What is “serif” and “sans-serif”?
A font is often described as being “serif” or “sans-serif”.
Serifs are small projections at the ends of strokes in a letter, number or other character. A serif character has these projections, and looks like this (we’ve circled some of the serifs):
The Sheriff (serif) hung his hat on nail projections on the wall.
“Sans serif” (sometimes shortened to just “sans”) means “without serif”. A sans serif font has no projections at the end of strokes, and looks like this:
The hands of the Sheriff (sans serif) disappeared like sand (sans).
