Desktop Publishing & Design
Baseline The invisible grid line the characters sit on
X-Height The height of a typical lowercase letter (“x”)
Ascender The part that extends above the body of type
Descender The part that drops below the body of type
Serif Extra/decorative strokes at the end of a letter
Counter The empty space inside the body stroke
Bowl The curved stroke which surrounds a counter
Tittle The dots on lowercase letters or in punctuation
Font/Weight Below is an example of a typeface. It is a family of different weights. The family is called a typeface while the members of the family are referred to as fonts. Minion Pro Minion Pro Bold Minion Pro Med Minion Pro Small Bold
Type Size Type is measured in ‘points’ from the top of the ascender to the bottom of the descender. There are 72 pts. in an inch. Arial 18 Arial 24 Arial 30 Arial 36 Arial 42 Arial 48 Arial 60
Leading Amount of space between lines of type
Tracking Tracking refers to space in between a string of characters
Alignment How the type is lined up in a text block
Kerning Kerning is the amount of space between individual sets of letters
Styles Weight or design of the typography