How fascinating the font design development from time to time, but still the Serif and Sans Serif category being the evergreen typefaces. While these two fonts preserve their own characteristics, the “without” (sans – read /sænz/ – french word) Serif font, which began to develop continuously from the early 18th Century, still catches the heart and the eye today.

A Snap Flashback to The Creation of Sans Serif

It was back in around 1816 when William Caslon IV (the 4th generation of the typefounder family, the Caslon’s, from England) created the “Two Lines English Egyptian” typeface for a client, appearing on a type sample book, which is more clean, sleek. 

It wasn’t hyped at the time, but when the era shifted to modernism which stimulated more efficiency and simplicity, the design during the modernism era underlined more functions and practicality—the font design, which was more informal and less ornamental, resonated with the call. Thus, Caslon’s font design adoption rocketed over England and the U.S.

The Typeface Basic Classifications

The Sans today has already had numerous developments. Users may hear Grotesque, Helvetica, etc., without knowing that there is a diversified primary classification to the Sans typeface. 

Grotesque

From 1816, moved forward to 1830, another foundry house, the Figgins in London, unleashed a thickened and bold anatomy of the new Sans Serif concept used in advertising and as a heading. This new one captured the attention immediately, as its objective. As a result of its anatomy, the typeface was then called Grotesque. 

This classification was the first commercially popular. The characteristics adopted the bowl and loop lowercase to the Roman type of letter G. The prominent character is foremost that single bowl of g and significant monotone accent. 

Notice the characters? Here are some examples of Grotesque classification :

• ITC Franklin Gothic
• Monotype Grotesque
• Venus
• News Gothic

Neo-Grotesque

In the midst of the 20th Century, a refined concept of Grotesque came out with less contrast and consistency. The family of neo-grotesque typefaces is varied in terms of weight and width. The proportions and shapes are more steady compared to the Grotesque family. 

Users can spot the different styles of ‘G’ and the lower case of ‘g’ from this typeface. 

The fonts that are categorized as Neo-Grotesque typefaces are :

• Helvetica
• Roboto
• Bell Centennial
• Univers

Geometric 

The third classification is geometric. Between 1920 and 1930, the Bauhaus movement made the Sans Serif in the spotlight. With a clean, simple look that is more visible and pleasing for reading.

According to Envato tuts+, Geometric as another descendant of the modern typeface style, was inspired by the geometrical shapes, referring to repeated components such as circles, squares, or triangles. One of the most popular fonts of the Geometric sans classification family of its time was Futura. 

Other than Futura, the following are the fonts you can use if you consider playing with Geometric Sans :

• Avenir
• ITC Bauhaus
• Harmonia Sans
• Euro Style
• FS Lucas
• FS Dillon

Humanistic Sans

Humanistic typeface classification appeared both in Serif and Sans Serif typefaces. This type of style was considered more eligible for reading purposes by scholars. Thus, the humanistic sans type was implied often for literature objectives. 

Humanistic sans strongly preserved the calligraphy characteristics. It reflects on how the letters were constructed in terms of forms, the angles between the strokes of letters, with clear stroke weight contrast. This kind of touch produces a friendlier and relaxed interface. 

Take the example of how the open counters drive the eyes horizontally, which makes it more comfortable for longer text reading purposes, as mentioned earlier. 

The evolution process toward humanistic classification was sparked around the 1970s. Gill sans was one of the fonts of this type, akin to Helvetica. The differentiation of Gill Sans is less geometric than Helvetica. 

Some other font styles that are categorized in Humanistic Sans are :

• Frutiger
• ITS Goudy Sans
• Mentor Sans
• Scala Sans
• FS Irwin
• FS Sienna
• FS Millbank
• Johnston
• Optima

Every type of classification in Sans Serif has its own characteristics, from weights, widths, strokes, and forms. Fonts’ character brings a different personality to a brand in graphic designs, writing, or printing forms. 

In case you want to start sketching a modern design for your modern logos, or other visual material, you can check out the and choose one of the Sans Serif we picked for you!