Type and Type History terms Flashcards
ascender
The part of the letterform that extends above the x-height.
descender
The part of the letterform that extends below the baseline.
baseline
The line on which the type sits.
capline
The line on the top of the capital letters.
x-height
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.
stroke
The lines that create the letterform.
fony/typeface
One version of type in one size, style, weight, and posture with all its letters, punctuation and numbers.
point size
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.
serif
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.
sans serif
Letterforms without serifs.
slab serifs
Serifs that are squared off, blocky.
posture
The direction the letters lean.
weight
The thickness of a letterform.
roman
Fonts in which the letters are perpendicular to the baseline (straight up and down).
italic
Fonts in which the letters are oblique (lean to the right).
script
Fonts that are designed to imitate cursive writing.
Small caps
Capital letters whose height is approximately the x-height of the typeface.
ligature
Two or more characters linked together as a single glyph (piece).
extended
A classification of a typestyle in which the letters are wider than normal.
condensed
A classification of a typestyle in which the letters are narrower tham normal.
orphan
When the last line of a paragraph appears at the top of the next column.
widow
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
river
an area of white space that moves through lines of text because of overly large wordspacing
ladder
more than 2 hyphens in a row in a column of text
leading
The space between lines of type.
kerning
To adjust the space between two letters.
tracking
To adjust the space between more than 2 letters.
wordspace
The space between words.
letterspace
The space between the letters.
measure
The length of a line of type.
justified
When a column text aligns on both sides
flush left/rag right
When a column text aligns on the left, but is not on the right. This type alignment is the most esily read.
flush right/rag left
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.
stack centered
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.
pictograph
Simple drawings of everyday objects that exist in the world
ideograph
A symbol representing a thing or idea
Johann Guttenburg
In the 15th century, invented the process of printing from movable type. His printing process is called Letterpress.
