Roman refers to the primary, upright version of a serif or sans-serif typeface. It is the baseline weight and posture used for the main body text in a document. Typesetters distinguish this upright posture from italic, oblique, or bold variants within the same type family. The name originates from early Italian humanists who modeled their type after classical inscriptions rather than heavy gothic scripts.
Heard on the job
Set the body copy in 10-point Roman and use italic only for the picture captions.
Insider tip
When a proofreader circles a word and writes 'rom' in the margin, they are instructing the typesetter to change that text from italic or bold back to the standard upright font.
Do not mix it up with
- Black-letter: Black-letter is a heavy, ornate gothic type style, whereas Roman is upright and based on classical proportions.