Serif vs. Sans Serif Fonts: What’s the Difference?

Serif Fonts

If your font has a flourish, it’s a serif font. But what is that flourish, exactly—and why is it there?

Remember writing by hand (ha), starting with printing individual letters, and graduating to learning cursive (now a very old sentence)? Even though you were provided with primers and worksheets and almost endless examples of how to form each glyph, your handwriting—print or cursive—would take on its own distinct look.

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Serifs are a bit like that. When early (early, early, early) writing was done with angled or other sharp-tipped implements, small marks—almost like feet—were left behind be the writer. Their size and shape were largely dependent on where the letter was in a word and their writing momentum.

Fast forward to Guttenberg’s printing press. To endear the new technology to the masses, typefaces were designed with serifs. And that’s how typefaces stayed for quite a while.

Types of serif fonts

Serif fonts can be organized into subtypes:

• Old style. These fonts are exactly what they sound like: Exemplary of the earliest attempts at standardized typefaces, specifically designed to mimic handwritten text. These fonts have their thinnest portions on the part of the glyphs that would be a diagonal stroke.
• Transitional. This transitional phase of serif typefaces features more size contrast between thick and thin strokes and are less evocative of handwritten text. Possibly the most common kind of serif font, you’ll recognize it’s very pervasive member, Times New Roman.
• Modern serifs, or Didone. Modern serif fonts have the largest differences between stroke widths—a striking look but taxing to read for too long and non-ideal for print applications.
• Slab serif. Bye, stroke contrast, hello standardized widths. Serifs that are as thick (or almost as thick) as the glyph’s primary strokes are slab serifs—think about the typefaces you might find on early 20th-century typewriters.

Sans-Serif Fonts

While one could find examples of writing without serifs before the discovery of the Rosetta Stone, that’s when sans-serif fonts rocketed into the public’s and printers’ consciousness. As sans-serif typefaces became more common, the ebb and flow of style trends and social movements took hold, creating competing schools of thought surrounding the virtues of these modern typefaces versus the tried-and-true serif typeface.

Types of sans-serif fonts

Like serif fonts, sans-serif fonts can be categorized into subtypes:

• Grotesque. The earliest sans-serif fonts were dubbed Grotesque because that’s how they were viewed—misshapen, incomplete, ugly. Not an ideal way to enter the world of design. The glyphs of these typefaces look a lot like serif fonts, just without the serifs. You won’t find a lot of variation in stroke width, either.
• Neo-grotesque. Iterating upon early sans-serif fonts, this category features more refinement in shape and size compared to their Grotesque cousins. Some find them uniform; others feel they’re too plain when compared to Grotesque fonts.
• Geometric. Just like the name suggests, these sans-serif fonts are modeled closely on standard geometric shapes. Look for an “O” that’s a near-perfect circle and an “a” that’s a simple circle-plus-stroke combo.
• Humanist. Inspired by serif glyphs and hand-written forms but with more stroke variation than Grotesque fonts, these fonts are often found to be the easiest on the eyes—likely why the long-time default Microsoft font was the Humanist Calibri.

Differences Between Serif & Sans-Serif Fonts

Obviously, the primary difference between serif and sans-serif fonts is the serif itself. But if we consider our feelings or impressions alongside the facts, the differences extend beyond feet, swoops, and flourishes.

• Clarity. If your text is hard to read, it’s pretty useless. Different applications require different levels of readability from text, from differences in size to print versus digital.
• Mood. This is a rather subjective measure of typefaces, but the prevailing cliché is that serif fonts are classic, classy, and trustworthy, while sans-serif fonts are modern, clean, and clear.
• Audience. Clarity and mood can come together to help inform audience-based font choices. Is your reader seeing your text in an ad for a luxury item placed in a high-end lifestyle magazine? Are they reading a long form expose on an online newsfeed? Are they young? Older? These differences aren’t necessarily codified—it’s more of a gut feeling.

When to Use a Serif vs. Sans-Serif Font

There are practical graphic design reasons to choose a serif font or a sans-serif font for your typography application, typically surround the medium through which your reader will interact with your text.

• Print media. Serifs are a great way to provide the eye something to hang onto when printing at smaller sizes. They’re also known to be easy to read quickly.
• Digital media. Sans-serif fonts abound online—and on screens. To ensure readability across screen sizes and resolution, sans-serif is the way to go.
• Limited space. You can fit much more—much more legibly—into a small space using sans-serif fonts since serifs won’t be taking up precious kerning space.
• Brief messages. Think captions, wayfinding signs, and other instances of text that are likely to be shorter than a sentence or two—sans-serif fonts are perfect here.

Tips for Choosing When You’re Stuck

Whether you’re trying to choose the font (or a handful of typefaces) for a PowerPoint presentation or are having trouble narrowing down your options, there are tried-and-true tips for choosing the right font or fonts for your needs:

• Check out examples of projects similar to the one you’re working on. Note what you do and don’t like about the font choices that have been made.
• Play with sizing, especially if you know that you’ll go through a range of sizes in your application. Consider how making the font bigger or smaller affects its readability and mood.
• Seek out combinations that provide a visual hierarchy to your project. Headlines, subheads, body copy, captions, footnotes, and endnotes—these all require different sizes and might make more sense in a different font altogether.

While each typeface comes with its own set of stylistic connotations, you can ultimately choose any font (or collection of fonts) that you please. Armed with the understanding of what makes serif and sans-serif fonts appreciably different, though, will make it easier for you to not just choose but mix and match fonts effectively.