lexicon
T
L
arm a horizontal stroke that is unattached on one or both ends as in the uppercase F, L, and X.
F
A
A
alignment having elements’ edge placement agree. optical alignment is always more important than measurable alignment.
ampersand the sign (&), Latin et, meaning “and.�
&
A
A
ascender the part of lowercase letters that extend above the median in b, d, f.
d
baseline implied line in which letterforms sit.
just resting
B
B
beardline invisible line that indicates the bottom of descenders.
just hanging
black bolder than bold.
B
B
B
blackletter heavy, angular types based on medieval script writing.
B
body copy the primary text of a story.
Little Boy Blue, come blow your horn. The sheep’s in the meadow, the cow’s in the corn. Where is the boy that looks after the sheep? “He’s under the haycock, fast asleep.” Will you wake him? “No, not I; For if I do, he’ll be sure to cry.”
B
B
bold heavier and wider than the Roman version of the same typeface.
H
H
bullet a dot indicating items in a list.
• my eyes • blue birds • blue moon • bleu cheese • the sky • blue berries • smurfs • velvet • jello • lapis lazuli
B
C
camelback a secondary capital letter in the middle of a word.
McNeill
cap height the height of capital letters, measured from baseline to top of uppercase letterforms.
O
C
C
centered alignment in which the midpoints of each element are positioned on a central axis.
colophon information at the end of a book and sometimes web sites that describes its production.
T h ri t y t w o c o p ie s a r e o n handmade Tovil paper, bound leather wrappers, and signed by the author. Five hundred copies are on Curtis Rag and distributed to the trade. June 1964
C
C
color the lightness or darkness of an area of type.
co lo r co lo r co lo r co lo r co lo r co lo r co lo r co lo r co lo r co lo r co lo r co lo r co lo r co lo r
colorcolor colorcolor colorcolor colorcolor colorcolor colorcolor colorcolor
colorcolor colorcolor colorcolor colorcolor colorcolor colorcolor colorcolor
condensed a narrow version of a typeface that fits more characters into a given space.
lets all hug each other
C
C
contrast the a m o u nt o f va riat ion b e t w e e n t hi ck a n d t hin strokes of a letter.
M
copyfitting adjusting type to fit in a certain area.
Pleff lorem monaq morel plaff lerom baple merol pliff ipsum ponaq mipsu ploff pfap25 abcde tonaq fghij gaple klmno vonaq pqrst haple uvwxy nonaq zzzz. Lorem monaq morel plaff sumip qonaq issum daple ussum ponaq gaple klm50 lore.
C
C
counter the space, either completely or only partially closed, in letterforms like a, e, o, u, and A, B, C, S.
o a Se u A B
cross-bar a horizontal stroke connecting two stems, as in A and H.
H
C
D
descender the part of a lowercase letter that extends below the baseline in g, j, p, q, y.
jpy
dingbat illustrative characters in a typeface. also called picture font and flowers.
D
D
display type letterforms whose purpose is to be read first.
ME FIRST
drop cap a large initial set into the top left corner of body copy.
D
D
D
dumb quotes quotes that are straight. used for measurement.
5"
ear small stroke attached to some lowercase letters like the g and r.
g
E
E
ellipsis a single character of three dots indicating an omission.
......
em dash the longest dash in a typeface. the em dash seperates thoughts within a sentence and should not have spaces on either side.
My best friend—Sera— is going to visit me for a week!
E
E
en dash the width of an en, the second-longest dash in a typeface. the en dash seperates numbers and should not have spaces added on either side.
5–29–79
facing pages pages across from each other in a multi-page bound document.
F
F
flush left type set even on the left edge and ragged on the right.
flush right type set even on the right edge and ragged on the left.
F
F
folio a page number.
32
glyph a character in a font.
G
G
greeking using dumby text when designing a layout to hold the place and show where text will go.
Hold your place with Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, esse minim, jus vel nulla duis gravis duis lucidus delenit utrum. Vindico, quadrum nibh duis in blandit conventio facilisis ille. And just try to use spell check on that! It is very entertaining.
grid a skeletal guide used to ensure design consistency. a grid should show type widths, image areas, margins and spaces to be left empty.
G
G
gutter space between columns and on either side of the bound inside margins of multiple page documents
hairline the thinnest strokes of a typeface; also, the thinnest line which an output device can make, usually Âź point.
