OUGD403 - The Anatomy and Terminology of Type

The Anatomy and Terminology of Type

Type – physical embodiment of letters (metal or wood)

Typeface – letters, numerals, punctuation and variations of symbols.

Font – collection of letters, numbers, punctuation, used to set text matter

Lettering – illustrations of letters, words and phrases

Cap-height – height from baseline to top of the uppercase letter (not including diacritics)

X height – height of lowercase letters. Defined by the perceived type size. Larger x height makes font look bigger.

Baseline – imaginary line upon which the letters in a font appear to sit

Serif – little extra stroke found at the end of main vertical and horizontal strokes of some letterforms.

Bracket – curve/wedge like connection between stem and serif of some fonts. Common in old style serif fonts (Baskerville/ Times New Roman)

Rational Serif – Didot, Bodoni, strongly linked with high end fashion.

Sans-Serif – sans, without in French.

Italic – slanted. Stylised handwriting. Usually narrower than Roman counterpart. Primary found in Serif designs.

Oblique – slanted typeface, mechanically sheared, unlike italics which are drawn and crafted separately.

Descenders – lowercase letter part that extends below baseline. Y, g, j.

Ascender – lowercase letter part extends above x-height, b, d, f, h, k.

Diacritics and Accents – ancillary mark or sign added to a letter (Spanish, Arabic)

Tittle -  dot on the I and the j (Dove’s type)

Uppercase – capitals in a typeface. Capitals kept in the uppercase of the type case (metal type)

Counter – the enclosed or partially enclosed circle or curved negative space (d, o, s)

Eye – like a counter, refers specifically to lower case e

Aperture – partially enclosed, somewhat rounded negative space (n, c, s) lower part of the e and upper part of the double storey a.

Crossbar – usually horizontal across the middle of A and H

Ear – typically found on g – decorative flourish (upper right side of the bowl)

Ligature – 2 or more letters joined together to form one glyph

The ampersand - & - used in place of and often in the middle of names. Old ‘connecting letter’ et, Latin for and

The @ symbol – some claim that the symbol dates back to the mid 1300s with it appearing in religious scripts