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nl:schreefja:セリフ
In
typography, '''serifs''' are the small features at the end of strokes within letters. A
typeface (font) without serifs is called '''sans-serif''' (from
French ''sans'': "without"), also referred to as ''grotesque'' (or, in German, ''grotesk'').
In the
Roman alphabet, serifs originated with the carving of words into stone in ancient Italy. Artisans would carve out a bit of extra space at the end of the long strokes of letters in order to prevent gravel and dust from collecting in the corners of the letters.
For more on typeface classification, see the "
typeface" article.
The
etymology of "serif" is obscure, but in any case almost as recent as the face. The oldest citations in the ''
Oxford English Dictionary'' are 1841 for ''sans serif'', which the ''OED'' gives as ''sanserif'', and 1830 for ''serif''. Indeed, the ''OED'' speculates that ''serif'' was a
back formation from ''sanserif''. On the other hand, ''Webster's Third New International Dictionary'' traces ''serif'' to the
Dutch ''schreef'' meaning "stroke", and ultimately through
German ''schreiben'' and
Latin ''scribere'', both also meaning "to write".
The ''OED's'' earliest citation for ''grotesque'' in this sense is
1875, giving "stone-letter" as a
synonym. It would seem to mean "out of the ordinary" in this usage, as in art ''grotesque'' usually means "elaborately decorated". Other synonyms include Doric and Gothic.
San Serriffe is an elaborate typographically related joke.
Typically '''serif''' fonts are used for
body text because the serifs tend to guide the eye along the line, while '''sans serif''' fonts are used for headings and for small sections of text, because they typically look 'cleaner' to the eye.