U
H
H
hanging punctuation allowing lines that begin or end with punctuation to extend a bit beyond the column width for optical alignment.
I bought me a cat. My cat pleased me. I fed my cat under yonder tree. My cat sang fiddle I fee.
headline the title or primary type in a compostion.
HEY THERE
D id I ge t y our attention? Good. The headlines job is to grab your attention right away.
H
H
humanist a class of sans serif that looks like handwriting, or at least does not look to mechanical or geometrical.
italic type that slants to the right; italics must have letters that are distinctly different from the roman version of the typeface
italic
I
J
junction where two strokes of a letter intersect.
X
justification aligning both the left and right sides of a column of type by distributing space evenly between words and, if necessary, letters.
J
K
kerning removing space between specific letter pairs in order to acheive optically consistent letterspaceing
kerning kerning
leading pronounced “ledding.� the space between lines of type that appears between the decencders of one line and the ascenders of the next.
example example
L
L
legibility the a b i l i t y t o di s t i ng u ish b e t w e e n l e t t e r f o rms.
legibility
legibility
legibility
legibility
legibility
legibility
legibility
letterspacing equivalent to tracking, letterspacing is used to describe general spacing between letterforms.
Spa c e
L
L
ligature conjoined characters into a single one, as in and for consistent optical spacing
fl fi
light a lighter variation in the density of a typeface. opposite of boldface.
L
L
lorem ipsum dolor commonly used dummy text
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Praesent orci turpis, viverra non cursus at, accumsan vel massa. Maecenas fermentum feugiat sapien et pulvinar. Nullam vehicula lobortis iaculis. Sed feugiat condimentum auctor. Nam a velit id velit tempor cursus sed quis ipsum.
lowercase noncapital letters like a, b, c, etc. the term comes from the placement of the typecase relative to the uppercase characters
a bc defg etc.etc.
L
M
margin the space at the four edges of a page; there are four margins: head margin, foot margin, side margin, and gutter margin
master page a template used to set up a multi-page document
M
M
measure the width in picas of a line or column of type.
To a reader’s eye, a long or short line can be tiring and distracting.
modern a typeface with vertical stress, strong stroke contrast and unbracketed serifs.
M
M
monospaced typefaces in which each character occupies the same amount of horizontal space.
oblique a n a ng l e d t ypefac e in which the roman characters have been slanted to the right, not redrawn.
Oblique
O
O
oldstyle type characterized by a diagonal stress, bracketed serifs; there are two types of oldstyle types: Geralde and Venetian.
Oldstyle
optical alignment a dju s t i ng e l e ment s of letterforms so they appear aligned, which is more important than actually being aligned
“Nulla pharetra lacinia mattis.Mau wis fermentum convallis ipsum, eget mollis metus gravida non. Mauris tincidunt hendrerit rhoncus. Maecenas pulvinar conset ante eget imperdiet. Parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus. Cras faucibus varius viverra.
O
O
orphan a word or word fragment at the top of a column. this is a sign of ultimate carelessness.
The sun’ll come out, tomorrow. Bet your bottom dollar that tomorrow, there’ll be sun!
paragraph rule r u l e s o r s t r o k e s abov e and or below a paragraph, that are formatted right i nt o t he r u nni ng t ex t , a nd w i l l m o ve if c opy i s a dde d o r delet ed
Mauris nisl nisi, tempor at eleifend vitae, commodo a mi. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet. Mauris molestie, rutrum consectetur, nulla nibh, id sagittis nibh quam non sem. Mauris tellus massa, sollicitudin at laoreet vitae.
P
P
pica ยน/6 th of an inch or 12pts
point one-seventy-second of an inch, or one-twelfth of a pica; the basic unit of vertical measurement of type.
P
P
printer’s spreads page configuration used by printers
ragged type that is set with one edge rough.
Having an uneven or irregular surface; not smooth or level.
R
R
raised cap a large initial set at the top left corner of body copy, the baseline must align with the first text baseline
D
esigners are meant to be loved, not to be understood. Creative thinking may mean simply the realisation that there’s no particular virtue in doing things the way they have always been done.
readability the quality of reading, determined by letterspacing, linespacing, paper and ink contrast among other factors.
