Font attributes and font types
Font attributes are the characteristics or properties that combine to give a font identity. For example, attributes can be 14 point (height of the font), bold, and italic.
The following are types of fonts:
- Mixed pitch
- Simulates proportionally spaced fonts. Characters in the font have a limited number of widths. Overall spacing is about 12 characters per inch. Examples are Document or Essay fonts.
- Uniformly spaced
- Similar to typewriter fonts. Characters in the font are all the same width. Examples are Courier and Gothic Text fonts. Some uniformly spaced fonts and many typographic fonts are scalable. For scalable fonts, specify a point size to indicate the size of the font. For example a 12 point uniformly spaced font corresponds to 10 CPI. An example of such a font is font 416, Courier Roman Medium. If no point size is specified when using scalable fonts, 10 point is defaulted.
- Typographic
- Typographic fonts have variable height, measured in points (1 point = 1/72 inch). Therefore, a 36-point font has characters that are 1/2 inch high. Typographic fonts have variable widths. Width is part of the design and varies on a character-by-character basis. Examples are Sonoran Serif and Century Schoolbook.
