Serifs are the little flourishes that you see at the ends of strokes on some letters. I'm not talking about the super-fancy flourishes you see in very old documents. Look at different kinds of font, and you will see things like a little anticlockwise curl at the bottom of the letter y, or the little downward strokes at the ends of the letter s. You often see the bottom strokes of upper case letters finished with a short horizontal base. Those are serifs as well. A sans serif font is like the one used in this answer; almost all of the letters are clean and basically free of all the decorative flourishes of some other fonts. Sans is French for without. This font does have some serifs, though, like the curl at the bottom of lower case t.
A font like Cambria or Times New Roman that has extensions or lines on the ends of the characters is referred to as a serif font. Serifs are the small decorative lines or curves added to the strokes of some fonts and are designed to improve legibility and readability in printed materials.
That typeface feature is known as a serif. Serifs are the small decorative lines or extensions that appear on the ends of letters in certain typefaces.
=== === === === Sans serif fonts do not have the serifs, small lines or 'tails', the characters are straight up and down. === === === === Sans serif fonts do not have the serifs, small lines or 'tails', the characters are straight up and down.
A serif font typically has short decorative lines at the upper and lower ends of characters. These lines are known as serifs and help guide the eye along the text for easier readability. Sans-serif fonts, on the other hand, do not have these decorative lines.
The two main families of type are serif and sans-serif. Serif typefaces have small decorative lines at the ends of characters, while sans-serif typefaces do not have these embellishments.
San Serif vs Serif fonts (San Serif does not have the lines, Serif does.) Search those two names and you will see examples. A "rule of thumb" is a San Serif font is normally easier for a machine to read but Serif fonts are more comfortable for a person to read.
The serif refers to what looks like "tails" on some of the characters. They generally lead to readability over a period of time with less strain. The Words at the upper left, "Answers.com" are a serif font and most others are sans-serif. Times New Roman is a popular serif font. Arial is a popular san-serif font (which means without serif.)
Serifs are the small lines or decorative flourishes at the ends of the main strokes of font characters. They can be found on fonts described as "serif fonts" and are used to improve readability and aesthetic appeal in printed material.
Serif type-faces
"Sans" means "without." Serif is the little unnecessary lines in computer text that makes the font look more fancy. Sans-serif is therefore without those lines, so it's very simple text like this font which you are reading right now.
The four main types of fonts are serif, sans serif, script, and display. Serif fonts have small lines or flourishes at the ends of characters, sans serif fonts do not have these lines, script fonts mimic handwriting, and display fonts are decorative and designed to grab attention.
Serif typefaces, such as Times New Roman, are often considered easiest to read in body text due to the small decorative lines at the ends of characters which help guide the reader's eye along the text.