Sans serif Facts for Kids

	Sans-serif font
	Serif font
	Serif font (serifs in red)

The Gill sans typeface by Eric Gill is used throughout the London Underground system

Simple sans-serif capital letters on a late 1800s memorial in London

In the world of typography (how letters and words look), a sans serif typeface is a style of letters that does not have small "feet" or lines at the end of its strokes. These little lines are called "serifs".

The word "sans" comes from French and means "without". "Serif" comes from the Dutch word schreef, which means "line". So, "sans serif" literally means "without lines" or "without serifs".

Sans serif typefaces have been around since the 1700s. But they became very popular in the 1900s, especially with the rise of modern art. Many people who designed these typefaces were artists. They were part of the bigger art movements of their time.

One very important person for sans serif typefaces was Jan Tschichold. He was a German-Swiss graphic designer. Tschichold was born in Leipzig, Germany, on April 2, 1902. He passed away in Locarno, Switzerland, on August 11, 1974.

Tschichold did more than just design typefaces. He also showed how to use them well in books. After the Second World War, he became a main designer for Penguin Books.

Sans serif typefaces are often used for signs, advertisements, and headings in books. Even though they can be used for the main text in books, they are not as common for that purpose.

Different Names for Sans Serif Fonts

Sometimes, sans serif fonts are called by other names. Here are a few:

Egyptian
Antique
Grotesque
Doric
Gothic (but this is different from blackletter fonts)
Lineale, or linear
Simplices
Swiss

Images for kids

Syntax, a humanist sans-serif font from 1969.
Rothbury, an early sans-serif font from 1915. Its lines change in thickness.
An inscription at Stourhead from around 1748. It is one of the first to use sans-serif letters since ancient times.
An early use of sans-serif capital letters in 1810 by William Gell.
Gill Sans on the nameplate of a 4468 Mallard train from 1938.
A 1969 poster showing a popular style from the 1950s and 1960s. It uses a bold sans-serif font like Helvetica.
Three sans-serif "italics" styles.
A heading from Dublin in 1848, using only capital letters.
A corset ad from 1886 in the United States, using several sans-serif fonts.
A light sans-serif font used for text in Germany, 1914.
A German poster from 1914.
Small art-nouveau details on letters 'v' and 'e'. Ljubljana, 1916.
Italic font used in Dublin, 1916.
An Austrian war bond poster from 1916, showing different sans-serif styles.
Broad block capital letters on a Hungarian film poster, 1918.
A sans-serif font with art-nouveau influences from 1920.
Art Deco style thick sans-serif capital letters from France, 1920s.
Berthold Block, a thick German sans-serif font from Switzerland, 1928.
An artistic sans-serif font from Brazil, 1930.
Sans-serif lettering on a 1930s poster.
Geometric sans-serif capital letters from Australia, 1934.
Dwiggins' Metrolite and Metroblack typefaces, popular in the 1930s.
Stenciled lettering from 1937, possibly based on Futura Black.
An American poster from the 1940s.
A 1952 brochure using the popular Gill Sans style.
A Swiss-style poster using Helvetica from 1964.
A very narrow industrial sans-serif font from Berlin, 1966.
A modern sans-serif font from Switzerland, 1972, like Helvetica.
Tightly-spaced ITC Avant Garde font from 1976.
A government poster using Univers font, 1980.
An anti-nuclear poster from 1982.
A film festival poster from Ankara, 1997.
A distorted sans-serif font in the "grunge typography" style, Ankara, 2002.
A letterpress poster by Alan Kitching, 2015.
Blackletter calligraphy in a 15th-century bible.
A sample of narrow sans-serif fonts from 1845. These became very popular for business use.
Sans-serif type in both capital and small letters on a 1914 poster.

Sans serif facts for kids

Different Names for Sans Serif Fonts

Images for kids

See also