Typeface anatomy#Metal type era

The strokes are the components of a letterform.{{Cite book |title=Typographic Design: Form and Communication |last1=Carter |first1=Bob |last2=Day |first2=Ben |last3=Meggs |first3=Philip |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |date=2007 |isbn=9780471783909 |location=United States of America |page=31}} Strokes may be straight, as in {{xt3|k l v w x z}}, or curved, as in {{xt3|c o s}}. If straight, they may be horizontal, vertical, or diagonal; if curved, open or closed. Typographers also speak of an instroke, where one starts writing the letter, as at the top of {{xt3|a c f}}, and an outstroke, where the pen leaves off, as at the bottom of {{xt3|c e j k t y}}.{{cite web|first1=Martin|last1=Pecina|first2=David|last2=Březina|date=2008|title=Type Anatomy 1.0|website=Typomil|url=http://typomil.com/anatomy/index.html}}

A main vertical stroke is a stem. The letter {{xt3|m}} has three, the left, middle, and right stems. The central stroke of an {{xt3|s}} is known as the spine.{{Cite book|title=Mastering Type: The Essential Guide to Typography for Print and Web Design|last=Bosler|first=Denise|date=2012|publisher=F+W Media, Inc.|isbn=978-1440313714|page=31|oclc=940731283|quote="individual parts such as the spine of the S"}} When the stroke is part of a lowercase and rises above the height of an {{xt3|x}} (the x height), it is known as an ascender.{{cite web |last=Dean |first=Paul |date=11 April 2008 |title=eXtreme Type Terminology. Part Three: The 'Black Art' |website=I Love Typography |url=http://ilovetypography.com/2008/04/11/extreme-type-terminology-part-3/ }}

Letters with ascenders are {{xt3|b d f h k l}}. A stroke which drops below the baseline is a descender. Letters with descenders are {{xt3|g j p q y}}.

An arching stroke is a shoulder as in the top of an {{xt3|R}} or sometimes just an arch, as in {{xt3|h n m}}. A closed curved stroke is a bowl in {{xt3|b d o p q D O P Q}}; {{xt3|B}} has two bowls. A bowl with a flat end as in {{Xt3|D P}} is a lobe.{{Cite web|title=Lobe|url=http://www.typographydeconstructed.com/lobe/|access-date=2021-11-03|website=Typography Deconstructed |url-status=dead |archive-date= 26 February 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170226225425/http://www.typographydeconstructed.com/lobe/ }} A trailing outstroke, as in {{xt3|j y J Q R}} is a tail. The inferior diagonal stroke in {{xt3|K}} is a leg.{{cite book|last=Coles|first=Stephen|title=The Anatomy of Type: A Graphic Guide to 100 typefaces|publisher=Harper Design|date=2013|isbn=9780062203120}} The bottom of the g#Typographic variants is a loop; the very short stroke at the top is the ear.{{cite web|last=Dean|first=Paul|date=March 27, 2008|title=eXtreme Type Terminology. Part 2: Anatomy of a Letterform|website=I Love Typography|url=http://ilovetypography.com/2008/03/27/extreme-type-terminology-part-2/}} The letters {{xt3|i j}} each have a dot or tittle.

A short horizontal stroke, as in the center of {{xt3|e f }} and the middle stroke of {{xt3|E F}}, is a bar. Strokes that connect, as in {{xt3|A}} and {{xt3|H}}, or cross other strokes, as in {{xt3|t}}, are also known as crossbars. A longer horizontal stroke at the top or bottom, as in {{xt3|E T}}, is an arm. The junction of two strokes intersecting above as in {{Xt3|A M X x}} is an apex and the joining of two strokes intersecting below as in {{Xt3|V W v w}} is a vertex.

The font shown in the example is stressed; this means that strokes have varying widths. In this example, the stroke at the top of the "g" is thinner at the top and bottom than on the sides – a vertical stress. Fonts without any variation in the stroke width are known as monoline fonts.

The terminal (end) of an instroke or outstroke is often a serif or a stroke ending. A seriffed terminal may be described as a wedge, bulbous, teardrop, slab, etc., depending on the design of the type. Typefaces may be classified by their look, of which the weight and serif style – whether serif or sans-serif – are key features. Some designs also have spurs, which are smaller than serifs and appear on angles rather than at a terminal, as on {{xt3|e}} or {{xt3|G}}.

Areas of negative space (white space) formed by straight or curved strokes are called counters. Closed counters are found in {{xt3|a b d e g o p q A B D O P Q R}}, and open counters in {{xt3|a c e f h m n r s t u}}. The closed counter in {{xt3|e}} is also named an eye. The term storey refers to stacked counters: When the letter a appears with two counters it is referred to as double-storey a, and when the letter g appears with two closed counters it is known as double-storey {{Xt3|g}}.{{Cite web |date=2020-01-22 |title=Typography terms and definitions. |url=https://www.monotype.com/resources/studio/typography-terms |access-date=2023-12-27 |website=Monotype. |language=en}}

Angles of white space, as in {{xt3|W w}}, are corners ({{xt3|w}} has three corners); the term is not used for angles of strokes. The small corner formed by a serif, whether curved or angular, is called the serif bracket.

