What Are Some Proportional Type Fonts?
- A spiky and colorful proportional fontspike font image by Adrian Hillman from Fotolia.com
In typography, there are two broad families of fonts: monospace and proportional. Monospace fonts resemble typewriter print--all letters have the same width. Proportional fonts have variable letter widths. The letter I, for example, is thinner than the letter M in a proportional font; they are the same width in monospace. Proportional fonts are divided into categories based on specific characteristics. Within each category are thousands of individual fonts, each with its own personality and appearance. - Serif fonts generally have variable thick and thin lines in the letter structure, with small lines at the end of the strokes. Serif fonts are good for large blocks of text printed on paper, as the serifs seem to lead the eye from one letter to the next. Serif fonts can be subdivided into Oldstyle, Modern and Slab type serifs. Oldstyle serif fonts, like Times New Roman, Garamond and Palatino, have a diagonal stress and moderate thick-to-thin transitions. Modern serif fonts, like Bodoni and Onyx, have a vertical stress and more obvious thick-to-thin transitions. Slab serif fonts, including Clarendon and New Century Schoolbook, have thick, horizontal serifs with little to no thick-to-thin transition.
- Most sans serif fonts have no serifs and no thick to thin transitions. They have better readability on computer screens because their clean lines eliminate visual clutter. Franklin Gothic, Verdana, Futura, Arial and Helvetica are common sans serif fonts. A few sans serif fonts, like Optima, have a slight thick-to-thin transition that makes them somewhat more challenging to combine with other fonts.
- Script fonts emulate calligraphy or handwriting. These are highly decorative and should be used sparingly, as they lack readability. Common script fonts include Lucida Calligraphy, Zapf Chancery, Vivaldi, Shelley Volante, Blackletter and French Script.
- Decorative fonts are intended for use as accents and should not be used for large blocks of text. Overuse of such fonts can "destroy a design," according to typography expert and author Robin Williams. Decorative fonts vary in readability, with fonts like Mekanik, Juice and Stencil being fairly easy to read, while fonts like Curlz, Parchment, Exotica and Thor's Hammer are much more difficult.
- A "dingbat" is a graphic element, like a pointing finger, a mailbox, directional arrows or geometric shapes. Dingbat fonts are collections of various symbols, most of which are proportional. Examples of dingbat fonts include Wingdings, ITC Zapf Dingbats and Marlett.
