Table of Contents |
Type weight is the thickness of a letter stroke. In the image below, you have examples of light, regular, and bold weights.
Regular is the normal weight of a typeface. Light is a weight that is thinner than regular, while bold is a weight that is thicker than regular.
If you look at the example above of the Arial type family, you can see each member has its own defined type weight. Also notice that the names often correspond to the weight and width of the typeface.
The terms for type weight and type width are added to the type family name to create the full typeface name. If the term regular isn't part of a typeface name, it's typically implied.
Type width looks at expanded and condensed text.
As you can see in the example below, expanded typefaces take up more space along the baseline, while condensed typefaces take up less space along the baseline.
Designers can actually use a command called set width in computer graphics applications. This command will condense or expand type along the baseline.
However, it's best practice to buy the expanded or condensed members of a type family, as opposed to using the set width command in a computer graphics program.
Condensed and extended members of a type family are thoughtfully crafted and designed, so you're going to end up with different results if you simply use the set width command.
Source: THIS WORK IS ADAPTED FROM SOPHIA AUTHOR MARIO E. HERNANDEZ
