Font? Or Typeface?

If you are like most folks working in exhibitions today, you might use the terms typeface and font interchangeably. But they’re actually not the same.

Real quick:

A typeface is an entire designed system of styled alphanumeric characters. A typeface includes many fonts, which are the specific weights and sizes within it that you actually use. Helvetica is a typeface. So is Garamond. Or, heh, Cooper Black.

A font is the specific weight and size from within a typeface that you use to set the style of letters and numbers. Helvetica Extended Bold, 12 point, is a font.

You choose a typeface, but you use a font.

Most people use these terms to mean the same thing. But for best results, designers (and museum folks working with them) shouldn’t.

Here’s the thing:

Just like color or lighting or layout, typography carries meaning. Every time you choose a typeface, or use a specific font within it, you’re making choices about legibility, tone, and audience—whether it’s for labels, a title wall, or a digital experience.

Knowing which is which means you can communicate your vision even more clearly. And that will make your projects better.

Warmly,
Jonathan

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Do you know about the SEGD Exhibition Professionals PPG Rooftop Reception at the Grammy Museum in LA during AAM in May? Well, you do now. More next week, but meanwhile, learn more and register here. Spots limited!

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MtM Words of the Day:

Typeface. An entire designed system of styled alphanumeric characters. A typeface includes many fonts, which are the specific weights and sizes within it that you actually use. Helvetica is a typeface.

Font. The specific weight and size from within a typeface that you actually use to set the style of letters and numbers. Helvetica Extended Bold, 12 point, is a font.

(I’m going somewhere with this whole words thing. More soon.)