kirjasimen

Kirjasimen (Finnish for font or typeface) refers to the design of the set of glyphs used to render text. A kirjasimen includes the shapes of letters, numerals, punctuation, and diacritical marks, as well as the overall proportions, contrast, and behavior in different sizes. In practice, the term can denote either a complete font family or a single style within that family, such as regular, bold, or italic.

Historically, kirjasimen emerged with movable type and developed through metal type into digital fonts. Foundries designed families to provide typographic mood (for example, serif, sans-serif, or display) and functional features (readability, language support). Modern digital kirjasimen are usually released as font families containing multiple weights and widths, enabling consistent typography across print and screen.

Files and usage: Digital kirjasimen are stored as font files, typically TrueType (TTF) or OpenType (OTF), and can be embedded in documents or loaded on websites as web fonts (such as WOFF/WOFF2). They are installed on devices or provided with software, and licensing constrains use, embedding, and redistribution.

Classification and design considerations: Typefaces are grouped by features such as serifs, stroke contrast, and x-height. Serif kirjasimen are common for printed body text; sans-serif fonts are popular for screens. Display fonts are highly stylized and used for headlines or branding. When selecting a kirjasimen, designers consider readability, tone, language support, kerning, leading, and how it pairs with other fonts.

See also: Font, Typeface, Typography, Glyph, Kerning.