font

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(fŏnt) pronunciation
n.
  1. A basin for holding baptismal water in a church.
  2. A receptacle for holy water; a stoup.
  3. The oil reservoir in an oil-burning lamp.
  4. An abundant source; a fount: She was a font of wisdom and good sense.

[Middle English, from Old English, from Late Latin fōns, font-, from Latin, fountain.]

fontal font'al (fŏn'tl) adj.

font2 (fŏnt) pronunciation
n. Printing
A complete set of type of one size and face.

[French fonte, casting, from Old French (from Vulgar Latin *fundita , from Late Latin, feminine of *funditus , past participle of Latin fundere, to pour forth; see fondant) or from Old French fondre, to melt (from Latin fundere).]



The term font commonly refers to a type family such as Bodoni or Helvetica, which includes
(click to enlarge)
The term font commonly refers to a type family such as Bodoni or Helvetica, which includes (credit: © Merriam-Webster Inc.)
Assortment or set of type (alphanumeric characters used for printing), all of one coherent style. Before the advent of computers, fonts were expressed in cast metal that was used as a template for printing. Fonts are now stored as digitized images that can be scaled and otherwise modified for printing on electronic printers or digital phototypesetters. Fonts typically include the normal typeface (roman) as well as italic, bold, bold italic, and sometimes extra-bold versions. typesetting, typography.

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A set of type characters of a particular typeface design and size. Each typeface, such as Times Roman, Helvetica and Arial, is typically made available in four variations: normal weight, bold, italic and bold italic. Thus, for bitmapped fonts, which are fully generated ahead of time, four fonts would be required for each point size of the typeface. For scalable fonts, which are generated in any point size on the fly, only four fonts would be required for each typeface.

Font Storage

Fonts mostly reside in the computer's hard disk as "soft fonts." However, with PostScript fonts, a basic set is built into the printer along with the PostScript rasterizing engine. In the early days, plug-in cartridges were common (see font cartridge). See typeface, bitmapped font, scalable font, TrueType and PostScript fonts.

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Typographer's name for the complete selection of type of one size and face. A font will include all 26 letters in the alphabet (including uppercase and lowercase as well as small caps), the numbers from 0 through 9, punctuation marks, and some commonly used symbols, such as the ampersand (&) and dollar sign ($).

The set of characters in one size and style of a typeface. For example, Garamond is a typeface, while 14-point Garamond Italic is a font.

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A basin, usually of stone, which holds the water for baptism.


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categories related to 'font'

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Random House Word Menu by Stephen Glazier
For a list of words related to font, see:

  See crossword solutions for the clue Font.
Wikipedia on Answers.com:

Font (multiple meanings)

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Font may mean:

  • Font in typography, a complete character set in a particular point size, in a particular typeface
  • Computer font
  • Holy water font, a vessel for holy water, often seen at the entrance of a church
  • Baptismal font, a container for holy water used in the Christian ceremonial of baptism
  • Fountain (archaic usage, also spelled fount)
  • Kerosene lamp font, the container at the base of an oil or kerosene lamp that holds the oil, also spelled fount

Font is also a placename:


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Dansk (Danish)
1.
n. - døbefont, vievandskar, kilde

2.
n. - skrifttype

idioms:

  • font cartridge    skrifttypekassette

Nederlands (Dutch)
lettertype, bron, vont, doopvont, vloeistofhouder, oliereservoir van lamp

Français (French)
1.
n. - (Relig) fonts baptismaux

2.
n. - (Imprim) fonte, (Comput) police de caractère

idioms:

  • font cartridge    (Imprim) cartouche de fontes

Deutsch (German)
1.
n. - Taufstein

2.
n. - Schrift

idioms:

  • font cartridge    Schriftpatrone

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - (θρησκ.) κολυμβήθρα

idioms:

  • font cartridge    (Η/Υ) κασέτα γραμματοσειρών για εκτυπωτή

Italiano (Italian)
carattere, fonte battesimale

Português (Portuguese)
n. - fonte (f), pia (f) batismal

Русский (Russian)
шрифт, купель, источник

Español (Spanish)
1.
n. - pila bautismal

2.
n. - fuente, letra de molde

idioms:

  • font cartridge    cartucho de tinta para imprimir letras adicionales

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - dopfunt, lampas oljehus, font (data)

中文(简体)(Chinese (Simplified))
1. 字体, 字形

idioms:

  • font cartridge    打印机字形卡

2. 洗礼盘

中文(繁體)(Chinese (Traditional))
1.
n. - 字體, 字形

idioms:

  • font cartridge    印表機字形卡

2.
n. - 洗禮盤

한국어 (Korean)
1.
n. - 세례반, 성수반

2.
n. - 인쇄(폰트)

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 洗礼盤, フォント

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) طقم من الحروف المطبعيه‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮כלי למי טבילה, קובעת, אגן, שמן במנורה‬
n. - ‮גופן, אותיות דפוס מסוג אחד‬


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