Contents 1 Classification 1.1 Oldstyle (Venetian) 1.2 Transitional 1.3 Modern 1.4 Square serif (Slab serif, Egyptian) 1.5 Sans serif (Grotesque, Gothic) 2 Installing Fonts on Linux 3 Reference

Classification

I have to say most of information is from Kane's book^[1] (I took his typography class at RISD), and www.redsun.com^[2].

Oldstyle (Venetian)

Venetian typefaces arose with the use of the letterpress in 15th Century Italy. Based upon the lowercase forms used by Italian humanist scholars for book copying (themselves based upon the ninth-century Caroline miniscule) and the uppercase letterforms found inscribed on Roman ruins, the forms evolved away from their calligraphic origins over 200 years, as they migrated across Europe, from Italy to England. Bembo, Caslon, Garamond, Janson, Jenson and Palatino are famous Venetian typefaces.

Transitional

A refinement of Oldstyle forms, this style was achieved in part because of the change from the woodcut to copperplate engravings in the 17th Century. Think-to-thin relationships were exaggerated, and brackets were lightened. Baskerville, Bulmer, Century, and Times Roman are famous Transitional typefaces.

Modern

This style represents a further rationalization of Oldstyle letterforms. Serifs were unbracketed, and the contrast between vertical and horizontal strokes was extreme. English versions (like Bell) are also known as Scotch Romans and more closely resemble transitional forms. Bell, Bodoni, Caledonia, Didot, and Walbaum are famous Modern typefaces.

Square serif (Slab serif, Egyptian)

Originally heavily bracketed serifs, with little variation between thick and thin strokes, these faces responded to the newly developed needs of advertising for heavy type in commercial printing. Also, brackets were dropped. Clarendon, Memphis, Rockwell, Serifa and Typewriter are famous Square serif typefaces.

Sans serif (Grotesque, Gothic)

As their name implies, these typefaces eliminated serifs altogether. Although the form was first introduced by William Caslon IV in 1816. The first of these typefaces were considered awkward and unappealing since they lacked the traditional serif. Therefore, they were called Grotesque. A hundred years later, in the 1920's, they were again in demand by the Bauhaus movement. Variations tended toward either humanist forms (Gill Sans) or the geometric (Futura). There are many examples: Akzidenz Grotesk, Grotesque, Gill Sans, Franklin Gothic, Frutiger, Futura, Helvetica, Optima, Syntax, and Univers.

Installing Fonts on Linux

• Here's information about the core fonts ^[3][4]. As the first link says, you should download cabextract and install it to convert exe files to ttf files.
• Here's information about good coding fonts: ^[5]. I chose Bitstream Vera Sans Mono. Yon can download them from gnome ftp^[6].
• Go to the font directory and run the followings:

  ttmkfdir > fonts.dir
  ttmkfdir > fonts.scale
  mkfontdir
  xset fp+ DIRECTORY
  xset fp rehash

• Actually it did not work. Instead the following worked ^[7]:

  fc-cache -f -v ~/.fonts

Reference

1. ↑ Kane, John. A type primer. Prentice Hall, 2003.
2. ↑ www.redsun.com, Typeface Classification
3. ↑ web.nickshanks.com, Download Microsoft core fonts
4. ↑ Wikipedia, Core fonts for the web
5. ↑ www.lowing.org, Monospace/fixed width programmer's fonts
6. ↑ ftp.gnome.org, Download Bitstream Vera Sans Mono
7. ↑ PenguinFonts, HOWTO Install fonts on Fedora Core