• Greek: κολυμπήθρα

• ttbc Icelandic: fontur

Etymology 2

From fonte, feminine past participle of verb fondre: to melt.

Alternative spellings

• (British) fount

Noun

1. A set of glyphs of unified design, belonging to one typeface (e.g., Helvetica), style (e.g., italic), and weight (e.g., boldfaced). Usually representing the letters of an alphabet and its supplementary characters.
   1. In metal typesetting, a set of type sorts in one size.
   2. In phototypesetting, a set of patterns forming glyphs of any size, or the film they are stored on.
   3. In digital typesetting, a set of glyphs, possibly from multiple alphabets or writing systems, or the computer code representing it.
2. A computer file containing the code used to draw and compose the glyphs of one or more typographic fonts on a computer display or printer. A font file.

Derived terms

• font family
• multilingual font
• Unicode font
• bitmap font
• screen font
• outline font
• printer font
• font suitcase
• roman font

Translations

References

• Canadian Oxford 2004}}
• Bringhurst, Robert (2002). The Elements of Typographic Style, version 2.5, pp 291–2. Vancouver, Hartley & Marks. ISBN 0-88179-133-4.

Etymology 3

Apparently from

In typography, a font (also fount) is traditionally defined as a complete character set of a single size of a particular typeface. For example, the set of all characters for 9 point Bulmer is a font, and the 10 point size would be another font.

Since the introduction of personal computers, a broader definition has evolved. The term font is now often used as a metonym for typeface.

Etymology

The term font, a cognate of the word fondue, derives from Middle French fonte, meaning "(something that has been) melt(ed)", referring to type produced by casting molten metal at a type foundry. English-speaking printers have used the term fount for centuries to refer to the multi-part metal type used to assemble and print in a particular size and typeface.

See also

• Computer font

References

• Blackwell, Lewis. 20th Century Type. Yale University Press: 2004. ISBN 0-300-10073-6.
• Fiedl, Frederich, Nicholas Ott and Bernard Stein. Typography: An Encyclopedic Survey of Type Design and Techniques Through History. Black Dog & Leventhal: 1998. ISBN 1-57912-023-7.
• Lupton, Ellen. Thinking with Type: A Critical Guide for Designers, Writers, Editors, & Students, Princeton Architectural Press: 2004. ISBN 1-5689-8448-0.
• Macmillan, Neil. An A–Z of Type Designers. Yale University Press: 2006. ISBN 0-300-11151-7.

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