Typeface vs font

A typeface is the design: the shapes of the letters, their proportions, the feel of the whole alphabet. Garamond, Helvetica and Baskerville are typefaces. A font is one concrete version of it, such as Garamond Bold at 12 points.

In metal printing, a font was a complete set of metal characters in a single size and style. Garamond Italic at 12 points was a different font from Garamond Italic at 14. The typeface was the design all those fonts shared.

On a computer, a font is usually the file you install, such as Garamond Bold. A family is the collection of related files: regular, bold, italic and so on. People say "change the font to Arial" and mean the typeface, and nobody is confused.

Neither. A typeface generator like this one swaps ordinary letters for special characters that look like another design. You get styled text, not a typeface and not a font file. The next page explains the trick.

• How styled text works
• Using styled text well
• Cursive font generator
• The typeface generator