Baffled by typography terms? You’re not alone.
One of the most common questions we field at Print is what the heck typography’s various terms all mean. We called in Denise Bosler, author of Mastering Type: The Essential Guide to Typography for Print and Web Design, to serve as our official translator. Here, Denise shares a selection from her book breaking it all down:
apex: the top point of a letterform where two angled strokes meet
arm: a secondary stroke that extends horizontally or diagonally from a stroke at the top and does not connect to another stroke
ascender: the part of a lowercase letter that extends above the x-height
barb: the terminal for a curved capital serif letter
baseline: the horizon on which letters sit
beak: the terminal for a straight capital serif letter found on the horizontal strokes
body copy: the text that makes up a paragraph—it reads best when set between 8 and 11 points in size
bowl: a curved stroke that connects to either a vertical stroke or to itself
bracket: a piece that connects a stroke to a serif
closure: the principle that states the eye will complete a path of an object
compound modules: formed by combining modules horizontally, vertically or both
continuity: once the eye begins to follow something it will continue traveling in that direction until it encounters another object
counter: any enclosed space in a letterform. If the space is completely enclosed, it is referred to as a closed counter. An open counter occurs when a curved, straight or angled stroke does not connect to another stroke but still creates an enclosed space.
cross bar: a stroke that horizontally connects two strokes
cross stroke: a stroke that crosses over another stroke but doesn’t connect on either side
crotch: inside of a vertex
descender: the part of a lowercase letter that extends below the baseline
drop cap: a larger letter at the beginning of a paragraph that drops down into the lines of text below it
ear: the small extension that protrudes up and out from the top of a stroke or bowl and is often teardrop-shaped or rounded
em dash: a long dash that indicates either a change of thought or emphasis
en dash: a medium-length dash indicating a range of items or the passage of time
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eye: the closed counter of a lowercase e
font family: all the variations in weight, width and angle of a typeface
graphic text: text formatted to output as an image file
grid: a matrix of vertical and horizontal lines that come together to create a two-dimensional structure
hanging cap: a letter at the beginning of a paragraph that literally hangs outside the edge of the paragraph
headline: line of text that stands out from the rest of the page and sets the tone for the document, generally set at 18–24 points or larger in size
hyphen: a short dash used for words that break at the end of a sentence and for compound words
hyphenation: the splitting of a word at the end of a line and continuing onto the next line
indent: a small space before the first word of a paragraph equal to an em space, the space occupied by a capital M
inherent web text: text programmed to automatically resize to match the resolution and viewer’s browser preferences
italic: angled version of letterforms that are redrawn, but the letters remain consistent with the essence of the overall look
kerning: a manual adjustment of the space between two letters
leading: horizontal white space between lines of text
leg: a secondary stroke that extends horizontally or diagonally from the bottom of a letter
legibility: the ability to discern all parts of a character and all the styles within a font family
ligature: two or more letters that touch
lining numbers: numbers that line up along the cap height
link: the small piece which connects the upper bowl with the lower loop of a traditionally shaped lowercase g, also known as two-story g
live text: searchable and editable text
loop: the lower bowl of a traditionally shaped lowercase g, also known as two-story g
monogram: a design that contains overlapping letters, usually the first, middle and last initials of a person’s name
oblique: angling letterforms with little or no change to the letterfoms
old style numbers: numbers that have varying heights with ascenders and descenders when set along the baseline
optical alignment: aligning letters that are curved or pointed above the cap height, below the baseline or outside vertical alignment to allow them to align optically
point: measuring system used for type size—there are 72 points in an inch
prime marks: symbols that denote inch and feet, also known as dumb quotes
readability: the level of a word’s comprehension based upon font choice, size, style, kerning, tracking, case and location on the page
sans serif: typeface with no extra structural extensions coming from the horizontal and vertical strokes. Sans is a French word meaning “without”—hence the phrase sans serif means “without serif”
serif: small structural extensions that are at the end of a letter’s horizontal and vertical
strokes. Serifs come in a variety of shapes and sizes. Serif also refers to the category name of a font that has serif extensions.
shoulder: a short rounded stroke that connects two vertical strokes or a vertical stroke and a terminal
smart quotes: quotation marks that curl or angle toward the text, also called curly quotes
spine: the curved stroke through the middle of an s
spur: a small pointed extension typically coming off the top or bottom of a vertical stroke that connects to a rounded stroke—oftentimes on a serif lowercase letter
standup cap: a letter at the beginning of a paragraph that is several times larger than that of the surrounding text but shares the same baseline as the body copy
stress: the axis created by the thick and thin stroke contrast of a letter
stroke: a straight or curved line that creates the principal part of a letter
subhead: brief line of text that divides the body copy into sections between headlines and body copy
swash: the extra flourish that accompanies many script and blackletter style typefaces
tail: the stroke that crosses the lower half of an uppercase Q
terminal: a stroke ending without a serif
tracking: the spacing between all of the letters in a word or sentence
vertex: the bottom point of a letterform where two angled strokes meet
weight: varying degrees of thickness built into a font with a standard range being light, roman (also called book), medium, bold, heavy and black
whispering headline: a headline that fails to attract the attention of the viewer because it is too small, blends in with the text to which it is assigned or is of insufficient boldness or color contrast
x-height: the center area of the baseline and cap height, measured against the height of the lowercase x
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About Zachary Petit
Zachary Petit (@zacharypetit on Twitter) is a freelance journalist, the editor-in-chief of Design Matters Media, and the former editor-in-chief of PRINT.