Serif

A serif is a small decorative stroke attached to the end of a letter's main strokes. Serif fonts like Times New Roman, Georgia, and Garamond have these small feet or tails. They originated from Roman inscriptions where stonemasons would finish each letter stroke with a perpendicular cut. In typography, serifs are believed to help guide the eye along lines of text in print. Common serif classifications include old-style (Garamond), transitional (Baskerville), modern (Didot), and slab (Rockwell). On screens, serifs can appear crisp on high-resolution displays but may look fuzzy on lower-resolution screens. Popular free serif fonts include Playfair Display, Lora, Merriweather, and Crimson Pro.