Serif Fonts

Antiqua is a common name for different groups of serif fonts. The first Antiquas appeared a very long time ago, in the Renaissance era, reflected in the name, translated from Latin, “antiquus,” which means “ancient.”

With serifs, typographers of the past produced better prints by minimizing the wear and tear of the letters themselves. Today, serif fonts are actively used in print and are especially popular as book or magazine fonts.

In addition to serifs, high contrast is typical for Antiquas. They are a broad group of fonts that fall into different categories. Based on the application range, there is a distinction between text and heading Antiquas.

The most common is the classification of Antiquas by the historical period.

There are Old Style, Transitional, New Style, and Slab serifs.

Old style serif is the name given to the first fonts that became widespread in the 15th-17th centuries and possessed features of handwritten letters. The main features of the old-style serifs are slanted ovals of the letters and asymmetrical serifs.

An interesting example of a typeface from the TypeType collection is TT Bells, which has the features of Old Style fonts but was designed using modern geometric solutions.

Transitional serif differs from the previous one in high contrast letters and symmetrical serifs. This font type looks strict and neat, so it is often used for official documents and books.

In our collection, you will find the unique TT Marxiana font inspired by the pre-revolutionary fonts of the St. Petersburg magazine Niva. The TT Marxiana family contains 3 fonts, one of which, TT Marxiana Antiqua, is an example of a Scottish serif that is halfway between Transitional and New Style.

New style serifs appeared at the end of the 18th century. This category includes fonts that have monospaced proportions and strong contrast. Among the main use cases are printing books, brochures, and magazines.

TT Jenevers and TT Barrels are our main examples of New Style serifs.

The last subcategory of serifs is Slab. The period of their popularity in typography falls at the beginning of the 19th century. Such fonts are characterized by robust rectangular serifs and low contrast. Slabs are ideal as headline fonts for advertising and posters.

The TypeType collection features TT Rationalist as a great example of a Slab serif, perfect for title pages in books, magazines, and other printed materials.

Today, serifs have a wide application range but are most often used as heading or textbook fonts. Such typefaces attract attention and have good readability. In the TypeType collection, you will find serifs of various characteristics, from strict to expressive.

Among serifs with a pronounced character, our collection offers the particularly popular TT Ricordi collection of six display headline serifs: TT Ricordi Nobili, TT Ricordi Allegria, TT Ricordi Greto, TT Ricordi Marmo, TT Ricordi Fulmini, TT Ricordi Todi, and TT Livret Display.

The bestsellers among TypeType text serifs are TT Norms^® Pro Serif and TT Livret Text.