Serif Facts for Kids

	Sans-serif font
	Serif font
	Serif font (serifs in red)

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

A serif is a term in typography. If a letter is made of a line or lines, a serif is a tiny decorative line on the ends of letter's 'limbs'. Thus, in the illustration on the right, each serif letter has a serif on the end of its lines.

Alphabetic typefaces either have serifs or not. Those without are called sans-serif faces.

The design of our typefaces started in the 15th century, when the early printers used moulds from which letters made of lead were produced.

The design of these letters were originally based on examples of handwriting and carving. Over the centuries a large number of typefaces were designed, and the serif/sans-serif feature is just one of many issues which type designers have to deal with.

However, the original source of the serif may be in monumental inscriptions. Serifs are on the letters at the base of Trajan's column (built 107~113 AD), and are clearly illustrated in standard textbooks on typography. Indeed, older literature often describes typefaces with serifs as "Roman". The word "serif" seems to be an early 19th century innovation.

Typography

Images for kids

The roman type of Nicolas Jenson
De Aetna, printed by Aldus Manutius
Title page printed by Robert Estienne
Great Primer type (c. 18 pt) by Claude Garamond
1611 book, with arabesque ornament border
Type by Christoffel van Dijck
The Romain du roi, the first "transitional" typeface
Condensed, high x-height types in the "Dutch taste" style, c. 1720
Title page by John Baskerville, 1757
Alphabet by Pierre-Simon Fournier in his Manuel typographique, 1760s
Transitional type by Joan Michaël Fleischman of Amsterdam, 1768
Modern-face types by the Amoretti Brothers, 1797
Didone type in a book printed by the company of Firmin Didot, 1804
Bodoni's posthumous Manuale Tipografico, 1818
Inline modern face
Display type with pattern inside
"Fat face" ultra-bold Didone type
The original Clarendon typeface
Display-size slab-serifs
Miller and Richard's Modernised Old Style, a reimagination of pre-Didone typefaces
William Morris's Golden Type in the style of Jenson and other typefaces of his Kelmscott Press
ATF's "Garamond" type, an example of historicist printing
Memorial plaque by Eric Gill, c. 1920s

Serif facts for kids

Related pages

Images for kids

See also