In typography, a sans-serif, sans serif or san serif typeface is one that does n

ot have the small features called "serifs" at the end of strokes. The term comes
from the French word sans, meaning "without".
In print, sans-serif fonts are more typically used for headlines than for body t
ext. The conventional wisdom holds that serifs help guide the eye along the line
s in large blocks of text. Sans-serifs, however, have acquired considerable acce
ptance for body text in Europe.
Sans-serif fonts have become the de facto standard for body text on-screen, espe
cially online. This is partly because interlaced displays may show twittering on
the fine details of the horizontal serifs. Additionally, the low resolution of
digital displays in general can make fine details like serifs disappear or appea
r too large.
Before the term sans-serif became standard in English typography, a number of othe
r terms had been used. One of these outmoded terms for sans serif was gothic, wh
ich is still used in East Asian typography and sometimes seen in font names like
Century Gothic.
Sans-serif fonts are sometimes, especially in older documents, used as a device
for emphasis, due to their typically blacker type color.

HISTORY
Ancient usages
Sans-serif letter forms can be found in Latin, Etruscan, and Greek inscriptions,
for as early as 5th century BC. The sans serif forms had been used on stoichedo
n Greek inscriptions.

Non-Latin types
The first known usage of Etruscan sans-serif foundry types was from Thomas Demps
ter's De Etruria regali libri VII (1723). Later at about 1745, Caslon foundry ma
de its the first sans-serif types for Etruscan languages, which was used by Univ
ersity Press, Oxford, for pamphlets written by Etruscan scholar John Swinton.
Revival of Latin characters
According to James Mosley's Typographica journal titled The Nymph and the Grot:
the revival of the sanserif letter, the sans serif letters had appeared as early
as 1748, as an inscription of Nymph in the Grotto in Stourhead. However, it was
classified as an experiment rather than a sign of wide-scale adoption. In late
18th century, Neoclassicism led to architects to increasingly incorporating anci
ent Greek and Roman designs in contemporary structures. Among the architects, Jo
hn Soane was noted for using sans serif letters on his drawings and architectura
l designs, which were eventually adopted by other designers, such as Thomas Bank
s, John Flaxman. Sans-serif letters began to appear in printed media as early as
1805, in European Magazine. However, early 19th-century commercial sign writers
and engravers had modified the sans-serif styles of neoclassical designers to i
nclude uneven stroke weights found in serif Roman fonts, producing sans-serif le
tters. In 1816, the Ordnance Survey began to use 'Egyptian' type, which was prin
ted using copper plate engraving of monoline sans-serif capital letters, to name
ancient Roman sites.
Incorporation by typefounders
In 1786, a rounded sans-serif font was developed by Valentin Haüy, first appeared
in the book titled "Essai sur l'éducation des aveugles" (An Essay on the Education
of the Blind). The purpose of this font was to be invisible and address accessi
bility. It was designed to emboss paper and allow the blind to read with their f
ingers. The design was eventually known as Haüy type.
In 1816, William Caslon IV produced the first sans-serif printing type in Englan
d for Latin characters under the title 'Two Lines English Egyptian', where 'Two
Lines English' referred to the font's body size, which equals to about 28 points
. Originally cut in 1812. The term Sans-serif was first employed in 1830 by Figg
ins foundry. In 1832, Thorowgood of Fann Street Foundry introduced Grotesque, wh
ich include the first commercial Latin printing type to include lowercase sans-s
erif letters

