 | Sans-serif font |
 | Serif font |
 | Serif font (serifs in red) |
Intypography, asans seriftypeface is one that does not have the tiny feet called "serifs" at the end of strokes.[1] The term comes from the French wordsans, meaning "without" and "serif" from the Dutch wordschreef meaning "line".
Sans serif typefaces have been used since the 18th century, but became most used in the twentieth century as themodern art movement developed. Most designers of typefaces were artists. Some were outstanding in other artistic fields, and were part of the wider artistic culture of their times.[2]
The apostle of sans serif wasJan Tschichold (2 April 1902Leipzig,Germany – 11 August 1974Locarno,Switzerland), a German-Swissgraphic designer.[3][4][5] Tschichold not only designed typefaces, he showed how they could be used in the design of book printing. He was a chief designer for Penguin Books after theSecond World War.[6]
Sans serif faces are most used for display signs, advertising and for headings in books. Although they seem to work well for the text in books, they are much less used for that purpose.