Typography Glossary

Tittle

Also known as the little dot above a lowercase j and i.

Dog ear

Typically an ear is a decorative addition to what would typically be a standard terminal. A terminal is the end of a stroke that does not contain a serif.

Loop

A curved ascender or descender that is closed or partially closed to form a loop. The decorative descender that appears on a g in some fonts.

Although it is often found as part of a serif g, the loop can also be used to describe any closed or partially closed strokes found on any ascender or descender.

Eye

The eye is the counter that is found specifically in the closed space of an e.

Counter

A counter is the area of a letterform that is entirely enclosed by the stroke of a letter. Examples can be found in letters such as o, d and q.

Open counter

Similar to a counter, an open counter is the area of a letterform that is partially enclosed. Examples can be found in the letters c, n, u.

Bar

The bar (also known as the crossbar) is a horizontal stroke.

x-height

The x-height is the distance between the baseline and the average of the top of the main body of the lowercase letters. This is typically the height of the letter x.

Ascender

The ascender is the part of the stroke that sits above the x-height.

Spine

The spine is the curved stroke found on the letter s.

Descender

A descender is the stroke that falls below the baseline.

Shoulder

A shoulder is a curved stroke found on letters such as n and m. The thickness of the shoulder varies and is an identifying feature of many fonts.

Slab Serif

A slab serif is either a blunt, angular or rounded block like flourish added to the end of the stroke of a typeface.

Serif

A serif is the small flourish added to the end of a stroke and is a term that is often used to categorise typefaces.

During a time where handwritten scriptwriting was being replaced by the more efficient print processes. The serif was the extra flurry added to the end of strokes to make printed typefaces still feel humanistic.

Sans serif

The serif is the flourish at the end of a stroke and sans is the French word for ‘without’ so sans serif simply means without a stroke.

Did you know? Caslon was the first commercially sold sans serif typeface and was developed in 1816.

Bullet points

Used to simplify content into concise, easy to consume chunks so that the reader can pick out key important information quickly.

Hanging bullets

Hanging punctuation is a technique that pulls certain punctuation out of the typical flow of copy, into its own margin to the left of the main text. This makes it easier to identify each bullet point as it creates a much cleaner sharper edge to the setting.

Hyphens, en-dashes and em-dashes

Often used incorrectly, all are essentially a small line that divides content or words, they do, however, have different meanings and uses. You wouldn’t use a question mark in the place of a bracket, it’s the same thing.

A hyphen is the shortest and is located next to the Zero on your keyboard. Its correct use is to indicate when a word has been split across a second line or to connect hyphenated compound words such as environmentally-friendly or dry-clean. There are many rules surrounding compound words, but we won’t get into that now.

An em-dash is the longest of the three hyphens and is typically the width of a capital M. Depending on the context an em-dash can be used in place of commas, colons, or parentheses for a more exaggerated pause.

Shift, option (-) —

An en-dash is used to represent a span or range of numbers, dates and times. Slightly smaller than the em-dash and larger than a hyphen the en-dash gets its name from its width, you’ve guessed it, it is typically the size of a capital N.

Option (-) –

Ellipsis

An ellipse consists of three dots and is often used to indicate suspense or a pause. It can also be used to indicate where content has been removed for example to shorten a quote or review.

Curly quotes

Curly quotes should be used whenever text is being quoted. There is a special key combination needed to create these curly quote marks, which is why they are more often than not incorrectly replaced by straight marks.

On a mac use the key combination: cmd, {

On windows pc use the combination: ALT, 0145 to open, and Alt, 0146 to close

Microsoft Word automatically converts straight marks to curly. To straighten out the mark, command- z (or undo) as soon as you have added the quotation mark, this will undo Microsoft Offices' automatic conversion.

Ink traps

Ink traps compensate for where ink can bleed when printing on certain papers. Often found at the junctions of letterforms, the traps accommodate any bleeding meaning the typeface retains its form and helps retain legibility at smaller sizes.

Ink traps fonts typically only work for type that is set at smaller sizes so avoid using large as they can be unsightly and make the form feel unbalanced.

Some typefaces with ink traps include Bell Centennial, Retina and Tang.

Widow

A widow is a single word, hyphenated word or a very short line at the end of a paragraph. It creates uncomfortable white space which breaks the flow of content, making it harder to follow.

Orphan

An orphan is a single word, hyphenated word or a very short line at the end of a paragraph, that sits at the beginning of a new column or page. An orphan creates uncomfortable white space which breaks the flow of content, making it harder to follow.

Kerning

Is the process of adjusting the space between two characters. Not to be confused with tracking which is the uniformed adjustment of space between characters in a paragraph of copy.

Why is kerning important?

Some typefaces have disparities in the spacing between certain characters, AV, oe WA etc. Although we would typically limit adjusting the kerning to key areas of paragraph text, it should always be looked at for heading text. Good kerning creates a more balanced and comfortable form that is ultimately easier to read.

Little tip, print out your work, turn it upside down and pin it on the wall. By looking at the letters as shapes and not as words, it is easier to identify uncomfortable spacing.

Tracking

Tracking is the uniformed adjustment of space between characters. Often referred to as opening up or closing the tracking, it can be used to increase legibility of typography at smaller sizes.