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

In typography, a sans-serif (or sans serif, sans, sans-surryphs) typeface is one that does not have the small features called "serifs" at the end of strokes. The term comes from the French word sans, meaning "without".

In print, sans-serif fonts are more typically used for headlines than for body text.^[1] The conventional wisdom is that serifs help guide the eye along the lines in large blocks of text. Sans-serifs however have acquired considerable acceptance for body text in Europe.

Sans-serif fonts have become the de facto standard for body text on-screen, especially online. It has been suggested that this is because the small size of the font causes excess clutter on the screen.^[2] This is also true of typography on mobile screens, though it is less commonly used in television screens (the United Kingdom uses a Serif font by default on television).^[3]

Before the term “sans-serif” became standard in English typography, a number of other terms had been used. One of these outmoded terms for sans serif was gothic, which is still used in Japanese typography and sometimes seen in font names like “New Century Gothic”.

Sans-serif fonts are sometimes, especially in older documents, used as a device for emphasis, due to their typically blacker type color.

Contents 1 History 1.1 Ancient usages 1.2 Non-Latin types 1.3 Revival on Latin characters 1.3.1 Incorporation by typefounders 2 Other names for sans-serif 3 Classification 4 See also 5 References 6 External links

Sans-serif letter forms can be founded in Latin, Etruscan, and Greek inscriptions, for as early as 5th century BC.^[4] The sans serif forms are had been used on stoichedon Greek inscriptions.

The first known usage of Etruscan sans-serif foundry types was from Thomas Dempster's De Etruria regali libri VII (1723). Later at about 1745, Caslon foundry made its the first sans-serif types for Etruscan languages, which was used by University Press, Oxford, for pamphlets written by Etruscan scholar John Swinton.

According to James Mosley's Typographica journal titled The Nymph and the Grot: the revival of the sanserif letter, the sans serif letters had appeared as early as 1748, as an inscription of Nymph in the Grotto in Stourhead.^[5] However, it was classified as an experiment rather than a sign of wide-scale adoption.^[6]

In late 18th century, Neoclassicism movement led to architects to increasingly incorporating ancient Greek and Roman designs in contemporary structures. Among the architects, John Soane was noted for using sans serif letters on his drawings and architectural designs, which were eventually adopted by other designers, such as Thomas Banks, John Flaxman.

Sans-serif letters began to appear in printed media for as early as 1805 in European Magazine. However, early 19th century commercial sign writers and engravers had modified the sans-serif styles of neoclassical designer to include uneven stroke weights found in serif Roman fonts, into the sans-serif letters.^[7]

In 1816, the Ordnance Survey began to use 'Egyptian' type, which was printed using copper plate engraving of monoline sans-serif capital letters, to name ancient Roman sites.^[8]

In 1816, William Caslon IV produced the first sans-serif printing type for Latin characters under the title 'Two Lines English Egyptian', where 'Two Lines English' referred to the font's body size, which equals to about 28 points.

The term Sans-serif was first employed in 1830 by Figgins foundry.

In 1832, Thorowgood of Fann Street Foundry introduced Grotesque, which include the first commercial Latin printing type to include lowercase sans-serif letters.

• Egyptian: The term was first used by Joseph Farington after seeing the sans serif inscription on John Flaxman's memorial to Isaac Hawkins Brown in 1805.^[9]

• Antique: In about 1817, the Figgins foundry in London made a type with square or slab-serifs which it called 'Antique', and that name was adopted by most of the British and US typefounders. Except the typefounder Thorne, who confused things by marketing his Antique under the name 'Egyptian'. In France it became Egyptienne, and to worsen the confusion, the French called sans-serif type 'Antique'.^[10] Some fonts such as Antique Olive still carries the name.

• Grotesque: It was originally coined by William Thorowgood of Fann Street Foundry, the first person to produce a sans-serif type with lower case, in 1832. The name was allegedly taken from the surprising response from the typographers^[11]. The German version of the name is called Grotesk. German typefounders adopted the term from the nomenclature of Fann Street Foundry.

