In typography

Typography

Typography is the art and technique of arranging type in order to make language visible. The arrangement of type involves the selection of typefaces, point size, line length, leading , adjusting the spaces between groups of letters and adjusting the space between pairs of letters...

, the Thibaudeau Classification is a way to group typefaces into four general families, according to shape and serif character. Invented in 1921 by the French typographer Francis Thibaudeau

Francis Thibaudeau

Francis Thibaudeau was a French typographer and creater of the first well-established system for classifying typefaces, the Thibaudeau classification. He devised his system while developing the catalogues for the Renault & Marcou and Peignot & Cie foundries in the early 20th century...

, it was expanded by Maximilien Vox

Maximilien Vox

Maximilien Vox was a French writer, cartoonist, illustrator, publisher, journalist, critic art theorist and historian of the French letter and typography. He was born on 16 December 1894 in Condé-sur-Noireau and died on 18 December 1974 in Lurs where he is buried. He created the VOX-ATypI...

 in 1954, and again in 1962 by Association Typographique Internationale

ATypI

The ATypI or the Association Typographique Internationale is an international non-profit organisation dedicated to typography.-The organisation:...

 (ATypI) into the VOX-ATypI classification

VOX-ATypI classification

In typography, the Vox-ATypI classification makes it possible to classify typefaces in eleven general classes. Devised by Maximilien Vox in 1954, it was adopted in 1962 by the Association Typographique Internationale and in 1967 as a British Standard, as British Standards Classification of...

 of 11 families. The Thibaudeau system is nevertheless still beneficial in that it is simple to comprehend. Thibaudeau later supplemented the classification by adding the category of the Écritures (for the scripts) and the Fantaisies (for the advertising or display typefaces).

Elzévirs

This family contains typefaces with triangular serifs.

Examples: Garamond

Garamond

Garamond is the name given to a group of old-style serif typefaces named after the punch-cutter Claude Garamond . Most of the Garamond faces are more closely related to the work of a later punch-cutter, Jean Jannon...

, Palatino

Palatino

Palatino is the name of a large typeface family that began as an old style serif typeface designed by Hermann Zapf initially released in 1948 by the Linotype foundry.In 1999, Zapf revised Palatino for Linotype and Microsoft, called Palatino Linotype...

, Times Roman

Times Roman

Times New Roman is a serif typeface commissioned by the British newspaper The Times in 1931, created by Victor Lardent at the English branch of Monotype. It was commissioned after Stanley Morison had written an article criticizing The Times for being badly printed and typographically antiquated...

Didots

This family groups typefaces with linear or hairline serifs. It generally corresponds to modern or Didone categories.

Examples: Didot

Didot (typeface)

Didot is a name given to a group of typefaces named after the famous French printing and type producing family. The classification is known as modern, or Didone. The typeface we know today was based on a collection of related types developed in the period 1784–1811. Firmin Didot cut the letters,...

, Bodoni

Bodoni

-Cold Type versions:As it had been a standard type for many years, Bodoni was widely available in cold type. Alphatype, Autologic, Berthold, Compugraphic, Dymo, Harris, Mergenthaler, MGD Graphic Systems, and Varityper, Hell AG, Monotype, all sold the face under the name ‘’Bodoni, while Graphic...

, Baskerville

Baskerville

Baskerville is a transitional serif typeface designed in 1757 by John Baskerville in Birmingham, England. Baskerville is classified as a transitional typeface, positioned between the old style typefaces of William Caslon, and the modern styles of Giambattista Bodoni and Firmin Didot.The...

Égyptiennes

This family contains slab serif

Slab serif

In typography, a slab serif typeface is a type of serif typeface characterized by thick, block-like serifs. Serif terminals may be either blunt and angular , or rounded . Slab serif typefaces generally have no bracket...

 typefaces, called Mechanistic in the Vox-ATypI classification.

Examples : Memphis, Rockwell

Rockwell (typeface)

Rockwell is a serif typeface belonging to the classification slab serif, or Egyptian, where the serifs are unbracketed and similar in weight to the horizontal strokes of the letters. The typeface was designed at the Monotype foundry's in-house design studio in 1934. The project was supervised by...

Antiques

This is the sans serif family. In Vox-ATypI classification, this family corresponds to the Lineals .

Examples : Futura

Futura (typeface)

In typography, Futura is a geometric sans-serif typeface designed in 1927 by Paul Renner. It is based on geometric shapes that became representative visual elements of the Bauhaus design style of 1919–1933...

, Univers

Univers

Univers is the name of a realist sans-serif typeface designed by Adrian Frutiger in 1954.Originally conceived and released by Deberny & Peignot in 1957, the type library was acquired in 1972 by Haas. Haas'sche Schriftgiesserei was later folded into the D...

, Arial

Arial

Arial, sometimes marketed or displayed in software as Arial MT, is a sans-serif typeface and set of computer fonts. Fonts from the Arial family are packaged with Microsoft Windows, some other Microsoft software applications, Apple Mac OS X and many PostScript 3 computer printers...

, Helvetica

Helvetica

Helvetica is a widely used sans-serif typeface developed in 1957 by Swiss typeface designer Max Miedinger with Eduard Hoffmann.-Visual distinctive characteristics:Characteristics of this typeface are:lower case:square dot over the letter i....

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