“Readability connotes an aethestic pleasantness that makes the type inviting to read. Legibility, on the other hand, does not mean letter-to-letter identification, but instead the degree of word recognition. Words are, in effect, type-shape associations.� Lester Beall, 1962
R
R
reader’s spreads what the reader see’s as opposed to what the printer see’s.
recto any right-hand page in a bound document. always odd numbered.
R
R
roman an upright, medium weight typeface style; there are two classes of roman type: Old Style and Modern.
Roman
R
rule a line
R
runaround typeset around an image or element; the ideal distance is one pica, or enough space to separate, but not enough to dissociate, the type and image from each other.
running header/footer a line of type that repeats on every page at the top or the bottom, usually near the page number
R
S
sans serif from the Latin “without serifs.� type without cross strokes at the ends of their limbs. usually have consistent stroke weight.
Sans Serif
serif a small terminal at the end of an stroke or letterform.
S
S
S
set solid type set without additional linespacing.
M a r y, M a r y, q u it e c o nt r a r y, ho w d o e s yo u r garden grow? W it h sil v e r be l l s , a nd c o c k l e she l l s, A nd p r e t t y m a id s a l l in a r o w .
Ma r y, Ma r y, qui te con tr a r y, how doe s your ga r de n gr ow? Wi th si lve r b e lls, a n d cockle she lls, An d pr e tty m a i ds a ll i n a r ow.
shoulder a curved stroke coming from a stem. in metal type, the nonprinting surface of type or a slug.
n
S
S
slab serif type with especially thick serifs. all egyptian typefaces are slab serifs.
small caps capital letters that are about the size of the x-height of lowercase letters of the same typeface.
Ut sed sem non risus viverra molestie at vel nulla. Morbi vel neque est. small caps N am li b e r o d u i, e l e if e nd u t mollis at, ultrices et urna. Vestibulum congue, lacus eget faucibus vulputate
S
S
smart quotes proper quotes. also referred to as curly quotes.
“Oh!�
stem the main straight stroke of a letter.
T
S
S
stress the general direction of a letter, whether vertical for romans, or diagonal for italics.
subhead a secondary type that explains the headline and leads to the text.
Chapter 1 The Story of Lorem Ipsum Dolor Lorem Ipsum Dolor Nullam dapibus hendrerit turpis, eu rhoncus massa pharetra quis. Vestibulum nunc nisl, pharetra sit amet luctus eu, cursus eu nunc. Sed scelerisque arcu elementum ante blandit suscipit. Praesent fermentum leo vitae justo imperdiet congue.
S
T
terminal the hanging stroke of letters like a, c, and f. there are five styles of terminal: ball, beak, finial, half-serif, and teardrop.
acf
text the main portion of a story.
The Butter Knife Incident It all started when our star, Bill Brasky, woke up in a vineyard. It was the ninth time it had happened. Feeling alarmingly concerned, Bill Brasky groped a butterknife, thinking it would make him feel better (but as usual, it did not). Soon afterward, he realized that his beloved iPad was missing!
T
T
tracking adjusting overall letter and word space in a line or paragraph. see kerning.
tracking, tracking, tracking, tracking, tracking, tracking, tracking. t r a c k i n g , t r a c k i n g . t r a c k i n g
type family all styles and variations o f a s i ng l e t y pefac e. may include italic, bold, small caps, etc.
T
T
typeface a set of characters of a certain design and bearing its own name. a typeface usually includes alphanumeric figures, punctuation, accents, and symbols.
Big Caslon
u&lc (upper & lower case) typsetting using upper and lowercase letters.
Upper & lower case
U
U
uppercase capital letters like A, B, C, etc. the term comes from the placement of the typecase relative to the lowercase characters.
A
B C
variable spaced type in which each character is assigned its own width as determined by the character’s inherent width.
V
V
verso any left hand page in a bound document. always even numbered.
weight the lightness or darkness of a typeface.
W
W
widow a word or word fragment at the end of a paragraph. whole words are okay, but word fragments are careless and must be corrected.
P l e a se si ght the se uns i g h t l y w o r d s w h e n you create a paragraph. Widow’s should be avoided if at all possible.
word spacing adjusting the space between words. the lowercase i can be used as a guide for approximate spacing.
space between words space between words
W
X
x-height the distance from the baseline to the median in lowercase letters. so named because it is the height of a lowercase x, which has neither an ascender nor a descender.
Sphinx
Designed by: Christian Baumgart