fonts/cc-by-sa/knowledge/glossary/terms/contrast/content.md

Contrast is the the difference between the thick and thin parts of a letterform’s [stroke](/glossary/stroke). A [monolinear](/glossary/monolinear) typeface has low stroke contrast, and is the opposite of a high-contrast face. A typical trait of a typeface with varying [optical sizes](/glossary/optical_sizes) is that [display](/glossary/display) sizes have higher contrast than [body](/glossary/body) sizes.

<figure>

![“Through Thick & Thin”, with each word set in a drastically different typeface. Circles are used to highlight parts of the letterforms where contrast is evident.](images/thumbnail.svg)

</figure>

[Serifs](/glossary/serif) tend to have higher contrast strokes than [sans serifs](/glossary/sans_serif).