Re: Times Roman 'N' Helveti

[Tracey Showalter <tshowalt -at- SCTCORP -dot- COM>]

        Reply to:   RE>>Times Roman 'N' Helvetic

Nancy Burns wrote:
>I'm not clear on the distinction between font and typeface........
>...Seems like the definitions are similar.  How would you distinguish
>their use?

It's a bit long, but this is the best explanation I've run across:

>From _The Macintosh Font Book_, Erfert Fenton, p1:

"In the early days of type, a *font* was the set of cast metal characters from
which text was printed.   ....   Back then, a separate font had to be carved
and cast for each size of type. The letters, numbers, and other characters
printed from the font made up a *typeface* -- a set of characters that share a
common design. In computer-based typesetting, in which a digitally-encoded
master character set can be scaled to a point size, the original concept of a
font has become obsolete, nowadays, the terms font and typeface (or face) are
often used interchangeably.  ...  in other words, the characters you see on the
screen or the master set ytou load into a printer .... [are] called fonts. The
printed characters generated by these fonts belong to a particular face, such
as Times or Palatino.  ..."

Mr. Fenton goes on to discuss all sorts of typographical mysteries, such as the
difference between oblique and italic, what is meant by book, roman, plain, and
just why your favorite font insists on printing as your most hated font.