Google fonts is the largest collection of free fonts that are available for use in print and digital. There are good free fonts and not so good free fonts. From a branding perspective I like to use paid fonts because they are less common and therefore will help the logo design stand out. Each and every tiny detail has to be considered - the shape of the dot on the ‘i’, the way the ‘j’ sits on the line, the way the letters look together in different pair combinations. At some point a typographer would’ve spent weeks, months or even years creating a typeface. You really have to read the fine print, especially if you're using a font in paid client work! How much do fonts cost?įonts can get expensive! If you brought the full Helvetica family today it would cost $474. Each Type Foundry or shop is going to have its own set of rules. The tricky thing about font licenses is that there is no standard license. Upper and lower case literally refers to their position in the cases that held the tiny metal letters. We take most of the terms around typography from these early days. I recommend you watch this video about how the press works, it will give you a new found appreciation for spell check and the backspace/delete key! Also the old guy running it is just delightful! Way back in 1440 Johannes Gutenberg invented the first printing press which used metal letters set in blocks of text that were inked then pressed into paper using a Printing Press. The word ‘font’ comes from middle french ‘fonte’ meaning cast in metal and that is how the machine printed letter started. It’s not only graphic designers who need this level of detail, UX and UI designers, web developers and app designers all need to know the exact font, size and weight to write it into a website or app's code so it displays correctly. “If the font is the song, the typeface is the artist.”Īs a brand designer, I create brand guidelines for clients which instruct them on how to use fonts to help create consistency and reinforce the look and essence of their brand. Then we refine it down to a specific font by setting its size, weight, style and sometimes the character set such as Roman, Cyrillic or Greek when we use it. I like the way Creative Blog describes the difference, We choose a typeface because of its common aesthetic qualities. People tend to freely interchange these terms today but since this is a serious article I’m going to try and use the right terminology. The font includes precise details like the weight, style (bold/italic) and point size.Ī typeface is a set of letters, numbers and symbols (like glyphs) that have a common design ethos. I’ve felt like my blog has been getting a little heavy over the last few weeks so I thought I'd take a breather from the emotional rollercoaster that is my life and deep dive into font law! Let's start at the beginning by answering: What is the difference between a font and a typeface?Ī font is a computer file, software or program that instructs your computer to display and print each letter in a particular way.
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