Serif and sans-serif letterforms

1Letters are drawings too

Walk down any street in Kigali and read the signs: a pharmacy, a hair salon, a bus destination board, a church notice, a football shirt. Every one of those letters was designed. Lettering is the art of drawing letters as carefully designed shapes, by hand or on a computer, for signs, posters, book covers, badges and cards. It is different from ordinary handwriting, which is quick and personal, and from calligraphy, beautiful writing made with a pen or brush in flowing strokes. The first thing a letterer decides is the style of the letters, and the two great families are serif and sans-serif.

2Key vocabulary

• Letterform: the shape of a letter.
• Typeface (letter style): a set of letters, numbers and signs designed to look alike, such as all the letters of one style of sign.
• Serif: a small finishing stroke at the end of the main strokes of a letter, like a little foot or cap.
• Sans-serif: letters without serifs (sans is French for "without").
• Stroke contrast: the difference between the thick and thin parts of a letter.

3Serif letters

• Features: serifs at the ends of strokes, usually with clear thick-and-thin contrast. The serifs are often joined to the stroke with a small curve called a bracket.
• Origin: the Romans carved capitals with serifs into stone about 2,000 years ago. A widely accepted explanation is that the letters were first painted on the stone with a flat brush, and the carver followed the brush strokes, including the small finishing strokes at the ends. The flat brush also explains the thick and thin parts.
• Feeling and uses: traditional, formal, trustworthy. Used for book text, newspapers, certificates, invitations and names of old institutions.

4Sans-serif letters

• Features: no serifs, and the strokes are usually almost the same thickness all the way round (little contrast).
• Origin: very old carved letters were often plain like this, but sans-serif printing type first appeared in England around 1816. It looked so new that some printers called it "grotesque".
• Feeling and uses: modern, clean, simple. Easy to read from a distance and on screens, so it is used for road signs, logos, phone apps and children's books.

5Three more families to recognise

• Slab serif: heavy, block-shaped serifs and even strokes. Bold and strong: posters, shop signs, headlines.
• Script: joined, flowing letters like fine handwriting. Elegant for names on invitations, but hard to read in long text or in capitals.
• Blackletter (Gothic): dense, dark letters with broken, angular strokes, used in European books 500 years ago and on some newspaper titles today.

Worked example: choosing a style for the job

Byiringiro's art club has three lettering jobs. He chooses a family for each and gives a reason.

1. A sign for the school gate, read from a moving bus: sans-serif capitals. Plain, even strokes stay clear at a distance and at a glance.
2. An invitation to a prize-giving ceremony: serif. Its thick-and-thin strokes feel formal and traditional, which suits a ceremony. The guest's name could be in script.
3. A poster for a sports day: slab serif for the title. Its heavy serifs look bold and energetic from across the playground.

6Make it

1. Lettering hunt: find ten examples of lettering on signs, packets, T-shirts and books. Sketch one word from each and label its family: serif, sans-serif, slab serif, script or blackletter.
2. The double pencil: tape two sharp pencils tightly together side by side. Hold them so the two points touch the paper at the same slant all the time, and write capital letters about 4 cm tall. The two points draw both edges of a broad stroke: strokes going one way come out thick, strokes going the other way thin. This is where thick-and-thin contrast comes from.
3. Two styles, one word: on squared paper, letter your first name twice in capitals 3 cm tall: once in sans-serif with even strokes, once in serif with thick stems, thin strokes and small serifs.

7Look closely

Compare two inscriptions carved in marble. The first is Greek, from about 425 BC. The second is a Roman tombstone from the early 3rd century AD.

• In the Greek letters every stroke has about the same thickness and ends plainly, with no serifs, much like a sans-serif.
• In the Roman letters, look at the A, N and V: one diagonal is thicker than the other, and many strokes end with small flared serifs.
• Neither carver used lowercase letters: all ancient Greek and Roman inscriptions were in capitals. Lowercase letters developed much later, from handwriting.

Practice