Re(3): Font Selection Methodology

[Jan Henning <henning -at- r-l -dot- de>]

>I find this statement rather perplexing. Doesn't "sans serif" mean, both
>etymologically and conventionally, "without serif"? Zapf himself apparently
>called it a "serifless roman type," and you agree, stating that it has no
>serifs; doesn't that make it sans serif by definition? Are you suggesting
>that there exists a category _between_ serif and sans serif typefaces?

Yes. You see, "sans-serif" is a name, not a definition. Put very briefly,
sans-serif typefaces have:
- no serifs
- strokes of uniform widths (with a few exceptions)

Serif faces have:
- serifs
- strokes of non-uniform widths

There are text typefaces (as opposed to the fancy faces such as Brush
Script, Mistral, etc.) that do not fall neatly into either category. One
class are the Optima-style faces that do not have serifs (at least not
proper ones) but vary their stroke widths. Another class are the slab-
serif faces (I think there are other names as well) such as American
Typewriter. These faces do have serifs, but their strokes are largely the
same widths.

I'm not a real font expert, so I unfortunately cannot tell you much more.
Hope this answers at least part of your question.

Regards
Jan Henning

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Jan Henning
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