How to Talk Type

2/2 of the lectures from Kresge's Typography class (8/28/24)

any letter or number

character

any letter, number, punctuation, dingbat, swash, etc. in a typeface

glyph

straight parts of a letterform

stroke

vertical stroke of a letterform

stem

round stroke of a letterform

bowl

the end of any stroke

terminal

help us to align type properly

rules for alignment

the top height for capital letters in a typeface

cap height

the top height for lowercase letters in a typeface

median

the bottom height for all letters in a typeface (except for descenders)

baseline

horizontal stroke that ends in two stems

cross bar

horizontal stroke that crosses over a stem

cross stroke

a stroke added as a stop to the beginning and end of the main strokes of a character

serif

characters without a serif

sans serif

the contrast between the thickest and thinnest stroke in a character

stress

the tiny bit of letter that hangs over the alignment rule to compensate for the optical illusion and makes it look the appropriate size

overshoot

type’s lightness and darkness compared to the negative space

typographic color

upright, straight characters

roman

characters with a slant; developed to increase the amount of words that can be printed on one page

italic

any typeface that is designed to emulate cursive handwriting

script

typefaces that are designed to be used mainly for large bodies of text; books, newspaper

text typefaces

decorative typefaces that are meant to be used sparingly to attract attention; logos, headlines

display typefaces

symbols, marks, or images that are designed to work as part of a system as a typeface

dingbats

a stroke that attaches to a stem on one side; arm attaches at the top of a letterform, leg attaches at the bottom

arm + leg

small distinguishing mark, such as on a lowercase j or i

tittle

decorative stroke at the end of a curved stroke in a G or S

barb

decorative stroke at the end of a letter, similar to a serif (E, F, T)

beak

the main curved stroke of the S or s

spine

curved stroke projecting from a stem (h, m, n)

shoulder

the part of a character that descends below the baseline (p, y, j, g, q)

descender

small stroke that projects from the top of lowercase g or r

ear

outside point at the bottom of a character where two strokes meet

vertex

part of a letter that extends above the median (b, d)

ascender

partially or fully enclosed space within a character; open or closed

counter

the counter specific to a lowercase e

eye

the opening of an open counter

aperture

the inside area of a letterform where two diagonal strokes converge

crotch

the descender on an uppercase Q

tail

curved bit that attaches the serif to the stem/stroke

bracket

small projection off of a main stroke found on many capital Gs

spur

the point where two diagonal strokes meet at the top (A)

apex

one kind of lowercase g

link + loop

one kind of lowercase g

hook

two varieties of the lowercase a (single story and two story)

stories

ball and teardrop

special terminals

an imaginary line drawn bisecting thinnest strokes in an O

axis

space between the baseline and the median; height of a lowercase x

x-height

symbol to replace the word and

ampersand

two characters joined to make a single glyph; helps with spacing

ligature

exaggerated decorative serif, terminal, or tail

swash