The fonts used depend on the alphabet, language standards, the intention of the writer and many other things. Discover the most important ones.
Writing is intrinsic to human nature, as itis one of the many determining factors that separated us at the biological level from other animal communities, however complex or intricate they may be. In fact, the invention of writing is the fact that supposes the limit between prehistory and history itself: the first writings date from Mesopotamia and Egypt around 3,500 BC and, from its creation, the human being abandoned prehistory and immersed himself in the Ancient Age.
Writing, on the other hand, can be defined as a system of graphic representation of a language, by means of signs, traces or engravings on some type of physical support. This graphic mode has been truly important in the history of humanity, because its task is invaluable: the transmission of information beyond the life of the individual. What would become of society if knowledge died with each person? Is it even possible to imagine culture without writing and letters?
We prefer to think that no, that is,that written language is an intrinsic and inseparable condition of the human condition. Beyond ramblings and meanings, today we get technical: if you stay with us, you will discover the 8 types of letters that exist and their characteristics.
- We recommend you read: “The 55 rarest words in Spanish (meaning and origin)”
What is a letter and what are its types?
The letter is one of the basic and main elements of written communication to convey any type of message or information. According to the Royal Academy of the Spanish Language (RAE), the letter is defined as “each of the graphic signs that make up the alphabet of a language”. From a more social and practical point of view, it can be said that the lyrics arise from the need to capture a sound, a process known as transcription.
All the letters together encompassed in a language form what we know today as the alphabet, also defined as the grouping of the spellings used to represent the language that serves as a communication system. Although there are many similarities between the different alphabets, they all differ in a number of key points such as, for example, the addition of elements to pre-existing letters (as is the case with the French alphabet with é, à and ô). These combinations are not considered additional letters, but are intrinsic to the process of writing the language.
Talking about fonts is a truly complex task, because itdepends on the alphabet, language and writing format in which we look. For example, it has nothing to do with writing a text on computer and paper, because, without going any further, in the LibreOffice package there are more than 40 graphic styles based on the needs of the consumer. Therefore, we will designate the typology of letters based on a series of parameters and compartments.
1. Fonts regardless of series
First of all, it should be noted that aseries is a set of typefaces with common weight, proportion, tilt and spacing. An example of this could be the Comic Sans series, designed by Vincent Connare in 1994 for Microsoft Corporation. A series is created by a specific designer or house with a specific objective, in this case, to imitate the letters of a comic in formal writings.
Anyway, regardless of the graphic style of the letters, there are 3 types and variants that can be presented throughout a text. We tell you in the following lines.
1.1 Round or normal font
Round or normal handwritingis used in almost all parts of the text. In the language of printing experts, the round letter or redondilla is a style characterized by keeping vertical the antlers that go from top to bottom in the symbol and rounded their short letters. It’s the normal style we all use in the writing process and it’s standardized in any media, like this one you’re reading.
1.2 Italics
Italics allow you to type manually with a higher speed. The cursive letter has many colloquial names: letter letter, italics, italics, handwritten and many others. Anyway, all these nicknames highlight a fact, and this is the inclination of the rounded letters to the right. Normally, handwritten italics also usually present the concatenation of the letters in the same word.
As its name suggests, the cursive letter (from the Latin curro, to run) finds its origin in the hasty manual writing. Today, according to the Fundéu, the use of italics is indicated to indicate that a word or group of words has a special meaning that does not correspond to that of the common lexicon of the language. This can be to point out neologisms, a slang or to establish metalanguage guidelines, among other things.
1.3 Bold font
The bold letter serves, mostly, to create emphasis. The bold is a typeface similar to the round, but with a much thicker stroke. This typeface is used to highlight or emphasize a specific part of the text. Professionals in the field of writing emphasize that this resource should be used with some limitation, as it causes a lot of visual fatigue in the reader.
2. Typefaces in the Indo-European language
Beyond the angulation and thickness of the letters, they can be of another nature. You will know what we mean in the following lines.
2.1 Uppercase
The uppercase letter is largerand, in general, has a different shape to the lowercase, with which it contrasts very clearly in a text. In Spanish, capital letters are used at the beginning of a sentence, in the first letter of a proper name, in acronyms and initials and after a question mark or exclamation.
The differentiation between upper and lower case begins at school, but it is usual for the human being to make certain errors even in adulthood. Did you know that, for example, the preposition of a surname is capitalized when a person’s name is not mentioned?
2.2 Lowercase
In various alphabets, lowercase is the spelling that has the smallest sizeand shape other than the uppercase. It is the unmarked and general spelling, which is used practically in all situations that do not correspond to the previous case.
3. Fonts according to the alphabet
Within the Latin alphabet there are up to 65 sub-alphabets, among which is Spanish. Only with this information you will surely get an idea of the variety of spellings that exist in the world based on the languages spoken. Here are some examples for you to see the variety of written symbols that have originated the human mind.
3.1 Arabic letters
ليتراس عرب
Although it seems completely foreign to most Spanish speakers, the Arabic alphabet is the second most used worldwide, only behind Latin. The Arabic alphabet contains a total of 28 basic letterss with a variety of special characters and vowel markers. It is written in a curs font style.
3.2 Cyrillic letters
буквы на русском
The Cyrillic alphabet was created in Preslav, the capital of the first Bulgarian empire, during the tenth century. Since 1918, one of the most famous languages used Cyrillic, Russian, has a total of 33 letters. Of the many languages that use this curious alphabet, we find the following: Abkhaz, Azeri, Belarusian, Bosnian, Bulgarian, Chechen, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Komi, Macedonian and Moldovan, among others.
3.3 Chinese letters (sinogram)
中文字母
Chinese characters or sinograms are a writing system developed by the Han Chinese populations, who today represent the largest ethnic group in the world. As a curiosity, it should be noted thatthe characters of this communication system are morphosyllabic, that is, each of them corresponds to a syllable and provides a specific meaning. In total, we count from 26 to 29 characters that make up this writing system.
Summary
Unbelievable, right? Registering the variety of letters in the world is a real challenge, because, with more than 190 countries recognized worldwide and thousands of years of history written behind us, the number and form of spellings used shines for its immense variety.
If we want a concept to be clear to you, this is the following: within the Latin alphabet, regardless of the graphic series used, we find uppercase and lowercase letters, which can be in round, bold or italic format. Beyond these general rules, each culture and language breaks Western linguistic patterns in one way or another, as they are governed by completely different rules.
To the classic question “what do you do?” I always answer “basically I am a psychologist”. In fact, my academic training has revolved around the psychology of development, education and community, a field of study influenced my volunteer activities, as well as my first work experiences in personal services.