ANATOMY OF A TYPEFACE HOW TO

Weight: The thickness of a font’s stroke. X-height: The distance between the baseline and the height of the lowercase letter ‘x’. Uppercase: A typecase containing capital letters. Terminal: A circular form at the end of the arm, leg or brow in letters. Stroke: A straight or curved line that creates the principal part of a letter. Small Capital: Short capital letters designed to blend with lowercase text. Serif: A stroke added to the beginning or end of one of the main strokes of a letter. Stem: A main stroke that is more or less straight, not part of a bowl. Spine: The main curved stroke of a lowercase or capital letter. Shoulder: A curved stroke originating from a stem. Lowercase: A smaller form of letters in a typeface.

Ligature: Two or more letters tied into a single character.

ANATOMY OF A TYPEFACE HOW TO

These are the terms to have in your “type dictionary” so you better understand how type is created and how to use it effectively in your work:Īperture: The partially enclosed space of a letterform.Īscender: An upward vertical stroke that extends beyond the x-height.īaseline: The invisible line on which all letters rest.īowl: The generally round or elliptical forms which are the basic body shape of letters.Ĭap height: The distance from the baseline to the top of the capital letter.Ĭounter: The white space enclosed by a letterform.Ĭross bar: The horizontal stroke in letters.ĭescender: A downward vertical stroke that extends beyond the baseline.ĭot: Also known as a tittle, is a small diacritic on a lowercase i or j.Įye: The closed counter of a lowercase e.įinial: A tapered or curved end on a letterform. Be it for a website headline, a call-to-action button or a host of other functions, when you break type down to the anatomical level, you’ll have the building blocks to create a more legible and readable experience for your users. So, it’s important to have an understanding of what goes into the type that you select. Not only are the words you choose important the typographic choices you make such as font style and how you lay out your text onscreen are equally vital, too.

Your text plays a vital role in carrying the right message to your users.

Anatomy of a typeface