Briem’s notes on type design: Glossary¶
- Anti-aliasing
- The enlarged detail shows how grayscaling smooths the edges of a bitmap.
- Arm
- A horizontal, free at one end.
- Ascender
- Part of a lower case letters that rises above the x-height.
- Ascii
- American Standard Code of Information Interchange: a list of 128 numbered characters and print commands. Another 128 are known as “upper-ascii” or “extended-ascii.” Their arrangement is not a part of the standard, and differs from one operating system to the next.
- Bar
- A horizontal in such letters as A e t.
- Baseline
- An imaginary line that most characters seem to rest on.
- Bézier curve
- Polynomial curve; an established standard in computer-aided geometric design.
- Bitmap
- Letter image made of dots, especially in low-resolution, where the dots can be seen.
- Bowl
- A curve that encloses a space in a character.
- Cap height
- The height of capital letters.
- Cap line
- An imaginary line at the top of capitals.
- Character set
- A group of characters, numerals, symbols, and punctuation, usually in the same style.
- Counter
- The white space inside a letter.
- Descender
- Part of a character that goes below the baseline.
- Ear
- Small stroke that sticks out of the to of the top of the letter g.
- Hairline
- Thinnest part of a character, usually on a curve.
- Kern
- Part that goes outside the body of the character.
- Kerning
- Exceptions to character widths. In the example on the left, the gap between the letters Y and e is too wide. In the example on the right, the letter e has been shifted to the left.
- Midline
- An imaginary line at the top of lower case letters without ascenders.
- Pixel
- One dot on a computer screen, often equivalent to one point.
- Point
- Typographic measure, about 1 / 72 of an inch.
- Serif
- A stroke at the beginning or the end of some letterforms.
- Shading
- Thickening of a curve.
- Sidebearings
- The distance between either side of a character to the boundaries of the character width.
- Spine
- The main curve of the letter s.
- Stem
- Main stroke, usually straight and upright.
- Stress
- Thickening of a curve.
- x-height
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- The distance from the baseline to the top of lower case letters without ascenders.
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- The proportion between the height of ascenders and lower case letters without ascenders.
Notes on type design. Copyright © 1998, 2001, 2022 Gunnlaugur SE Briem. All rights reserved. Republished with permission in 2022 by Fontlab Ltd.