Classification
For the purposes of type classification sans-serif designs can broadly be divide
d into four major groups: Grotesque, Neo-grotesque, Geometric and Humanist
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sans-serif
================================================================================
Category of type where the terminals of the letters have no brackets or spurs --
otherwise known as serifs. Common sans serif typefaces are Helvetica, Verdana,
Optima, Futura, Frutiger, and Gill Sans. Sans serif forms originate in ancient G
reek and Etruscan chiseled inscriptions, a style later adopted by the Romans, bu
t sans serif type was so novel upon its introduction in the 18th century that it
defied any attempts at categorization. It was eventually categorized as Doric,
Ionic or grotesque type, and was in common use by the end of the century by indu
strial letterers. The most popular early sans serif typeface was cut by Monotype
as Doric, but the most prominent sans serif type known to contemporary designer
s is the much-imitated Akzidenz Grotesk, ancestor of Helvetica and Univers, two
of the most dominant type families of the second half of the 20th century.
Sans serif types underwent a flowering in the early 20th century, and started to
divide into many other families. The first prominent step beyond the grotesque
industrial types was the development of the geometric sans faces promulgated by
designers influenced by the Bauhaus. These faces are built, as the name suggests
, on "pure" geometric structures, and self-consciously move beyond the modulated
strokes and classical proportions mimicked by the grotesques (as well as the se
rif faces on which grotesques were modeled). Jan Tschichold, Paul Renner, Rudolf
Koch, and Jakob Erbar all developed profoundly influential geometric sans types
. Paul Renner's Futura, in particular, was an early example of a type system, an
d continues to be a very popular, coolly stylish type family even today.
The next -- or concurrent -- development in sans serif types was the humanist sa
ns, as exemplified in Eric Gill's Gill Sans, which was in turn based on Edward J
ohnston's lettering for the London Underground. Humanist sans typefaces more dir
ectly mimic the forms and structures of calligraphy, and generally have somewhat
eccentric, more classical shapes. Humanist sans faces have more modulated strok
es, and their italics are frequently more directly based on cursive writing. The
y have always been more popular, for whatever reason, in Europe than the United
States.
Grotesques staged a huge comeback in the wake of World War II, with the developm
ent of type systems and Swiss typography. Max Miedinger's Helvetica and Adrian F
rutiger's Univers are the most successful examples of these types. The new grote
sques were designed for a new typography, where type was set to a rationalized g
rid system, and the "characterless" type was intended to transparently serve the
text. The readability of sans serif types as text faces is hotly debated, thoug
h, and Helvetica and Univers found their greatest fame as advertising and corpor
ate communications faces. A strange side development during this period was Herm
ann Zapf's more or less sui generis revival of Roman inscriptional forms with Op
tima, a stately sans serif that is frequently characterized as a humanist sans,
although it really belongs to no category but its own.
Sans serifs played an integral part in the explosion of display faces that occur
red in the 1960s and 1970s. The number of typefaces and styles is innumerable, b
ut one of the most characteristic fonts of this period was Herb Lubalin's Avant
Garde, a ligature-heavy stylized geometric sans that was ubiquitous throughout t
he 1970s.
The last twenty years of the 20th Century saw an overwhelming increase in the nu
mber of sans serif faces, of all kinds and descriptions. The kickoff to this exp
losion was probably the introduction of Adrian Frutiger's eponymous type family
Frutiger, a sort of master thesis on the possibilities of rationalism in type an
d the possibilities of the restrained use of humanist techniques in the construc
tion of sans serif type. It has been much imitated and admired. Frutiger was not
content with this, and later participated in the systemization of many of his t
ype families, first revisiting the concept of the geometric sans with Avenir, an
d later revising both the Univers and Avenir type systems with Linotype Univers
and Avenir Next. At the same time, Hermann Zapf and Akira Kobayashi revisted Opt
ima, producing a new version called Optima Nova that brought the typeface into l
ine with current fashion, adding a true italic, making the face more suitable fo
r setting text, and adding a range of weights to the face. It is cleaner and mor
e functional but not universally loved.
Meanwhile, Dutch type designers, many of them studying under the influential the
orist and teacher Gerrit Noordzij, were taking the humanist sans and making it t
heir own. Building on the legacy of Hans Eduard Meier's ahead-of-its-time Syntax
, they created a new collection of typefaces that were essentially graceful, Ren
aissance serif faces minus the serifs. These new sans serif families were often
part of ever-larger type systems that encompassed sans serif, serif, and other t
ypefaces, culminating in efforts like Lucas de Groot's huge Thesis family. It ca
n sometimes be hard to tell the players without a scorecard, but careful study o
f the Dutch humanist sans faces will reveal their considerable subtlety and soph
istication.
English type designers have continued to work in the mold of Eric Gill, whose ty
pes have had a near death-grip on the English imagination. Gill Sans is everywhe
re in England even today, and most English sans serif designs owe it a debt of i
nspiration. Probably one of the best interpretations of the "English humanist sa
ns" is Jeremy Tankard's Bliss family, which does for Gill Sans what TheSans does
for Syntax -- cleans it up, systematizes and freshens it.
Because of their supposed neutrality, sans serif faces have continued to be mass
ively popular for corporate identity and communications. This is the aspect that
American designers have explored most thoroughly, with Matthew Carter leading t
he way with his commissioned work for Microsoft showing what can be done with sm
all type on low-resolution screens. His Verdana and Tahoma families were designe
d for the screen and extensively hinted; they sacrifice economy for readability,
a sensible decision when scrolling is cheap but pixels are scarce. Pushing thin
gs in a different direction are Hoefler & Frere-Jones, who have recently produce
d both Whitney and Gotham, faces designed explicitly for use in the corporate ve
rnacular. Gotham, in particular, is based on the grotesque sans serif hand-lette
ring found in New York, and possesses some of the erratic energy found in that l
ettering. It was recently honored by being selected as the typeface used on the
cornerstone for the September 11th Memorial at the World Trade Center.
Many type enthusiasts are very tired of the profusely overabundant Helvetica and
outraged by the ubiquitousness of Arial, a near-exact (but uglier) Helvetica cl
one commissioned by Microsoft for obscure reasons. Proclaiming Arial as your fav
orite font is likely to win you few friends on Typophile.
================================================================================