ID: q36401
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The following is a glossary of some common typography terms you may encounter when working with fonts in Word:
Term Definition
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Ascender The part of certain lowercase letter that extends
above the x-height of a font.
Ascender Line A line marking the topmost point of the cap line.
Baseline The line along which the bases of all capital letters
(and most lowercase letters) are positioned.
Cap Height The height of the uppercase letters within a font.
Cap Line A line marking the height of uppercase letters within
a font.
Descender The portion of a lowercase letter that extends below
the base line of the letter.
Descender Line A line marking the lowest point of the descenders
within a font.
Em A unit of measurement equal to the current type size.
For example, an em in 12 point type is equal to 12
points.
En A unit of measurement equal to half of one em.
Font The complete set of characters for one typeface at
one particular type size, excluding attributes such
as bold or italic.
Font Family Group of typefaces with similar characteristics. For
example, the sans serif typefaces Arial, Arial Bold,
Arial Bold Italic, Arial Italic, Small Fonts, and MS
Sans Serif are all part of the Swiss font family.
Font Size The size of type, measured in points between the
bottom of the descender and the top of the ascender
(the vertical point size of a font). Sometimes
referred to as the Type or Point Size.
Font Style Refers to the specific characteristics of the font.
The four characteristics that can be defined for
fonts are italic, bold, bold italic, and roman.
Kerning The adjustment of spacing between letters. Also
called Letter Spacing.
Leading (pronounced "ledding") The amount of vertical space
between lines of type.
Letter Spacing Extra space inserted between letters in a word. Also
called Kerning.
Ligature A special double character in a font representing two
letters as one. For example, ae and oe.
Line Spacing The amount of vertical spacing, expressed in points,
from the baseline of one line of text, to the
baseline of the next line.
Mean Line The line on which the top parts of most of the
lowercase letters set (not the ascenders). Also
called x-height.
Pica A unit of measurement equal to one-sixth of an inch.
There are 12 points to a pica.
Point A unit of measurement, often used to measure type
size, equal to 0.013837 inch (approximately equal to
1/72").
Sans Serif A font that does not have serifs. For example,
Helvetica or Modern.
Serif A small cross stroke accentuating the end of the main
stroke of a letter in some typefaces.
Serif Type A font that has accents at the end of character
strokes. For example, Times or Roman.
Slant Refers to the angle of a font's characters, which can
be italic or roman (no slant).
Spacing Can be either fixed or proportional. In a fixed font,
such as Courier, every character occupies the same
amount of space. In a proportional font, such as
Arial or Times New Roman(R), character width varies.
Pitch Refers to the amount of horizontal space used for
each character of fixed-width fonts. This is often
specified in characters-per-inch (CPI), typically
where 10-pitch equals 12-point, 12-pitch equals
10-point, and 15-pitch equals 8-point.
Typeface A set of characters that share common characteristics
such as stroke width and the presence or absence of
serifs.
Weight Refers to the heaviness of the stroke for a specific
font, such as Light, Regular, Book, Demi, Heavy,
Black, and Extra Bold.
Width Refers to whether the standard typeface has been
extended or compressed horizontally. The common
variations are Condensed, Normal, or Extended.
X-Height The height of those lowercase letters such as "x",
which do not have ascenders or descenders.
X Line A line marking the top of those lowercase letters,
such as "x", having no ascenders. The upper boundary
of x-height.
The following diagram illustrates the positions of some of the above terms:
__
XXXX X -- Ascender |
X X X |
mean line_____XXXXXX______XXXX_______X___X__ _ |
X X X X X X | x-height | Font
base line_____X____X______X___X_______XXXX__ _| (mean to base) | Size
X |
XXXX -- Descender __|
http://www.microsoft.com/typography/
Keywords : kberrmsg kbfield macword macword5 macword6
Version : MACINTOSH:3.0,3.01,3.02,4.0,5.0,5.1,5.1a,6.0,6.0.1,6.0.1a
Platform : MACINTOSHLast Reviewed: February 3, 1999