Xref: utzoo comp.text:8334 comp.text.desktop:1609
Newsgroups: comp.text,comp.text.desktop
Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watdragon!drraymond
From: drraymond@watdragon.waterloo.edu (Darrell Raymond)
Subject: Proper usage of "font", "face", "family"
Message-ID: <1991May1.154018.3623@watdragon.waterloo.edu>
Organization: University of Waterloo
Distribution: na
Date: Wed, 1 May 1991 15:40:18 GMT
Lines: 15

  Someone recently asked me what the difference between a font and a 
face was.  I gave the following definitions:

  family - a class of letterforms (e.g., Helvetica)
  face   - a particular style of a family (e.g., Helvetica Oblique)
  font   - a face at a particular point size (e.g., Helvetica Oblique 10)

  I see in this month's Byte that Jerry Pournelle (not the world's
leading expert in typesetting terminology) uses the word "typeface"
where I use the word "family", but keeps the other two terms the same
(he also gives the impression that there is such a thing as "Times
Roman Italic", which seems oxymoronic).

  Would anyone care to either confirm my definitions or point out
other definitions?