Inter-letter space can be reduced with kerning. A kern is the part of a letter that intrudes into the "box" of an adjacent glyph.

{{See also|Font metrics}}

A subtle change in proportion impacts weight, perception, measure, and legibility. The letterform height compared to its stroke width modifies the aspect ratio; a slight change in weight sometimes helps to create emphasis. The disparity between thick and thin strokes, known as stress, alters optical perception. As an example, the first sans serif typefaces used strokes of constant thickness, but subsequent technological advances permit drawing thinner strokes. Condensed type occupies less space than expanded type, so that a whole page of text can be reduced to half a page. The capline and x-height ratio improve or decrease word legibility.

File:American Lining System (1903).png

During the late metal type period, many fonts (particularly in American typefounding) were issued to "common line".{{cite web |last1=Wichary |first1=Marcin |title=Getting to the bottom of line height in Figma |url=https://www.figma.com/blog/line-height-changes/#enter-pixels-enter-problems |publisher=Figma |access-date=5 February 2021}} This meant that they were made to standardised proportions, so that fonts of different typefaces could be mixed with no difficulty. This made it possible to mix typefaces from completely different genres such as sans-serifs and serifs and have the cap height, baseline and linespacing match perfectly, something not possible with most digital fonts. It even allowed mixing of different sizes of type with a consistent baseline. It however had the disadvantage of often forcing typefaces to be issued with cropped descenders compared to historical typefaces, to allow tight linespacing. A "script line" or "art line" was used for more delicate fonts with long descenders. Titling capitals, meanwhile, were issued taking up the whole space of the metal type area, with no room for descenders.{{Cite book|last=Stewart|first=A. A.|url=https://www.gutenberg.org/files/36372/36372-h/36372-h.htm|title=Type – A primer of information about the mechanical features of printing types: their sizes, font, schems, &c. with a brief description of their manufacture|publisher=The Committee on Education, United Typothetae of America |date=1918 |location=Chicago |pages=35+ix}}{{Cite book|url=http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/SilverBuckle/SilverBuckle-idx?type=turn&entity=SilverBuckle.AmerLineTypeFaces.p0012&id=SilverBuckle.AmerLineTypeFaces&isize=M |title=Specimen book of American line type faces : American point line, point body and point set |publisher=American Type Founders Company |date=1903}}

File:Typography Line Terms.svg

• Type design
• Type foundry
• Typography
• Typesetting

{{clear}}

{{Reflist}}

• {{cite journal |last=Gaskell |first=Philip |author-link=Philip Gaskell |date=January 1976 |title=A nomenclature for the letterforms of roman type |journal=Visible Language |volume=10 |issue=1 |pages=41–51 |url=https://journals.uc.edu/index.php/vl/article/view/5197/4061}}

{{commons category|Typeface anatomy diagrams}}

• {{cite web |first=Sigurdur |last=Armannsson |date=6 July 2009 |title=Wallpaper: Font Anatomy |website=Font.is |url=http://font.is/wallpaper-font-anatomy/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://archive.today/20110110202951/http://font.is/2009/07/wallpaper-font-anatomy/ |archive-date=10 January 2011 |access-date=30 July 2016 }}
• [https://archive.today/C3XVG/16b57af04189b2070fa75ff1968e699bd0e01d72.jpg Full-size image (1920×1200)] giving a more detailed list of typeface elements than in this article.
• Dean, Paul (2008). eXtreme Type Terminology – [http://ilovetypography.com/2008/03/21/extreme-type-terminology/ Part 1], [http://ilovetypography.com/2008/03/27/extreme-type-terminology-part-2/ Part 2], [http://ilovetypography.com/2008/04/11/extreme-type-terminology-part-3/ Part 3], [http://ilovetypography.com/2008/04/25/extreme-type-terminology-part-4/ Part 4] and [http://ilovetypography.com/2008/05/16/extreme-type-terminology-part-5/ Part 5]
• {{cite web|last1=Devroye|first1=Luc|author-link=Luc Devroye|title=Hoefler & Frere-Jones|url=http://luc.devroye.org/usa-newyork.html|access-date=21 January 2015}}
• {{cite web|last1=Frere-Jones|first1=Tobias|author1-link=Tobias Frere-Jones|title=Typeface Mechanics: 001|url=https://frerejones.com/blog/typeface-mechanics-001|website=Frere-Jones Type|access-date=17 April 2016}}
• {{cite web|last1=Frere-Jones|first1=Tobias|author1-link=Tobias Frere-Jones|title=Typeface Mechanics: 002|url=https://frerejones.com/blog/typeface-mechanics-002|website=Frere-Jones Type|access-date=17 April 2016}}
• {{cite web |first=Stephen |last=Coles |url=http://typeanatomy.com |title=The Anatomy of Type }} Blog for Coles' 2012 book The Anatomy of Type: A Graphic Guide to 100 Typefaces.
• {{cite web |title=Glossary |website=FontShop |publisher=Monotype |url=https://www.fontshop.com/glossary/ }}

{{Typography terms}}

Category:Typography

Category:Terminology