Typography, like any other skill set, has its own terms and descriptions. Some of them are very common and accessible to everyone (letter, character, bold, italic), and some are more complex (ligature, ascender, spine).

Somewhere in between are terms that can be used by both professionals and amateurs to describe type. Describing the difference between serif and sans-serif fonts is one simple way to distinguish type.

So what exactly is a serif? To the everyday person, a serif is “the flared strokes at the ends of letters”. Technically, it’s not as simple as that. For this discussion, it will do.

Where do serifs come from? They come from the Roman alphabet, which was typically carved into stone. Before being carved, the letterforms were outlined with brushes. The ends flared, so the carvers followed the flares, and thus serifs were invented.  The term serif is Greek, a formation of two words meaning “together” and “projection”.

So what is a sans-serif? Simply put, sans is the French word for “without”. Sans-serif typefaces do not have serifs.

Why do we care? At the end of the day, typography is the creation of legible text for the purpose of communication. Separating serif and sans-serif fonts allows anyone working with type to quickly ascertain the legibility vs. the readability of the type in a given context.

There are numerous online resources for the appreciation and understanding of typography. This chart below was found on I Love Typography.