Fixed and Proportional Fonts

With fixed fonts, each character of the typeface has the same width. An ôiö takes up as much horizontal space on a line as a ôwö. Also called ômonospacedö fonts. Documents produced with old typewriters have a fixed pitch.

Proportional fonts allow the characters of the typeface to have a different width. A ôwö will take up more horizontal space on a line than an ôiö. Virtually all fonts you find in newspapers, magazines and books are proportional.