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It's painful to see an article this long discussing typefaces in detail that uses the word font incorrectly so many times. In casual usage I let the mistake by
by couchand 9y ago
It's painful to see an article this long discussing typefaces in detail that uses the word font incorrectly so many times. In casual usage I let the mistake by, but the author of this article really should know better.
The visual design of the letterforms and spacing of text is a typeface, not a font. A font is the delivery vehicle for a typeface -- it's a file format.
- GuiA 9y agoA typeface is the design, a font is a specific incarnation of it. Helvetica Bold 12pt and Helvetica 18pt are two different fonts from the same typeface, Helvetica. This comes from letterpress days where “font” referred to a collection of lead characters of a given typeface, weight, and size.
- altair11 9y agoNo, couchand is right. Now a font is the file (you're almost right on it’s origin, it originates from steel punchcutting where each point size did need it’s own font). So a font is helvetica-bold.otf not Helvetica Bold. Helvetica Bold is a weight of Helvetica. (All of this is likely to alter slightly though with the advent of variable fonts.)
- stestagg 9y agoExcept, arguably he’s also wrong. One definition it font is as described above. Another, as defined by usage, is as the original author used
- altair11 9y agoThe author of this article—Oliver Reichenstein—does know better. He's even laughing at this thread on twitter. Your definitions are correct but not once does he mistakenly use the term font.