typografiaterminology

Typografiaterminologi, or typography terminology, is the vocabulary used to describe typefaces, their properties, and the arrangement of text in print and digital media. The core distinction is between a typeface, the design of the letters, and a font, the specific weight, style, and size within that design.

Anatomy and glyphs: A baseline is the line on which most letters sit; an x-height is the height of the lowercase, excluding ascenders and descenders; ascenders rise above the x-height, and descenders extend below the baseline; cap height is the height of uppercase letters. A glyph is a particular shape; ligatures are single glyphs that combine two or more characters; diacritics modify letters.

Families, styles, and effects: Serif typefaces have finishing strokes; sans-serif lack those serifs. Weights range from light to bold and beyond; widths include condensed and extended; italics refer to an emphasized style; oblique is a slanted version that is not a true italic. Color and texture are also considered in some typographic discussions.

Spacing and layout: Kerning adjusts space between specific letter pairs; tracking adjusts spacing over a range of characters; leading is the vertical distance between baselines; measure is the line length. Justification aligns text on both margins; rag refers to the uneven right or left edge; hyphenation breaks words at line ends.

Units and punctuation: Points and picas are traditional print units; em and en spaces derive from the width of the letter M or N. Em dash and en dash serve as punctuation; quotation marks and ligatures (for example fi, fl) are common typographic features.

Digital typography and readability: Anti-aliasing smooths edges; hinting optimizes raster display; responsive typography adapts to devices. Web and digital contexts use terms such as font-family, font-size, font-weight, font-style, and relative units like em and rem. Readability considerations include line length, line spacing, contrast, and hierarchy.