Computer fonts are nothing more than electronic data coded on typeface which assigns the shape of symbol, the way they are coded determines whether or not you will be able to use it on a particular project, it also determines if you will be able to expand or enlarge it in order to produce bigger images without distortion. There are three main types of computer font formats used today, those are bitmap, outline and stroke.

Bitmap fonts are printed and drawn in images which are made of pixels, the computer deals with these fonts much faster than any other type but they are not very flexible when it comes to resizing them to cover bigger models. Bitmap fonts require a bigger image set for each font size.

Outline fonts are a bit heavier on the system because they rely on algorithms which will allow it to render on the computer screen properly, because the positioning and shape is determined by the code and algorithms these type of fonts can be scaled to huge proportions without any problem.

Stroke fonts use the same mathematical formulas outline fonts do but these type uses a series of lines in order to define a profile. Based on these three formats several fonts and styles have been created in order to give text its own personality. Writers can convey their emotions by the way fonts are used. Horror story writers may use fonts which resemble those shown on "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" in order to create expectation, Gothic fonts may be also used for this type of projects since they were designed to convey fear and respect.

Those who write and design banners and billboard will need to use different font styles, fonts which are readable and can deliver the message without it being misread or misunderstood, that is why the Arial and Helvetica font types are perfect for this kind of job. When documents are of a serious nature Arial and Helvetica fonts are the way to go, however we not always want things to be completely readable, that's why some fonts can be used in order to hide secret messages, these change regular letters into symbols which can be changed back to the original message by someone holding the same font patterns as the person who wrote it.

Web designers may use a wide assortment of these fonts since every project is different, sports, news, social sites, video sites, science sites are all different and all require different font types which need to be rendered properly on the end user's monitor, these styles are also part of what is known in web page design as CSS or cascade style sheets.

The web is a great tool to acquire and test new ideas when it comes to fonts, but remember to use the proper type according to each project as you simply shouldn't use Gothic fonts to write a newspaper article, a good advice is to explore the many variations made from Helvetica font types.

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