Font categories

It is difficult to classify typefaces due their diversity and new ideas constant inflow, therefore there is no strictly official well-established concept of systematization. Pretty known in typography the Vox-ATypI classification, established in 1954, organizes fonts in 10 general categories. Afterward, to make his typeface classification more compact, Vox simplified it into 9 part-scheme.

Based on this, British Standards for Type Classification were established (1967) and considerably simplified. According to them, three categories of fonts were identified: Classicals, Moderns and Calligraphics.

Classicals are broken down into Humanist, Garaldes and Transitional.

Moderns include: Modern Serif, Slab Serif, Grotesque, Neo Grotesque, Geometric Sans, Humanist Sans Serif.

Calligraphics subdivide the typefaces into Glyphic, Script, Graphic and Blackletter. Gaelic fonts were added to this category in 2010.

Certainly, general characteristic provided here cannot be clearly interpreted as right or wrong. It only reflects the attempt of typefaces classification, perhaps, currently the most effective and the brightest one. Some resources simplify and mark out on the basis of standard characteristics several font classes, for example: Sans Serif, Serif, Slab Serif, Script, Display, Blackletter.

AZFonts has tried to establish simple and user-friendly type classification in which both conditional systematization and user-oriented comfort are reflected. It may differ from those you ever seen in other sources. Each category represented at AZFonts is accompanied by short descritpion with the key attributes. One typeface may be set into several complementary categories.