VISUAL DICTIONARY
Divya Sharma PDFC 2014-15
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Typography is the craft of endowing human language with a durable visual form. -Robert Bringhurst
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ypography is a designer’s secret weapon. It may not be as distinct as a graphic component, but master the art of choosing the right type – something fresh and gripping – and you’ll have a distinct edge over your less enlightened peers.Knowing your typography terms and being able to better articulate design concepts from an analytical perspective is a major skill. Typography is a central component of design. It gives us an understanding of the heritage behind our craft. It’s one of the primary ways we, as a society, pass on information to others. Imagine a website, a magazine or even TV without text. Typography is a subject that raises passions and it can become a consuming obsession. This visual dictionary helps in deconstructing typography and aims at providing thorough knowledge about the subject typography. 3
a
Aperture The aperture is the partially enclosed, somewhat rounded negative space in some characters such as n, C, S, the lower part of e, or the upper part of a double-storey a. But it must not be confused with bowls which are strokes, rather than area.
ampersand
Ampersand A stylized character of the Latin et used to represent the word and. Definition: The typographic symbol used to designate the word and (& ) is the Latin symbol for et which means and. The name, ampersand , is believed to be derived from the phrase “and per se and.� 5
c b Baseline
Cap Height
In typography, the baseline is the imaginary line upon which a line of text rests. In most typefaces, the descenders on characters such as g or p extend down below the baseline while curved letters such as c or o extend ever-so-slightly below the baseline.
In typography, cap height refers to the height of a capital letter above the baseline for a particular typeface.It specifically refers to the height of capital letters that are flat— such as H or I—as opposed to round letters such as O, or pointed letters like A, both of which may display overshoot.
Bowl
In typography, the curved part of the character that encloses the circular or curved parts (counter) of some letters such as d, b, o, D, and B is the bowl. Some sources call any parts of a letter enclosing a space a bowl, including both parts.
Body Height
In typography, the body height refers to the distance between the top of the tallest letterform to the bottom of the lowest one.
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Counter
In typography, a counter is the area of a letter that is entirely or partially enclosed by a letter form or a symbol. Letters containing closed counters include A, B, D, O, P, Q, R, a, b, d, e, g, o, p, and q. Letters containing open counters include c, f, h, i, s etc. The digits 0, 4, 6, 8, and 9 also possess a counter. An aperture is the opening between the counter and the outside of the letter.
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C
C
DES ENDER
Dia ritic
The portion of some lowercase letters, such as g and y, that extends or descends below the baseline is the descender. The length and shape of the descender can affect readability of lines of type and is an identifying factor for some typefaces.
In typography, Diacriticals are the accent marks used on some characters to denote a specific pronounciation. Rare in English, they are a common occurrence in French, German, Italian, Spanish, and other languages.
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f F
Font
All the characters including numerals, punctuations, and symbols,for one typeface at one specific point size abnd weight. The term “font” and “typeface” are often taken to have a same meaning, but they are different. Perpetua bold italics is a typeface while 10-point perpetua bold italics is a font. 10
Apple Chaucery Baskerville Chalkboard Georgia hobo std,12 Noteworthy
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Different kind of fonts available to adorn your text
Gothic typeface
FINIAL 12
A tapered or curved end. Definition: The part of a letter known as a finial is usually a somewhat tapered curved end on letters such as the bottom of C or e or the top of a double-storey a. Another definition for finial is a swash or ornamental flourish, much like an extended serif or ascender.
A typeface style that in modern terms means something quite different from the blackletter style popular in Gutenberg’s time. Modern gothic typefaces are sans serif with little contrast between stem and other strokes and no ornamentation.
