Fonts in times of A.I.

On most social media websites, like Linkedin and X, AI can read as Al. As you can see, that doesn't happen on this website. You might also think that this font looks a little odd.

What makes the font on this website different from the font on a website like Linkedin, is that it's a serif font. Serif means that the letters contain strokes. Sans Serif means without strokes (Sans is French for without). Much of modern day websites use this font. Which is why you won't be able to tell AI apart from Al in some cases.

I added a toggle to the blog pages where you can pick a serif or sans serif font yourself when reading.

Fun facts: Steve Jobs & the etymology (origin) of the word serif

When Steve Jobs dropped out of college he studied calligraphy. This is one of the reasons why special fonts were used in Apple's technology and part of Jobs' wider passion for design.

“I learned about serif and sans serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can’t capture, and I found it fascinating.” (Excerpt from the biography Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson)

There are multiple theories where the word Serif comes from. One of those theories is that Serif comes from the Dutch word 'schreef', which is the past tense of 'to write'.