• Doric: It was the term first used by H. W. Caslon Foundry in Chiswell Street in 1870 to describe various sans-serif font at a time the generic name 'sans-serif' is commonly accepted. Eventually the foundry used Sans-serif in 1906. At that time, Doric referred to a certain kind of stressed sans-serif types.

• Gothic: Not to be confused with blackletter typeface, the term was used mainly by American type founders^[12]. The term probably derived from the architectual definition, which is neither Greek or Roman^[13]; and from the extended adjective term of 'Germany', which was the place where sans-serif typefaces became popular in 19th to 20th century^[14]. Early adopters for the term includes Miller & Richard (1963), J. & R. M. Wood (1865), Lothian, Conner, Bruce McKellar. Although the usage is now rare in English-speaking world, the term is commonly used in Japan.

• Heiti (Chinese: 黑體): Literally meaning 'black type', the term probably derived from the mistranslation of Gothic as blackletter typeface, even though actual blackletter fonts have serifs.

For the purposes of type classification sans-serif designs broadly divide into four major groups:^[15]

• Grotesque, early sans-serif designs, such as Grotesque or Royal Gothic.

• Neo-grotesque or Transitional or Realist, modern designs such as Standard, Helvetica, Arial, and Univers. These are the most common sans-serif fonts. They are relatively straight in appearance and have less line width variation than Humanist sans-serif typefaces. Transitional sans-serif is sometimes called "anonymous sans-serif" due to its relatively plain appearance.

• Humanist (Calibri, Johnston, Segoe UI, Gill Sans, Frutiger, and Optima, a.k.a. Zapf Humanist). These are the most calligraphic of the sans-serif typefaces, with some variation in line width and more readability than other sans-serif fonts.

• Geometric (Futura, Avant Garde, Century Gothic, Gotham, or Spartan). As their name suggests, Geometric sans-serif typefaces are based on geometric shapes. Note the optically circular letter "O" and the simple construction of the lowercase letter "a". Geometric sans-serif fonts have a very modern look and feel. Of these four categories, geometric fonts tend to be the least useful for body text.

Other commonly used sans-serif fonts include Akzidenz Grotesk, Franklin Gothic, Lucida Sans, MS Sans Serif, Myriad, Optima, Tahoma, Trebuchet MS and Verdana.

Note that in some sans-serif fonts, such as Arial, the capital-i and lowercase-L appear exactly identical. Verdana, however, keeps them distinct because Verdana's capital-i, as an exception, has serifs. Other fonts either have two horizontal bars on the capital-i and/or have a curved tail on the lowercase-L.

• List of Sans Serif typefaces
• Serif
• Roman type
• Italic type
• Monospace
• Emphasis (typography)
• The British literary spoof island San Serriffe

1. ^ Serifs more used for headlines
2. ^ Mills, M. and Bernard, M. So, what Size and Type of Font Should I Use on my Website? Usability News 2000.
3. ^ Lyn Pemberton & Sanaz Fallahkhair. Design Issues for Dual Device Learning: interactive television and mobile phone. School of Computing, Mathematics and Information Sciences, University of Brighton, UK.
4. ^ James Mosley, The Nymph and the Grot: the revival of the sanserif letter, London: Friends of the St Bride Printing Library, 1999
5. ^ James Mosley, The Nymph and the Grot: the revival of the sanserif letter, London: Friends of the St Bride Printing Library, 1999
6. ^ The Nymph and the Grot, an update
7. ^ James Mosley, The Nymph and the Grot: the revival of the sanserif letter, London: Friends of the St Bride Printing Library, 1999
8. ^ James Mosley, The Nymph and the Grot: the revival of the sanserif letter, London: Friends of the St Bride Printing Library, 1999
9. ^ James Mosley, The Nymph and the Grot: the revival of the sanserif letter, London: Friends of the St Bride Printing Library, 1999
10. ^ The Nymph and the Grot, an update
11. ^ Sans serif
12. ^ Why Gothic?
13. ^ OED Definition of Gothic
14. ^ The Sans Serif Typefaces
15. ^ See for examples [1]

• everything2.com: sans serif

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