Typography 101

From ancient scribes to the Gutenberg press to the internet, written language has been the primary tool for recording and sharing information for centuries.

“95% of the information on the web is written language. It is only logical to say that a web designer should get good training in the main discipline of shaping written information, in other words: Typography.” - Oliver Reichenstein

Terminology

Classification

Most typefaces can be classified into 4 basic groups

Serif - Gothic and Historical

Sans Serif - Plain and easy to read

Script - handwritten and luxurious

Display - Bold and outright

Weight

The overall thickness of a typeface’s stroke in any given font, the most common weights are regular, bold, light, but weights can cover extremes from the very light to very heavy