Typography

[Caprice]

Sorry  if this is a dumb question, but - to your mind, what's the difference between typography and font? 🤔

[KeegansCreation · Accepted solution]

I think font is a subset of typography. Font is how each individual letter looks but typography is that plus how you arrange the letters; are they curved, are the words different sizes, are multiple fonts used etc.

[Caprice]

Thank you!  I'd yet to solidify a good description in my mind - and this is it!

[idraw]

Typography is how you set type and select typefaces, point sizes, line lengths, line-spacing, and letter-spacing, as well as adjusting the space between pairs of letters.
The various letters used in type setting/typography were individual “metal/lead”, that the typesetter would arrange to spell letters and words, set by hand in a wooden type case, i.e. for newspapers, flyers, posters. Now that everything online is digital, these little lead letters have become dinosaurs.(still collectible on E.bay or elsewhere probably)  I used to sell them in my retail gift shop many years ago, and I also collected them back then. You could actually ink them and press paper to them and make a grungy print.
To clarify it further:
For example: Helvetica is a type face, and Helvetica size 12, size 14 are fonts subcategories under it. Kind of like, Smith is the type family and John Smith is a font under that.
Fairly decent explanation here:
<https://hobancards.com/blogs/thoughts-and-curiosities/difference-between-font-and-typeface#:~:text=A....>

[Windy]

Typography is different from Font, in that it also has to do with placement and spacing of the items on the page and readability. My daughter read an entire book about it, and now when we are in a restaurant she points out all the ways in which the menu is well done, or poorly designed!

[WHS_Designs]

well said! I do that too, and not just in restaurants! 😉 

[Barbara]

Wikipedia has done a great job of defining typography:

"Typography is the art and technique of arranging type to make written language legible, readable and appealing when displayed. The arrangement of type involves selecting typefaces, point sizes, line lengths, line-spacing, and letter-spacing, as well as adjusting the space between pairs of letters."

Thus, typography is the broad term that covers all the individual components, font being only one of them.

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