Fonts are defined with this font terminology:

Type family

A type family is a group of typefaces that share basic design characteristics and encompass many size and style variations. Examples of type families include:

• Courier
• Helvetica
• Times New Roman

Typeface

A typeface is a collection of characters that have the same style, weight, and width. Examples of these attributes are shown in Figure 1.

• Style is the inclination of a letter around a vertical axis; for example, roman (upright) or italic (slanted).
• Weight is the degree of boldness of a typeface; for example, medium or bold.
• Width is the horizontal variation in a character design; for example, normal or condensed.

Type font, type size, and complement

A type font, or font, is a collection of characters that share the same type family, typeface, and type size. Collections of characters for expanded core fonts are referred to as complements.

Note: In Type Transformer, complements are called character lists.

Figure 1 shows the basic components of the Helvetica type family, including typeface (style, weight, width), complement, type font, and type size.