Serif - sans serif

A serif is a short line at the end of the long stroke (or strokes) of a (usually printed) letter (of the alphabet). The terms serif (pronounced with the stress on the first syllable,IPA: /’sɛ rɪf/) and sans serif (i.e., ‘without serif’, sometimes written as a single word sanserif, pronounced IPA: /sæn ’sɛ rɪf/) are used to distinguish different styles of typeface and the like. A serif typeface is one in which the long strokes of the letters have a short line at their ends, while a sans serif typeface is one in which the long strokes of the letters do not have a short line at their ends.

Typefaces which use serifs include Bookman, Times New Roman, and Perpetua, while sans serif typefaces include Arial, Helvetica, and Tahoma. It will be seen that the pages of AWE use a sans serif typeface.

The etymology of the word serif is uncertain: some have linked it to the Dutch noun schreef (‘line’, ‘stroke of the pen’), but this conjecture has secured only limited acceptance. The practice of using serifs, however, was established in Roman times: according to a plausible account of its origin, when Roman sculptors engraved inscriptions on monuments, they first painted the letters on the stone, the brush flaring out at the end of a stroke to produce a serif-like shape, which the sculptor followed in cutting the letters into the stone. Some modern letter-cutters use serifs, they explain, to neaten the end of a stroke which is usually made in the form of a V-shaped incision 'valley'.

On 1 April 1977 the Guardian newspaper produced a seven-page travel supplement on the tiny tropical republic of San Serriffe, “a small archipel[a]go, its main islands grouped roughly in the shape of a semicolon, in the Indian Ocean”, which was apparently celebrating 10 years of independence. The country was in fact completely made up as an April Fool’s joke. The name San Serriffe and the shape of the islands were just the first clues; everything connected with San Serriffe was named after printing and typesetting terms. The name itself refers to sans serif typefaces; Bodoni, the capital, is a variety of typeface; the two main islands are called Upper Caisse and Lower Caisse; the indigenous islanders are known as flongs, a mould for making type, and the whole Republic is ruled over by the dictator General M J Pica, named after a unit of measurement in type. (After the Guardian's own account, [April fool - San Serriffe: teaching resource].)