Typographic Terms alphabet The characters of a given language, arranged in a traditional order; 26 characters in English. ascender The part of a lowercase letter that rises above the main body of the letter (as in b, d, h). The part that extends above the x-height of a font. bad break Refers to widows or orphans in text copy, or a break that does not make sense of the phrasing of a line of copy, causing awkward reading. baseline The imaginary line upon which text rests. Descenders extend below the baseline. Also known as the "reading line." The line along which the bases of all capital letters (and most lowercase letters) are positioned. bleed An area of text or graphics that extends beyond the edge of the page. Commercial printers usually trim the paper after printing to create bleeds. body type The specific typeface that is used in the main text break The place where type is divided; may be the end of a line or paragraph, or as it reads best in display type. bullet A typeset character (a large dot or symbol) used to itemize lists or direct attention to the beginning of a line. (See dingbat.) cap height The height of the uppercase letters within a font. (See also cap line.) caps and small caps The typesetting option in which the lowercase letters are set as small capital letters; usually 75% the height of the size of the innercase. Typographic Terms character A symbol in writing. A letter, punctuation mark or figure. character count An estimation of the number of characters in a selection of type. character set A single font's characters, symbols, and numbers. codex a book of paper or parchment leaves bound with boards; distinct from the ancient volume in scroll form. condensed Characters which are narrower to fit into a compact space. A properly condensed character should fit into a smaller space without making it too thin or reducing the character's height. contrast An indication of the difference between the thicker and thinner parts of characters in a typeface. Bodoni with its thin serifs and horizontal strokes and thick verticals, is a high contrast face. Helvetica (and most Egyptians) is a low contrast face. copy All typeset words and/or text incorporated into the publication (as in art and copy) descender The lowest portion of letters such as 'g,' 'j,' 'p.' 'q,' and 'y' that extends below the baseline, or reading line of type. (See descender line.) The portion of a lowercase letter that extends below the base line of the letter. drop cap An oversized capital letter used at the start of a paragraph. Drop caps occupy two or more lines of body copy, usually introduced for design emphasis. Typographic Terms em A unit of measure, which is the square of a face's point size. Traditionally, the width of a face's widest letter, the capital 'M.' For instance, if the 'M' is 10 points wide, an em is equal to 10 points. By Microsoft: A unit of measurement equal to the current type size. For example, an em in 12-point type is equal to 12 points. em dash One em wide, the em dash indicates missing material or a break in thought. Spaces may be added to both sides of the em dash. em space A non-breaking space equal to the width of a typeface's point size. Often used for paragraph indentions. Traditionally, the em space was created by non-printing blocks of metal used to add space between words. en dash One en wide, the en dash indicates duration, "to" or "through" such as, "refer to pages 4-9." It may also be used in compound adjectives (as in post-World War 1~). A space can be added to both sides of the en dash. en space A nonbreaking space equal to the width of the letter N in the font being used (one-half the width of a em space). font The complete set of characters for one typeface at one particular type size, excluding attributes such as bold or italic. In modern usage, the term "font" is often confused with "typeface" and "family." Traditionally, the term "font" represents a complete set of characters (including all the letters of the alphabet, punctuation, and symbols), which share the same typeface, style, and size. For example, 12 point Goudy Oldstyle Bold is a font. Fonts can be as small as the basic alphabet or up to hundreds of characters. Some languages, like Japanese, can exceed these numbers, which make them more difficult to access from the standard keyboard. Derived from the word "found" as in type foundry. 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. Typographic Terms 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. gutter The space between two facing pages (inside margins). The term is sometimes used to refer to the space between two columns (see alley). indents A temporary inward offset from the margin setting. initial cap Large, capital letters (often ornamental) which are found at the beginning of paragraphs or chapters. These date back to the early days of European manuscnpts where they were (and sb11 are) considered works of art Before printing presses replaced hand lettering, a few talented scribes drew the characters into spaces left in the manuscripts for that purpose italics A type style with slightly slanted characters, used for emphasis. Best used to set off quotes, special phrases, and foreign words, italic letters have a redesigned structure that allows them to slant to the right. The first italic type was designed by Aldus Manutius in AD 1501 and was based on the handwriting style of that time. Furthermore, lowercase letters were in italics while capital letters were Roman (or vertical stance). justified Text that is aligned at both the left and right margins. Typographic Terms kerning The adjustment of spacing between letters. The process of improving appearance and legibility by adjusting the white space between certain paired characters, such as 'Ty', 'To', or 'Ye', which are known as "kerning pairs." Manual kerning allows the desktop publisher to move letters either closer or farther apart ~o adjust and improve the space between them. Automatic kerning on the computer is done by using a kerning table (an AFM file) that contains pre defined font specific kerning pairs. Sometimes incorrectly referred to as "minus setting." See also letter spacing. kerning pairs Certain paired characters, such as 'Ty', 'To', or 'Ye', defined in a font and used for improving appearance and legibility. Kerning pairs are usually defined in well designed fonts. See also kerning. leading (Pronounced 'ledding') The amount of vertical space between lines of type. The distance from the baseline of one line of type and the baseline of another line of type immediately above or below it; also known as line spacing and usually measured in points. legibility the ease with which the reader can discern the type on the page, based on the tone of the type in relation to the background and the letterforms' shape with respect to each other. left justified Type that is aligned with its left margin. Also called "flush left" letter spacing Extra space inserted between letters in a word. Also called Kerning. Separating all the letters in a word with spaces. Best used to modify headings, this should be applied with caution since too much letter spacing makes copy difficult to read. Some programs automatically add letter spacing when the text is justified. (See tracking) ligature A special double character in a font representing two letters as one. For example, ae and oe. One character that is made up of two or more letters. 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. Typographic Terms margins The area from the edge of the paper to the boundary of the layout area of the page. orphan line A single line of a paragraph at the top of a page or column. pica A unit of measurement equal to one-sixth of an inch. There are 12 points to a pica. A typographic measurement that has survived the digital revolution. 12 points = 1 pica; 6 picas = 1 inch; 72 points = 1 inch. ragged The uneven alignment of text lines. Ragged is the opposite of flush. A text block may be formatted to be evenly aligned (flush) on one side and unevenly aligned (ragged) on the other. readability The overall appearance of how the type is spaced in the column. resolution The number of dots in an image's screen display or printed output. A monitor's resolution refers to the number of pixels per linear inch. Printed resolution refers to dots per linear inch. (See dpi.) reverse type White characters on a dark background. A good way to grab the reader's attention. right justified Type aligned with its right margin. Also known as "flush right." sans serif A typeface without serifs. For example, Helvetica or Modern. Sans serif type is more legible in headings than in a long passage of text.