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He
a
tic
lve
abcdef ghijklmn opqrstuvw xyz ABCD EFGHIJKLM NOPQRSTU VWXYZ 12 34567890;’[]? ><’;\]+=_-)(#$%^ @<>:”{?}||}}}___)
Helvetica is a widely used sans-serif typeface developed in 1957 by Swiss typeface designer Max Miedinger with input from Edouard Hoffmann. It is a neo-grotesque or realist design, one influenced by the famous 19th century typeface Akzidenz-Grotesk and other German and Swiss designs. One of the most popular typefaces of the 20th century, its use became a hallmark of the International Typographic Style that emerged from the work of Swiss designers in the 1950s and 60s. Over the years a wide range of variants have been released in different weights, widths and sizes, as well as matching designs for a range of non-Latin alphabets. Notable features of Helvetica include the termination of all strokes on exactly horizontal or vertical lines and unusually tight letter spacing, which give it a dense, compact appearance.
Helvetica Regular Helvetica Bold Helvetica Oblique Helvetica Oblique Bold
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IL Italics
While roman typefaces are upright, italic typefaces slant to the right. But rather than being just a slanted or tilted version of the roman face, a true or pure italic font is drawn from scratch and has unique style.
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Loop
In a doublestorey g, the loop is the enclosed or partially enclosed counter below the baseline that is joined to the bowl by a link. The enclosed or partially enclosed extenders on cursive p, b, l are called loop.
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MODERN
MEAN LINE 18
Imaginary line running along the top of non-ascending, lowercase letters. The meanline falls at the top of many lowercase letters such as “e,” “g” and “y.” It is also at the curve of letters like “h.” The amount of vertical spacing, expressed in points, from the baseline of one line of text, to the baseline of the next line.
A typeface style, developed in the eighteenth centuryand used throughout much of the nineteenth century, characterized by extreme contrast between thick and thin stroke, as well as flat strokes, as well as flat serifs. Badoni and Walbaum are classic examples of modern style font.
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Open Counter The partially open space within a character that is open on one end.
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Over Shoot In typeface design, the overshoot of a round or pointed capital letter (like O or A) is the degree to which it extends higher or lower than a comparably sized â&#x20AC;&#x153;flatâ&#x20AC;? letter (like X or H), to achieve an optical effect of being the same size.
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q p ica
A pica is a typographic unit of measure corresponding to 1â &#x201E;72 of its respective foot, and therefore to 1â &#x201E;6 of an inch. The pica contains 12 point units of measure.
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An antiquated sort or glyph, used to recreate the typographic flavor of a bygone age. Marked by skillful design or elegance, it is unusual or different in character or appearance and is strikingly old-fashioned or unfamiliar.
uaint 23
S 24
Serif In typography, a serif is a small line attached to the end of a stroke in a letter or symbol, such as when handwriting is separated into distinct units for a typewriter or typesetter. A typeface with serifs is called a serif typeface (or serifed typeface). A typeface without serifs is called sans serif or sans-serif, from the French sans, meaning “without”. Some typography sources refer to sans-serif typefaces as “Grotesque” (in German “grotesk”) or “Gothic”, and serif typefaces as “Roman”.
Sans Serif
S
In typography, a sans-serif, sans serif, gothic, san serif or simply sans typeface is one that does not have the small projecting features called “serifs” at the end of strokes. The term comes from the French word sans, meaning “without”. Sans-serif fonts tend to have less line width variation than serif fonts. Before the term “sans-serif” became common in English typography, a number of other terms had been used. One of these outmoded terms for sans serif was gothic, which is still used in East Asian typography.
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S Spine
SPINE
The spine is the main left to right curving stroke in S and s. The spine may be almost vertical or mostly horizontal, depending on the typeface.
SWASH
A flourish addition replacing a terminal or serif. A swash is a typographical flourish on a glyph, like an exaggerated serif.
T A
In typography, the descending, often decorative stroke on the letter Q or the descending, often curved diagonal stroke on K or R is the tail. The descender on g, j, p, q, and y are also called tails. The back, last, lower, or inferior part of something.
I
L
Capital swash characters, which extended to the left, were historically often used to begin sentences.
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