Fontconfig generic font families
The CSS classification system currently used by fontconfig is the following:
1. a font that can not be used to write long “professional” texts is a
“fantasy” font.
2. otherwise:
1. if it's monospaced, it's a “monospace” font,
2. if it's variable-width and:
1. it simulates hand-written text, it's a “cursive” font,
2. it uses serifs¹, it's a “serif” font,
3. it does not use serifs, it's a “sans-serif” font,
3. otherwise, are you really sure it's not a “fantasy” font?
Some font authors also make their fonts self-categorize, thus checking the
font metadata in fontforge may provide another hint². However, sometimes this
metadata is missing or plain false, so do not rely on it 100%.
¹ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serif
² <CTRL> + <SHIFT> + <F> then check the OS/2 tab.
© 2009 Nicolas Mailhot <nim at fedoraproject dot org>