Serif Fonts

Learning just a little about the terminology will help you to have a greater appreciation for type; it will also help you to identify different typefaces and fonts — and that in turn will help you make better, more informed choices about the fonts you use.
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One of the terms of type that most are familiar with is “Serif”. It is easily distinguishable from Sheriff — John Wayne has shot and killed several sheriffs; to the best of my knowledge, he has never out-gunned a serif. Serifs are often small, but they’re tough.

“What is a Serif?” 
it’s the curly bits at the ends of letters.

The origin of the serif can be traced back to ancient Rome. Before an Inscription was carved into stone, the letters were first painted on. Slightly wider sections form at the ends of brush-strokes. The stone carvers would faithfully carve out letters including the flares at the end of the strokes — so was born the serif.

The Latin alphabet that we still use today was created by the Etruscans and the Romans, and derived from the Greek. It had only 23 letters: the J, U and W were missing. The J was represented by the I, the U was written as V and there was no need for a W. The story of the Z is particularly interesting.
In the third century BC, the letter G (a variant of C) was added; Z was borrowed from the Greek, then dropped as Latin had no need for it — perhaps at the behest of the Roman censor Appius Claudius; G took its place in the line-up, until the first century BC, when the Romans decided they needed the Z for borrowed Greek words (when Greek literature became the vogue), they re-introduced it, and placed it at the end of the alphabet, where it remains to this day.

Trajan, the Movie Font

The word "serif" comes from the Dutch schreef, meaning “wrote”, the term “sanserif” pre-dates serif, so sanserif simply meant without serif. Japanese, uruko, means fish scales, and in Chinese the term, translated literally into English, comes out as “forms with/made with legs”.

There are numerous kinds of serif. The two main types are Adnate and Abrupt.
The Adnate serif is more organic. Notice how the serifs join the the stems via a curve;

the Abrupt Serif — as its name suggests — is squarer and more rigid, and doesn’t flow into the base letterform; the slab serif is a good example of an abrupt serif. It’s square.

More Serif Types

Typography Assignment 1- Find 5 examples  of serif fonts for your "Font Library". Type out the font with the title of the font, then describe the qualities of the font and where it would be most useful.

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