The origin of the word 'serif' is obscure, but apparently is almost as recent as the type style. Another theory is that serifs were devised to neaten the ends of lines as they were chiselled into stone. The explanation proposed by Father Edward Catich in his 1968 book The Origin of the Serif is now broadly but not universally accepted: the Roman letter outlines were first painted onto stone, and the stone carvers followed the brush marks, which flared at stroke ends and corners, creating serifs. Serifs originated from the first official Greek writings on stone and in Latin alphabet with inscriptional lettering-words carved into stone in Roman antiquity. Some typography sources refer to sans-serif typefaces as 'grotesque' (in German, grotesk) or 'Gothic', and serif typefaces as ' roman'. A typeface or 'font family' making use of serifs is called a serif typeface (or serifed typeface), and a typeface that does not include them is sans-serif. In typography, a serif ( / ˈ s ɛr ɪ f/) is a small line or stroke regularly attached to the end of a larger stroke in a letter or symbol within a particular font or family of fonts. For other uses, see Serif (disambiguation). For the software company, see Serif Europe. This article is about the font characteristic.
