Font Facts

Carl Shank • January 15, 2021

All About Type

1. SERIF – (in TYPE above) “feet” in French; a small finishing stroke to a letter form that crosses roughly perpendicular to the stroke. Serif type is preferred in text, or “body,” copy because it is more readable in longer sections of type. This is because the letter forms are more distinguishable, and the eye naturally follows the horizontal strokes of the letter forms.


2. SANS SERIF – (in STYLE above) “without feet” in French; a font without serifs. Helvetica is an example of a “sans serif” font. Sans serif type is more legible and often preferred in headlines or what is called “display” copy. It’s uniform strokes help the face to stand out.


3. POINT SIZE – the height of the type body, including the ascenders (cf. 8 ) and the descenders (cf. 6) and extending to a fixed depth below  the descenders. In modern desktop publishing, one point equals 1⁄72 inch.This sample is set in 90 point type.


4. X-HEIGHT – the height of lowercase letters without ascenders or descenders, like the “e” measured from the baseline (cf. 5 ) to the mean line (cf. 9), or top of such letters. X-height becomes important when choosing a typeface, or font, for a particular column width. Wider columns use type with greater x-height, while narrow columns generally require a  typeface with a smaller x-height.


5. BASELINE – an imaginary horizontal line on which the font letters forms rest. Note that for font design purposes, some letter forms, like the "o" fall slightly below the baseline.


6. DESCENDER – the portion of letters like “g,” “j,” “p,” “q,” and “y” that extends below the baseline. It is usually less than the height of an ascender.


7. ITALICS – type that slants to the right, used to set off quotes, book titles and special phrases. Some fonts have what are called “true” italics (like the “e” in TYPE), while others have “oblique” or merely slanted letters (like the “e” in STYLE). Sans serif (cf. 2) in STYLE) letter forms usually have “obliques” for italics.


8. ASCENDER – the portion of a lowercase letter that extends above the mean line (cf. 9).


9. MEAN LINE – the imaginary line at the top of lowercase letters without ascenders or descenders, like the “e” measured from the baseline (cf. 7 ). SEE x-height 4.


10. DINGBATS – small decorative marks, bullets, boxes, or symbols that make up a specialty font; once known as “printer’s flowers.” Here the dingbat is from the typeface known as Zapf Dingbats. Dingbats add “spice” to ads and even some kinds of text copy.

Successful Layout & Design

French Typography History (Part 2)

By Carl Shank • August 24, 2026
Art Nouveau and Paris Between 1500 and 1900 typography evolved from Renaissance humanist forms to industrial mass production and artistic revival. Old style typefaces (like Garamond) moved to Transitional faces (like Baskerville) to Modern/Didone faces (like Didot and Bodoni) to Industrial display types (fat faces, slab serifs, sans serifs) to the Arts & Crafts revivals. Art Nouveau was a reaction against the academicism, eclecticism and historicism of nineteenth century architecture and decorative art. The new art movement had its roots in Britain, in the floral designs of William Morris, and in the Arts and Crafts movement founded by the pupils of Morris. Art Nouveau fonts ( REFERENCE ) grew out of the late nineteenth century Art Nouveau movement (c. 1890–1910). The style flourished across Europe and America in architecture, furniture, illustration, and typography. In lettering, Art Nouveau embraced organic forms, flowing curves, floral motifs, and asymmetry, reflecting the movement’s fascination with natural growth and hand-drawn ornament. Art Nouveau took its name from the Maison de l'Art Nouveau, a Parisian gallery that exhibited the works of artists and designers who were associated with the movement. The style was characterized by flowing, curvilinear forms inspired by natural shapes and motifs such as flowers, vines, and insects. It also incorporated elements from other artistic traditions, such as Japanese art and the Arts and Crafts movement. The work of Alphonse Mucha and the type of Eugene Smauel Grasset (1845–1917) are particularly important to understanding this period. (ILLS) Grasset taught design at the École Guérin from 1890 to 1903, at the École d’Art graphique in the rue Madame from 1903 to 1904, at theAcadémie de la Grande Chaumiere from 1904 to 1913, and at the École Estienne in Paris. Grasset had freely adapted the alphabet of Nicolas Jenson (1471) with the intention of using it to print a book on his own method for ornamental composition, inspired by the courses he gave to the Guérin school. (Wikipedia) The Grasset Typeface (ILLS) from Lewis F. Day's Alphabets Old and New , London, 1910, shows that art nouveau flair for which these men were famous. The font has been digitized by CARE Typography and is offered with a number of other historic fonts for a modest fee. Contact cshanktype@gmail.com for details. Auriol (1901, George Auriol, France). Produced by G. Peignot et Fils foundry, was one of the most widely used Art Nouveau fonts in Paris. It was inspired by Japanese calligraphy. Japanese calligraphy, called Shodo or Shuji, heavily influenced Art Nouveau type. Art Nouveau was particularly popular in Europe, where it influenced a wide range of artistic disciplines, including architecture, interior design, furniture, jewelry, and graphic design. Some of the most notable Art Nouveau architects included Hector Guimard, Antoni Gaudí, and Victor Horta, while artists such as Alphonse Mucha, Aubrey Beardsley, and Gustav Klimt were celebrated for their decorative and ornamental works. By 1910, Art Nouveau was fading. It was seen as overly decorative and was replaced by Art Deco, Plakatstil (poster style), and modernist sans-serifs (e.g., Futura, 1927). Still, Art Nouveau typefaces remained popular in advertising for certain luxury goods. In the 1960s–70s counterculture revival, fonts like Arnold Böcklin were rediscovered and associated with psychedelic posters, bringing Art Nouveau back into fashion. In short, Art Nouveau fonts were display-oriented, highly decorative, and tied to the broader artistic revolt against rigid academic styles. Fonts like Eckmann, Auriol, Bradley, and Arnold Böcklin remain the most recognizable products of the period.

French Typography History (Part 1)

By Carl Shank • August 24, 2026
Parisian Typography History Parisian typography refers broadly to the traditions of type design, printing, lettering, bookmaking, and graphic design that developed in Paris, particularly from the early days of European printing through the modern era. Paris became one of Europe's most important centers of typographic culture, alongside Venice, Rome, Antwerp, Amsterdam, London, and later Berlin. What makes Paris especially significant is that French typography repeatedly combined technical innovation with an unusually strong concern for aesthetics and cultural identity. The French Renaissance established some of the foundations of Western book typography, The Romain du Roi introduced a rationalized approach to letterform construction. Didot transformed the Roman into a highly elegant Modern style, while Parisian poster, fashion, and advertising design subsequently made typography an essential component of visual culture. For a study of European typography, Paris is therefore best viewed not simply as another printing center, but as one of the places where the craft of type, the art of the book, state patronage, intellectual culture, fashion, and graphic design repeatedly converged. Parisian typography in perspective The history of Parisian typography can therefore be understood as a progression through several major phases — Gothic manuscript tradition, to Renaissance humanism, to French Old Style Romans, to Royal/Rational typography, to Romain du Roi, to Didot Modern Roman, and to Industrial display typography. Another way to organize this history would be to note several recurring characteristics of French typography. French typographical elegance can be seen in the developing of refined proportions and carefully controlled letterforms. There was a strong early connection to Roman inscriptions and Renaissance typography. Mathematical order was especially evident in the Romain du Roi typography. Didot established high contrast in lettering and there was strong emphasis on readable, beautiful text typography. Ornamentation became particularly important in the Art Nouveau period. Display typography defined much of posters and advertising typography. Type was often treated as part of French intellectual culture, and Paris repeatedly absorbed international design movements.
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