Typography Word of the Day: Serif

Second in an irregular series

The serif is, quite simply, the cross stroke at the end of the stem strokes of any letter or glyph. This much is actually not a mystery. The real mystery is that nobody is really quite certain when or where the serif was born.

There are two likely sources. One school of thought holds that the Roman stonecarvers, who created the beautful classic Roman capitals, chiseled this cross stroke in order to provide a finished look to the carved strokes of the letters on the monuments. Another holds that they are decorative flourishes and also to finish off the strokes of brush-created lettering.

Parts of the Part

It may seem odd, but it also happens that this elementary part is made up of other parts. The word bracketing describes the curve (or lack thereof) that forms the transition from the stem stroke to the serif. The terminal is the treatment the ends of the serif get.

Serifs also come in varying forms. A cupped serif has an upward bow, like that of the arch of a foot-the serif only touches the baseline at two points. This can be found on old-style fonts such as Garamond. A slab serif is rectangular, with no curved bracketing, and is found on so-called “Egyptian” fonts such as Clarendon.

One term just about everyone, typographer or not, is familiar with is sans-serif, meaning, of course, without a serif. Examples are easily found, but perhaps the best of this would be Gill Sans or perhaps Paul Renner’s Futura family.