Terminology

Let's define some technical terms within typography.

📕 Typeface vs. Font

One of the most common mistakes is calling a typeface a font, but those are not the same. A typeface is a collection of several characters that share the same design. These characters include letters, numbers, and symbols. While each character is unique, certain shapes are shared across them. A typeface represents these shared patterns across a collection of characters.

A typeface characters can be presented by variations of weights and styles to emphasize different kinds of text. These variations are categorized after various degrees of weights and styles within the typeface such as; light, regular, italic, bold, etc. Each of these variations is called a font. Look at the image below.

Roboto is the typeface. Each of the variations to the right is called a font. Great, now you know the difference between the two terms. Today, type designers seem to be okay with the terms being used interchangeably, just as long as you're not a designer.😉

📗 Legibility vs. Readability

When talking about typography you sometimes come across the terms legibility and readability. A lot of people confuse legibility with readability but the two are not the same.

Legibility refers to a reader's ability to easily recognize and distinguish one letter from another, and the word forms built from them. We don’t read by recognizing one letter at a time, but by recognizing the shapes of whole words and phrases.

Readability is about how easy a block of text is to read, the ease with which a reader can understand a written text.