font categories

Main category Sub category Description
Serif Venetian/Humanist Old calligraphic style like Jenson and Centaur
Garalde More modeled like Garamond and Caslon
Transitional More mechanical like Baskerville and Times
Glyphic Incized Roman types. See Trajan, Goudy Trajan
Didone High contrast like Didot and Bodoni
Modern Serif typefaces with a modern appearance which doesn't fit Transitional
Mechanistic (Slab
serif)
Slab serif Modern slab serif like Prensa Slab or Museo Slab
Clarendon/Ionic Robust yet antique. Bracketed serifs.
Egyptienne Square/unbracketed serifs. More sans-like.
Sans Humanist Calligraphic influences. See Gill Sans, Frutiger, Ideal Sans.
Grotesque
Robust. See Helvetica, Univers, DIN. A distinction between Grotesque (Akzidenz Grotesk)
and Neo-Grotesque (Helvetica) could be made, but the Grotesque was rather short-lived
and most of these fonts have generic names like 'Headline' or 'Grot. 6'.
Geometric Based on geometric elements. Futura, Eurostile, Nobel
Chirographic Script Elegant writing fonts with swashes and ligatures etc.
Hand writing Typical hand writing font. No scripts.
Comic Hand-lettered sans fonts for comic books. See Comic Sans.
Chancery Handwritten serif font. See Zapf Chancery
Calligraphy Any font done in calligraphy (excluding blackletters)
Blackletter Textualis Blackletter with detail and texture. Old English, Diploma
Schwabacher Typical German type. Rounded forms. See Schwabacher, Fette Deutsch
Fraktur Most robust and mechanical blackletter. Fraktur, Fette Fraktur, Fakir
Cursiva Most calligraphic blackletter. Frequent descenders and curved ascenders.
Rotunda Most rounded blackletter. See Clemente Rotunda, San Marco.
Hybrida/Bastarda Hybrid of Textualis and Cursiva. Bastarda is typically French. See Burgundica, Givry
Non-Latin Greek
Cyrillic
Armenian
Georgian
Arabic
Hebrew
Devanagari
Japanese Kanji, Hiragana (Kana), Katakana (Kana).
Chinese
Jia-gu wen (Oracle Bone), Da zhuan (Greater Seal), Xiao zhuan (Lesser Seal), Lis shu (Cerkly
Script)
Other Asian scripts
Pixel/bitmap Pixel
Miscellaneous Display Typefaces only suitable for display use (excludes scripts and blackletters)
Grunge Any typeface with a damaged effect, or an effect at all
Dingbats Icons and symbols