An overview of type classifications

- [Voiceover] There are numerous ways of classifying type.…The biggest distinction we can make to begin with…is between serif typefaces, and sans serif typefaces.…The serifs being the adornments on the end of the letters.…Drilling down deeper, we see that there are numerous types…of serif and numerous types of sans serif.…These different styles, old style, transitional,…modern, and slab serif, are presented in…more or less chronological order,…starting with old style in the mid 15th century.…

Fast forward 300 years, and we come to transitional.…Transitional class being a transition from the old style…to the modern.…Now the old style look as if they had been crafted…with a calligraphic pen, by the time we get to the modern,…there's a very clear distinction between the thick parts…of the stroke an the thin parts of the stroke,…and the stress, rather than being diagonal,…is very vertical.…

So the modern typeface, and by modern in this context,…I'm talking about the late 18th century,…these look very machine like, and they are somewhat austere.…