Want to know the secret of font deconstruction?
First of all, typography and font deconstruction is associated with great design for web and print. However, it was not so long ago that typesetting for printing presses was the norm. During this era of typesetting, many technical terms evolved for the construction and makeup of fonts and layout. It was like a secret code for typesetters, where few outside of the industry had any knowledge of the terms being used. The Logo Company has put together this clever graphic called Typography and Font Deconstruction that decodes these technical terms associated with type and typography and font deconstruction and explains the meaning of each term in simple, plain English, that anyone can understand. Read more Typography can make or break your logo
Listed here are the technical terms used in the typography and font decontruction and their associated meanings.
Aperture – Typography and Font Deconstruction
An area entirely or partially enclosed by a letter form or a symbol.
Arm
The arm of a letter is the horizontal stroke on some characters that does not connect to a stroke or stem at one or both ends.
Ascender
An upward vertical stroke found on the part of lowercase letters that extend upward.
Ball Terminal
A type of curve at the end of any stroke that does not include a serif.
Bowl – in typography and font deconstruction
The curved part of the character that encloses the circular or curved parts of a letter.
Counter
The open space in a fully or partly closed area within a letter.
Crossbar – Type and font deconstruction
The horizontal stroke across the middle of uppercase A and H.
Descender
The part of a letter that extends below the baseline.
Ear – in typography and font deconstruction
A small stroke extending from the upper-right side of the bowl of a lowercase g.
Eye
The eye refers specifically to the enclosed space in a lowercase e.
Kerning
The process of adjusting spacing between characters in a word.
Leading – in typography and font deconstruction
The amount of space between lines of words.
Leg
A stroke that extends downward at less than 90 degrees is a leg, as seen on the letters k, K and R.
Loop
The lower portion of the lowercase g.
Ligature in font deconstruction
A combo of two or more characters that are joined into one form which are not commonly combined.
Serif And Sans Serif
Serif is the small, finishing strokes on the arms, stems, and tails of characters. When a character does not have the finishing strokes, it is called sans-serif.
Shoulder – font deconstruction
The curved stroke aiming downward from a stem.
Spur – typography
A small projection off a main stem.
Stem
The stem is the main , usually vertical stroke of a letter.
Tail – typography and font deconstruction
A characters downward projection such as on the letter Q.
Terminal – typography
The end of a stroke not terminated with a serif.
Tittle – font deconstruction
A small distinguishing mark, such as a diacritic on a lowercase i or j.
X-Height – font deconstruction
The height that lowercase letters reach based on a height of lowercase x. Does not include ascenders and descenders.
X-Line – font deconstruction
A line marking the top of those lowercase letters, such as o, having no ascenders.
