Font/Typeface.

A typeface is the collective name of a family of related fonts (such as Times New Roman), while fonts refer to the weights, widths, and styles that constitute a typeface (such as Times New Roman Regular, Italic, Bold, etc.). Not all typefaces consist of multiple fonts however, Most people use the terms “font” and “typeface” interchangeably, (i used too but ill stick with typeface) and there is actually no difference between them i think most 90’s kids and non-designers will say font having been brought up on windows…ugh!!! In most instances when people refer to fonts, they really mean typefaces. The confusion is due to the prominence of digital fonts and naming conventions in operating systems, which refer to fonts rather than typefaces. Even type foundries tend to refer to themselves as font foundries rather than type foundries. As such there is a conflation of terms, where people think fonts are really digital typefaces, whereas typefaces that are physical is actually called hand lettering or lettering and the artist or designer would be referred to as a Lettering artist. Instead, the naming convention is the same for physical and digital typefaces; fonts refer to weights, widths and styles, and typefaces are the collective names of sets of related fonts.

Here are the naming conventions of fonts:

• Weights: Hairline, Thin, Ultra Light, Extra Light, Light, Book, Regular/Roman, Medium, Semibold, Bold, Extra Bold, Ultra Bold, Black, Ultra Black.
• Widths: Compressed, Condensed, Semi Condensed, Narrow, Normal, Extended, Extra Extended, Expanded.
• Styles: Roman, Italic, Cursive, Oblique (a slanted roman), Small Caps (usually included as an OpenType feature rather than a digital font), Petite Caps (rare), Upright Italic (rare), Swash (usually an OpenType feature rather than a font).
• Optical sizes: Caption, Text, Subhead, Display, Deck, Poster.
• Effects: Inline, Outline, Shadow, Fill, Bevel.
• Grades: Grade 1, Grade 2, Grade 3, Grade 4 (subtly different weight to accommodate for different printing conditions).