fontdesign

Font design, also called type design, is the craft of creating typefaces and their digital realizations as fonts. It involves drawing individual glyphs, establishing consistent proportions and spacing, and developing a family of styles (such as weights and widths) that function together across sizes and media.

Design aims include legibility in body text, readability in display contexts, and expressive character for branding. Designers consider metrics (x-height, cap height, baseline, ascenders and descenders), kerning and tracking, line height (leading), and optical sizing to maintain even color and rhythm at different sizes.

The process typically begins with research and sketches, followed by digital drawing in vector form. After establishing outlines, designers refine spacing, create kerning pairs, and implement hinting and metrics in the font software. Prototyping and testing are common to ensure consistent performance in print and on screens.

Fonts are distributed in formats such as TrueType (TTF) and OpenType (OTF), with web fonts in WOFF or WOFF2. Licensing, copyright, and font licensing models affect use in projects. Modern font design often uses specialized software such as FontLab, Glyphs, RoboFont, or FontForge.

Historically, font design evolved from metal type to digital typography, with major classifications including serif, sans-serif, script, display, and monospaced families. Notable traditions include classic serif designs and modern sans-serif branding; contemporary work emphasizes versatility for digital interfaces and multilingual typesetting.