Typography is more than just picking a font—it’s the foundation of visual communication. For designers, marketers, and creatives alike, understanding typography terms can transform not only how you create but also how your message is perceived. Whether you're deciphering font families, exploring kerning, or mastering the art of hierarchy, knowing these concepts helps you craft designs that resonate.

A

• Aperture: The open space in a partially enclosed counter, such as the opening of a letter like ‘c’ or ‘e’.

• Apex: The uppermost point of a letterform where two diagonal strokes meet, as seen in the letter ‘A’.

• Arc: A curved stroke that transitions into a straight stem, found in letters like ‘h’ or ‘r’.

• Arm: A horizontal or angled stroke that does not connect to a stem on one or both ends, as seen in ‘E’ or ‘T’.

• Ascender: The part of a lowercase letter that extends above the x-height, such as in ‘b’, ‘d’, or ‘h’.

• Ascender Line: An invisible guideline that marks the top boundary of ascenders within a typeface.

• Axis / Stress: The invisible line that runs through a letterform and shows the angle of its thinnest and thickest points, most visible in ovals like the letter ‘o’.

B

• Ball Terminal: A round, ball-like shape seen at the end of some strokes, for example, in the letter ‘f’.

• Baseline: The invisible line where most letters in a typeface rest.

• Beak: A decorative stroke at the end of a letter’s arm or stem that looks similar to a serif but is more pronounced.

• Bilateral Serif: A serif that extends equally on both sides of a stroke.

• Body: The main text or content of a document, article, or design, usually set in a readable font and size for easy consumption.

• Bowl: The rounded, fully enclosed part of a letterform such as ‘o’ or ‘p’.

• Bracket: A curved or wedge-shaped connection between a stem and a serif, present in some serif typefaces.

C

• Calligraphy: A style of decorative handwriting or handwritten lettering, often with a focus on elegance and artistic expression.

• Cap Height: The height of uppercase letters in a typeface, measured from the baseline to the top of the capital letters.

• Condensed: A type style with narrow width proportions, designed to save space.

• Counter: The partially or fully enclosed space within a letterform or character, such as in ‘o’, ‘p’, or ‘d’.

• Crossbar: A horizontal stroke that connects two parts of a letter, like in ‘H’ or ‘A’.

• Cross Stroke: A horizontal or diagonal stroke cutting through the stem of a letter, like in ‘t’ or ‘f’.

• Crotch: The angle or inner space where two strokes meet, as in the letter ‘V’.

• Cursive: A style that mimics joined-up handwriting or describes italicized fonts with a handwritten appearance.

D

• Descender: The part of a lowercase letter that extends below the baseline, as in ‘g’, ‘p’, or ‘y’.

• Descender Line: The invisible line marking the bottom boundary of descenders in a typeface.

• Display Font: Typefaces designed for larger sizes, typically used in headlines or banners for visual impact.

E

• Ear: A small decorative stroke extending from the upper part of a lowercase ‘g’.

• Eye: The enclosed space of a lowercase ‘e’, similar to a counter.

F

• Finial: A tapered or curved end of a stroke, such as the bottom of a ‘c’ or ‘e’.

• Flag: The horizontal stroke at the top of a figure like ‘5’.

• Font: A specific design of a set of characters, including letters, numbers, and symbols. Fonts can vary in style, weight, width, and more.

• Foot: The part of a letter’s stem that rests on the baseline.

G

• Gadzook: An extra or decorative element added to a ligature that was not originally part of either letter.

• Glyph: A single character or symbol in a font. This includes letters, numbers, and punctuation marks.

• Grotesk: The German term for sans-serif typefaces.

H

• Hairline: The thinnest stroke of a letter or the finest font weight in a typeface family.

• Halbfett: The German term for a semi-bold weight in a typeface.

• Head Serif: A half-serif at the top of a vertical stroke in some fonts.

• Header: The title or headline text at the top of a document, webpage, or section, typically larger and more prominent than body text.

• Hierarchy: The arrangement of text to guide the reader's eye through a design, often by varying size, weight, or color to indicate importance.

• Hinting: Instructions embedded in a font file to improve clarity when rendering characters at small sizes.

• Hook: A curved stroke in letters like the lowercase ‘f’.

I

• Ink Trap: A design feature where corners or counters are exaggerated to prevent ink from pooling and darkening when printed.

