Type and Type History terms

Question 1

ascender

Answer 1

The part of the letterform that extends above the x-height.

Question 2

descender

Answer 2

The part of the letterform that extends below the baseline.

Question 3

baseline

Answer 3

The line on which the type sits.

Question 4

capline

Answer 4

The line on the top of the capital letters.

Question 5

x-height

Answer 5

The height of a typeface’s lower case letters excluding the ascenders and descenders. The height of the x affects how the overall font is perceived. A large x-height will make the font appear larger, but the leading smaller because the inside area of the letters is larger, but the ascenders and descenders are smaller. The smaller x-height, the smaller the font looks, but the leading will look larger because of the long ascenders and descenders.

Question 6

stroke

Answer 6

The lines that create the letterform.

Question 7

fony/typeface

Answer 7

One version of type in one size, style, weight, and posture with all its letters, punctuation and numbers.

Question 8

point size

Answer 8

Fonts are measured using the point system (12 points equal 1 pica, 6 picas equal 1 inch). A typeface is measured from the top of its ascender to the bottom of its descender.

Question 9

serif

Answer 9

The “feet” or short termination stroke at the ends of letterforms. Serifs help us to read text more easily because they lead the eye from one letterform to the next.

Question 10

sans serif

Answer 10

Letterforms without serifs.

Question 11

slab serifs

Answer 11

Serifs that are squared off, blocky.

Question 12

posture

Answer 12

The direction the letters lean.

Question 13

weight

Answer 13

The thickness of a letterform.

Question 14

roman

Answer 14

Fonts in which the letters are perpendicular to the baseline (straight up and down).

Question 15

italic

Answer 15

Fonts in which the letters are oblique (lean to the right).

Question 16

script

Answer 16

Fonts that are designed to imitate cursive writing.

Question 17

Small caps

Answer 17

Capital letters whose height is approximately the x-height of the typeface.

Question 18

ligature

Answer 18

Two or more characters linked together as a single glyph (piece).

Question 19

extended

Answer 19

A classification of a typestyle in which the letters are wider than normal.

Question 20

condensed

Answer 20

A classification of a typestyle in which the letters are narrower tham normal.

Question 21

orphan

Answer 21

When the last line of a paragraph appears at the top of the next column.

Question 22

widow

Answer 22

1) a word less than 7 letters at the end of a paragraph. 2)the first line of a paragraph alone at the bottom of a column of text

Question 23

river

Answer 23

an area of white space that moves through lines of text because of overly large wordspacing

Question 24

ladder

Answer 24

more than 2 hyphens in a row in a column of text

Question 25

leading

Answer 25

The space between lines of type.

Question 26

kerning

Answer 26

To adjust the space between two letters.

Question 27

tracking

Answer 27

To adjust the space between more than 2 letters.

Question 28

wordspace

Answer 28

The space between words.

Question 29

letterspace

Answer 29

The space between the letters.

Question 30

measure

Answer 30

The length of a line of type.

Question 31

justified

Answer 31

When a column text aligns on both sides

Question 32

flush left/rag right

Answer 32

When a column text aligns on the left, but is not on the right. This type alignment is the most esily read.

Question 33

flush right/rag left

Answer 33

When a column text aligns on the right, but is not on the left. This arrangement is very hard to read, because your eye reaches the end of the sentence and then has a hard time finding the next line since it is ragged. This alignment should only be used for a limited amount of information (examples: captions, headline). The more leading, the easier it is to fing the beggining of the line.

Question 34

stack centered

Answer 34

When each line in a column of text centrally aligns below the line above. Since this is ragged on both sides, it is very hard to read and should also only be used for limited amounts of text. As with flush right type, making the size of the font larger and added leading will help this arrangement to be more readable.

Question 35

pictograph

Answer 35

Simple drawings of everyday objects that exist in the world

Question 36

ideograph

Answer 36

A symbol representing a thing or idea

Question 37

Johann Guttenburg

Answer 37

In the 15th century, invented the process of printing from movable type. His printing process is called Letterpress.