Font - What does font mean?

Definition of FONT:

The terms font and typeface are often used interchangeably but they do have subtle differences. Historically speaking, font referred to the particular size at which a typeface (or style) was printed. Early forms of printing used metal blocks, each of which represented a specific character, and a printer would have one set of metal blocks (one font) for each size of a particular design (one typeface). In this instance, Arial would be an example of a typeface and Arial point size 12 would be an example of a font.

With the arrival of digital printing, more and more styles became available and each style could easily be scaled to any font size, which meant the distinction between font and typeface began to blur. Today, font is used to refer to one of the (many) variations in which a particular typeface is available. The font is a file or set of characters (with a very specific set of characteristics, including weight, style, and width) used to create text in a specific style, while the typeface is the design or look that is shared by those fonts. A commonly used metaphor is that of a song and an mp3; the song is the typeface, while the mp3 is the font (a particular recording that represents the song, which was created using a specific set of characteristics, such as specific instruments and sound settings).

Here is the Harvard-style citation to use if you would like to reference this definition of the word font:
Label Planet (2020) What does font mean? | Font Definition. Available at: https://www.labelplanet.co.uk/glossary/font/ (Accessed: January 1, 2024).