• Italic: A slanted style of type, designed separately from upright Roman typefaces to offer emphasis and elegance.

J

• Joint / Juncture: The area where two strokes meet in a letterform.

K

• Kerning: Adjusting the space between pairs of characters to improve visual spacing and legibility.

L

• Leading / Linespacing: The vertical spacing between lines of text, measured from baseline to baseline.

• Leg: A downward-sloping stroke on letters like ‘k’ or ‘R’.

• Lettering: The process of drawing, designing, or crafting letters, often created by hand, and not necessarily using pre-existing typefaces.

• Ligature: Two or more letters combined to form a single glyph, like ‘fi’ or ‘ae’.

• Link / Neck: The connecting stroke between the two bowls of a lowercase ‘g’.

• Loop / Lobe: A rounded, enclosed or partially enclosed stroke, commonly found in the lower part of a double-storey lowercase ‘g’.

M

• Midline: The invisible guideline that marks the top of lowercase letters' bodies, such as in ‘x’ or ‘e’.

• Monospaced Font: A typeface where each character takes up the same amount of horizontal space, often used in coding or technical writing.

O

• Oblique / Slanted: A mechanically slanted typeface, unlike italics, which are drawn separately.

• Old Style / Hanging Figures: Numbers that align with the x-height and have ascender and descender features for better flow in body text.

• Orphan: A word or short phrase that appears alone at the top of a new column or page, disrupting readability.

• Overhang: The portion of a letter, like "j" or "y," that juts beyond its baseline or above its cap height for added design character.

• Overshoot: The slight extension of round or pointed letters beyond flat ones to make them appear optically the same size.

P

• Pica: A printing unit of measure equivalent to 12 points or 1/6 of an inch.

• Point: A unit of measurement for font size, traditionally defined as 1/72 of an inch.

• Point Size: Refers to the height of a font, including space for ascenders and descenders.

• Pro: Fonts that support additional languages, including Central European or Greek alphabets.

R

• Rasterization: The process of converting vector images, like fonts, into pixels for display on screens.

• Roman: The standard upright and unitalicized style of type within a typeface family.

S

• Sans Serif: A style of typeface without the small strokes (serifs) at the ends of letters, creating a cleaner and more modern appearance.

• Serif: A style of typeface where letters have small strokes or "feet" at the ends of their lines, offering a more classic and traditional look.

• Script Font: A type of font that mimics cursive handwriting, often used for elegant or playful designs.

• Shoulder: The curved portion of a letterform that transitions into a vertical stem, as in ‘n’, ‘h’, or ‘m’.

• Single-Tier: Describes a lowercase ‘a’ or ‘g’ with a single counter rather than two.

• Small Caps: A set of uppercase letters scaled to match the height of lowercase letters for emphasis or abbreviations.

• Spacing: The white space around characters within a typeface, including side bearings and kerning adjustments.

• Spine: The main curved stroke in the letter ‘S’.

• Spur: A small protruding feature on a main stroke, such as at the bottom of some ‘G’s.

• Stem: A vertical or nearly vertical main stroke of a letter.

T

• Swash: Decorative flourishes or exaggerated elements on terminals, tails, or serifs for style.

• Tail: The descending stroke of a letter, such as in the uppercase ‘Q’.

• Taper: The gradual thinning of a stroke's end.

• Terminal: The unadorned end of a letter’s stroke, often seen in sans-serif typefaces.

• Tittle: The small dot above the letters ‘i’ and ‘j’.

• Tracking: Adjusting the space uniformly across a group of characters, either increasing or decreasing their overall spacing.

• Typography: The art and technique of arranging type to make written language clear, readable, and visually appealing.

• Typeface: A family of fonts sharing a common design, such as Arial, Times New Roman, or Helvetica.

V

• Vertex: The point where two diagonal strokes meet at the bottom of a letter, as in ‘V’ or ‘W’.

W

• Weight: A typeface’s relative heaviness or thickness of strokes, such as Thin, Regular, or Bold weights.

• Widow: A word or short phrase left alone at the end of a paragraph, appearing isolated on a line on its own.

X

• X-height: The height of lowercase letters, like ‘x’, used as a standard for measuring the height of other lowercase letters within a typeface.

Something Missing?

Sources

1  Monotype.com | Fontsmith

2  Google fonts