The Difference between Typeface and Font.

Typeface and Font are the two interchangeably used terminologies. Even experienced designers sometimes get confused among the two. But are they the same? Not. A set of letters, when combined and designed together systematically and harmoniously, forms a typeface.

A typeface is a set of characters or letters that share a typical design pattern, basic shapes that make up that typeface structure.

A font is a specific size, style, weight, widths of a particular typeface. A layman’s term can be called a subset of a typeface. A typeface can also be referred to as the font family. A collection of glyphs (the graphical representation of a character)

Let’s understand these with some examples. Transitional Serif, Geometric Sans, Script, Bodoni are all examples of typefaces. Whereas Futura, Courier, Lucida, Calibri, Myriad, and many more like these. A typeface is what you see, and the Font is how you use it.

Typefaces are laid out, pre-defined, and follow the rules of how you must use them, whereas a font can be illustrated, styled, and enhanced as per the requirement of your interface. Helvetica is a widely known typeface.

The letter shapes and width are unusually uniform, providing an overall texture. It comprises a collection of fonts with specific weights, styles, and sizes. Let’s take one more example.

1) The text written above uses a typeface of Avenir.

2) The text uses a font size of 14px & font style of regular. 

3) The following text uses font size of 18px & is italicized as the font style.

The above 2 texts follow same typeface but carry 2 different font style & size.

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