Just came across the "I love Typography Blog". They've put together an interesting post on serifs that I thought may strike a chord with Small Press Exchange users. A pretty good tutorial.
Before writing this, I sent several questions on type terminology to friends who know little about the topic. Most answered “What’s a Serif?” with something like, “it’s the curly bits at the ends of letters“. And although you are unlikely to read that in a typography text book, that’s just about right (though they’re not always curly).
So why the word “serif”? Well, it’s commonly held that the origin of the humble serif can be traced back to ancient Rome. Before an In_script_ion was carved into stone the letters were first painted on. Anyone who has tried painting letters will know that one is left with slightly wider sections at the ends of the brush-strokes. The stone carvers would then faithfully carve out the letters including the flares at the end of the strokes–thus was born the serif.Source:
www.ilovetypography.comLet me know what you think!
Post edited by: dsendecki, at: 2007/08/27 23:36
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