Typography Anatomy of a Letter
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When you identify a typeface,
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A Sans-serif
Serif
Ask
Is it serif or sans serif?
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A Serif
Small stroke at the beginning or end of main strokes of a letter. Serif fonts (Times, Optima) are better for reading large blocks of text where the serifs help to keep your eye focused on a line of text, helping you to recognize the word as a shape, which enhances your ability to identify the word and read quickly.
San-serif
Sans means “without� in French. It is a style of type without serif. Use sans serif fonts (Helvetica, Arial) because the near-uniform width of the strokes keeps the font readable when reduced in resolution or reduced in font size. Sans serif fonts are more legible from farther away, which is why they are good for posters and slides, particularly the titles and headers.
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Ask How large is the x-heights? What is the angle of the stress? what does the tail of the uppercase Q look like? what does the apex of the uppercse A look like? how does the cap height relate to the height of the ascender? Uppercase R: how does the crossbar connect to the stem? how far does the leg reach?
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Baseline
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x X-height
Cap-height
Height of the lowercase ‘x’ which is used as a guideline for the height of unextended lowercase letters.
The height of a capital letter measured from the baseline.
Ascender On lowercase letters the vertical stroke that extends above the x-height.
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.
Descender Parts of lowercase letters that extend below the baseline.
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Apex Point at the top of a letterform where two strokes meet.
Bowl Fully closed rounded part of a letter.
Crossbar Horizontal stroke like the middle of an ‘H’, ‘A’ and ‘e’.
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Axis
An imaginary line drawn from top to bottom of a glyph bisecting the upper and lower strokes is the axis.
Arm A horizontal or upward, sloping stroke that does not connect to a stroke or stem on one or both ends.
Arc of Stem A curved stroke that is continuous with a straight stem.
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Leg Short, descending portion of a letter.
Tail The descending stroke of the letter ‘Q’
Dot A small distinguishing mark, such as an diacritic on a lowercase i or j. Also known as a Tittle.
Eye The eye refers specifically to the enclosed space in a lowercase ‘e’.
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Shoulder Curved part in a lowercase ‘h’, ‘m’ and ‘n’.
Spine The main curved stroke of a lowercase or capital S.
Ear A small stroke extending from the angled or curved lowercase -r. Also appears in the upper-right side of the bowl of lowercase g.
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Ask What are the terminals like How large are the apertures and the counters? Is the lower case “g� one-story (monocular) or two-story (binocular)
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Binocular
Monocular
A double-story ‘a’ or ‘g’ has two counters
A single-storey ‘a’ or ‘g’ only has one counter
Tracking Adding space between successions of characters.
Kerning Kerning refers to the horizontal space between individual pairs of letters (a kerning pair), and is used to correct spacing problems in specific letter combinations like “VA”. Fonts that are properly kerned appear evenly spaced without large open gaps of white space between any two characters.
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Those days in grandm but they laughed. Thu Leading Its original meaning is increasing the vertical space between lines of metal type by literally inserting lead strips. In the digital age it now means the vertical space between lines of text, from baseline to baseline. Also known as linespacing.
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Vertex
Terminal with a circular shape
Finial
Taper
Tapered or curved end on letters like the bottom of a ‘c’ or ‘e’.
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Ball terminal
The outside point at the bottom or top of a character where two strokes meet.
Thinner and refined end of a stroke.
Link A stroke that connects the top and bottom bowls of lowercase double-story g’s.
Hairline
A thin stroke usually common to serif typefaces.
Aperture The opening of a partially enclosed counter shape.
Cross stroke
The horizontal stroke across a lowercase ‘t’ or ‘f’.
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Diagonal Stroke
An angled stroke.
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Beak
Decorative stroke at the end of the arm of a letter, similar to a serif but more pronounced.
Crotch
Inside angle where two strokes meet.
Counter In typography, the enclosed or partially enclosed circular or curved negative space (white space) of some letters such as d, o, and s is the counter.
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Bibliography www.typedia.com www.fontshop.com www.typedecon.comossary.” Typography Deconstructed, typedecon.com/ blogs/type-glossary. Type Glossary.” Typography Deconstructed, typedecon. com/bl “Type Glossary.” Typography Deconstructed, typedecon.com/blogs/ type-glossary. ogs/type-g “Type Glossary.” Typography Deconstructed, typedecon.com/blogs/type-glossary. lossary. “Type Glossary.” Typography Deconstructed, This booktypedecon.com/blogs/type-glossary. is designed by Xiaoyi Zeng for Typography at SUNY Oneonta in Fall 2017.
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