Sans serif fonts, their types and usability in web and graphic design

What is a sans serif font? Most people who work with a computer are used to reading these names (serif, sans serif, sans…) on their font list when they are editing a text document on a word processor, or when using image edition software to add some text to a photograph. But for designers, these words have an important meaning that should be taken into account when designin graphics, websites, publications, etc.

First, we are going to learn what a serif is (or remember it, in case you already knew!). The serifs are the extra strokes, horizontal or vertical, that appear in some typefaces (called serif fonts). These typefaces originated back when inscriptions were carved into stone, in Roman antiquity.

Sans serif fonts, then, are the ones that don’t have these ornamental lines in them. They started being widely used during the 1920s Bauhaus movement. They were seen as more modern, and more informal than the usual fonts with serifs that we still see in print and screens.

Today, these sans serif fonts are used in blogs and online articles in newspapers with large bodies of text, because their legibility on screen is really good. They are also used in small texts, titles, captions… Pretty much everywhere!

The sans serif fonts are classified into three or four groups (depending on if you split the last category into grotesque and neo-grotesque, or not). Let’s learn about the particularities of each one of them!

Grotesque style

These were the first sans serif designs, from the 19th century to the early 20th. They were solid designs, suitable for advertisements, titles and posters. The terminals of the curves in these fonts are usually horizontal, and there’s little variation in the width of the strokes.

Some of the fonts with this style are Akzidenz Grotesk, News Gothic or Monotype Grotesque.

Neo-grotesque style

This was the evolution of the previous type, the grotesque. They also have limited variation, but they were more versatile and were very useful for readable bodies of text. They often feature a “folded up”-like design, where the strokes curve and end with horizontal and vertical lines.

Famous fonts featuring this style include Helvetica, Univers and Folio.

Geometric style

These typefaces have in common that they are designed after geometric elements, such as circles and squares. They became very popular during the 20s and the 30s, because their design was perceived as modern and clean.

Amongst the typefaces in geometric style, there is Futura, Architype Bayer and Gotham.

Humanist style

This style was inspired by traditional lettering, calligraphy and traditional serif fonts. The earliest designs were inspired by classic letters like Roman square capitals. Their designs are more varied than the other categories.

This style can be found in fonts like Lucida Grande, Verdana, Tahoma, Calibri… Surely they sound familiar!

The sans-serif font is chosen by many web and graphic designers for printable text, body copy and logotypes because they are very easy to read on screen. The main advantage in printing sans serif is that it stays legible even at very small sizes or in children’s book, because they are easier to recognize.

You can find many tutorials on Freepik Academy to learn more about design, how to make the most out of your typography collection and how to create eye-catching graphics and improve your skills. Make sure to take a look at them! 🙂