proportional font

An example of different font typefaces and sizes.

Font in which individual letters of the alphabet take up different amounts of space according to their shape.

Computer fixed fonts are designed so that each letter has the same width and takes up the same amount of space on a line. A letter ‘l’, however, logically is thinner than a letter ‘o’. Proportional fonts allow spacing according to these differences, and are therefore easier to read. Until the advent of personal computers and font software such as Adobe PostScript, proportional spacing was the province of professional typography, used in books, newspapers, magazines, and other commercial publishing.