Introduction to Design Systems

Font types

There are several different types of fonts and each has distinguishing characteristics.

Serif

Serif fonts have short lines or strokes on the open ends of letters.

Serif fonts include fonts such as:

  • Times New Roman
  • Georgia

Sans-Serif

Sans-serif fonts, in contrast to serif fonts, do not have short lines or strokes on the open ends of letters (sans means without in French).

Sans-serif fonts include fonts such as:

  • Arial
  • Tahoma

Monospaced

Monospaced fonts have letters and characters which occupy the same amount of horizontal space. They were typically used on typewriters.

Monospaced fonts include fonts such as:

  • Courier
  • IBM Plex Mono