absence of brackets.

In some publications about typefaces, the terms Antique and Modern are used. These terms are often used casually, but caution is needed. These terms actually refer to subclasses of Roman typefaces designed in two different time periods. Antique type was designed before the 19th century, whereas Modern type was designed after the turn of the 19th century. The first of the Modern designs are the Classicist typefaces.

Commercial use of type in advertising and product packaging in the beginning of the 19th century prompted the design of bolder and more distinctive letters. Most of these decorative designs, called Slab Serif or Egyptian, have overemphasized serifs. In this same period, Sans Serif type was introduced. Along with it came a greater variety of Roman type as well, many of which can not be placed in any of the existing classes. Moreover, glyphic and graphic type were introduced since this period of diversification in type design. This greatly expanded the range of available character shapes. For detailed information on typeface classification and sample books, see Appendix C.

Each subclass of typefaces comprises a number of typeface families. One typeface family found in the Roman Empire subclass, for example, is Bodoni. The individual members of a family are called fonts. The Bodoni family comprises fonts such as Bodoni bold, Bodoni condensed, Bodoni italic bold and Poster Bodoni. Fonts from one family differ in character width, boldness, or italic form. Boldness and italics are called type styles.

The use of type has distinct requirements that are different for each application with regard to size, shape, and spacing. Before we can discuss these aspects of typography in the next three chapters, the relationship between these aspects will be described.

Table 1:
The Classification of Typefaces: based on Haley (1990), Sutton and Bartram (1990), and Heinrichs (1996)

Block Type /Broken /Blackletter
		history	example
		Based on 15th century manuscript handwriting of northern Europe (Gothic); heavy, ornamented characters with all broken forms.
Serif Type /Roman /Antiqua
subclass		history	example
Old Style	Venetian / Humanist Renaissance	Created in Venice around 1470; generally styled and proportioned after handwritten letters drawn with a broad-nib pen held obliquely; low contrast; heavy brackets on strong serifs; cross stroke of the 'e' is diagonal.
	Aldine / Garaldes Renaissance	Based on printer / designer Aldus Manutius’ work of the early 1490’s; generally more contrast and narrower width than Venetian designs; less pronounced brackets on the serifs; the crossbar of the ‘e’ is almost always horizontal.
	Dutch Baroque	Dutch interpretation of Italian and French Aldine designs, originating from 1550 and on; larger x-height, greater contrast, and a higher stroke width-to-height ratio than earlier designs; generally regarded as highly legible.
	Revival Baroque	Incorporates Old Style features, but does not belong to any of the above Old Style sub-classes; shares most outstanding features such as bracketed serifs.
Transitional		Typefaces originating from the transition from Antique to Modern Roman designs, which is the transitional period between the Baroque and Classicism; established around 1750 by printer / typographer John Baskerville; increased contrast because of refined printing techniques; bracketed serifs and oblique head serifs.
Empire / Classicist	Didone Classicism	Originating in the 18th century; Giambattista Bodoni’s work (1780) is exemplary of these designs; serifs are barely bracketed, if brackated at all; serifs are generally thin, straight lines; abrupt stroke contrast.
	Twentieth Century Classicism	Often not designed as revivals, but sharing many features with the original (Didone) Empire designs; thinstrokes (hairlines) are generally lighter than in Didones.
Slab Serif / Egyptian		Originating from 1820 and on, these ‘fat faces’ have very heavy, rectangular serifs, but very slight or no bracketing, low stroke contrast, and generally a higher width-to-height ratio than earlier designs.
Clarendon	Nineteenth Century	First popular in the 1850’s, many of these designs were originally meant to be used as display type; serifs are bracketed and square-cut; less contrast than can be found in the Didones.
	Neo	20th century versions; greater contrast and often longer serifs than in earlier designs.
	Legibility	First released in the 1920’s; minimal stroke contrast and relatively short serifs; often large x-heights; designed especially with the aim of high legibility.
Sans Serif Type /Gothic /Lineales
subclass		history	example
Grotesque		First introduced for use in print by printer William Caslon IV in 1816; the first commercially Sans Serif designs; many curves appear somewhat angular.
Neo Grotesque		Lower stroke contrast than the original Grotesque designs; no apparant angularity in the curves; letter ‘g’ has a looped descender, forming a closed bottom bowl.
Geometric		Inspired by simple geometric shapes, these designs appear to be monoline.
Humanistic		Based on the proportions of the handwritten roman majuscules and minuscules; contrast is often apparant; of all Sans Serif typefaces, these resemble Roman type the closest in feature.
Square		Closely resemblant of (Neo) Grotesque typefaces, but curved strokes are clearly squared.
Script Type
		history	example
		Designed to emulate true handwriting, these typefaces appear to have been written by pen rather than having been designed.
Glyphic Type
		history	example
		Freely created variations of Serif typefaces; these designs appear to be inscribed rather than pen-drawn; stroke contrast is generally low; the serifs are triangular.
Graphic Type
		history	example
		A wide variety of ‘constructed’ typefaces, often used as display type.

Examples of typeform per artistic style period, indicated in red in the table above;
note the differences in shape of the foot of each character: