serif

This term describes the small ornamental flourishes at the ends of letter strokes. In typography, these elements are often viewed as visual anchors that guide the eye along a line of text, making them a staple of traditional print media and formal documents. When used to describe a typeface, the word refers to the entire category of fonts that possess these strokes. This distinguishes them from sans-serif fonts, which are characterized by a clean, blunt termination of strokes and are typically associated with modern digital interfaces and minimalist design.