#260 – The Concept of Fonts

A typeface is a set of glyphs in a particular style, used to render characters.  A typeface is also sometimes known as a font family.

In Windows, a font is a set of glyphs defined by the combination of a typeface, font weight and font style (or slope).

A font weight dictates the thickness of the characters and includes choices like:

• Thin
• Extra Light / Ultra Light
• Light
• Normal / Regular
• Medium
• Demi-Bold / Semi-Bold
• Bold
• Extra-Bold / Ultra-Bold
• Black / Heavy
• Extra-Black / Ultra-Black

A font style/slope dictates the angle that the glyphs are slanted includes choices:

• Italic
• Normal / Regular
• Oblique

When we combine typeface, weight and style, we then end up with different fonts, for example:

• Cambria Regular  (normal weight and style)
• Cambria Bold  (normal style)
• Cambria Bold Italic
• Cambria Italic  (normal weight)

Samples of these fonts are shown below.