TYPOGRAPHY- UCEED/CEED

VISUAL GLOSSARY

Leg

A portion of a letter
that extends
downwards,
attached at one
end and free at the
other.

Arm

A straight or curved
portion of a letter
that extends
upwards or
outwards, attached
at one end and free
at the other

Ear

The small stroke

that extends
outwards from a
lowercase g in
some typeface
styles.
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Shoulder

The stroke that curves downwards and to the right of the lowercase h, m
and n.

Spine

The spine is the main curved stroke inside the upper and lower case S.
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Tail

The decorative curved descender of a capital Q, R and K. The descenders

of the lower case g, j, p, q, and y are also sometimes called tails.

Stem

The stem is the main vertical stroke in upright characters. When a letter
has no verticals like a capital A or V, the first diagonal stroke is considered
the stem.
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Stroke

A stroke is the main vertical diagonal line in a letter.

Bar

A bar is a horizontal stroke in letters like A, H, e and f.

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Serif

A serif is a short line at

the beginning and the
end of strokes. Serifs
are what make a
typeface a serif or a
sans serif. Serifs can
have different shapes: hairline, square/slab, wedge. They can all be
bracketed or unbracketed, meaning that their connection to the stroke is
rounded or perpendicular.
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Terminal

When a letter doesn’t have a serif, the end of the stroke is called a
terminal.

Bowl

A bowl is a stroke that creates an enclosed curved space, as in the letters

d, b, o, D and B.
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Counter

The counter is the enclosed space in letters like o, b, d, and a. Counters

are also created by bowls.

Link

A link is a stroke connecting the bowl and loop of a two-story lowercase

g.
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Swash

A swash is a fancy or decorative replacement to a terminal or serif in any

capital letter used at the beginning of a sentence. Swashes are also used
at the end of letters to decorate the composition. Calligraphy is full of
swashes of all kinds; at the beginning, at the end and even in the middle,
extending from ascenders.

Spur

A spur is a small projection that veers off the main stroke on many capital
G’s
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Kerning

Kerning is the space between two individual letters. It’s used when you
need to move only one letter because it is too far or too close to its
companions. Some typefaces have a strange spacing between the capital
letter and the rest of the word. Kerning helps create a better balance
between letters.

When designers create wordmark logos, they usually control the kerning
from letter to letter, making sure the entire word is perfectly balanced and
polished.
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Tracking

Tracking is the proportional space between all the letters in a body of text.
Being able to change the tracking helps fit more letters in a small space
or spread out letters if they are too tight. Script fonts cannot undergo too
much tracking due to how the ligatures separate and create unbalanced
spaces.

Designers manipulate the tracking when they want to accomplish a look

that has even edges for all the words. By spreading out the tracking or
making it tighter, they can make all the text look unified and justified.
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Leading

Leading is the space between baselines. This means that when we

manipulate the leading, we are changing the way a paragraph looks.

Leading and x-height have a direct effect on how text will look in a
paragraph. There is another measurement we should mention called the
baseline, which is the line on which letters sit horizontally. The bottom of
the x-height of each letter sits on a baseline.

The lower the x-height compared to the cap height, the more white space
there will be between lines. When letters have a higher x-height in
comparison to the cap height, the leading looks more balanced and
ordered.
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Anatomy of a Character
How do you tell one typeface from
another? If you’re trying to distinguish
Helvetica from Times Roman, the
difference is obvious. In other cases,
however – especially between text
designs having similar characteristics –
the differences can be subtle and difficult
for the less–experienced eye to see.
One important step in training your eye
to notice the details that set one design
apart from another is to examine the
anatomy of the characters that make up
our alphabet.

Arm/leg – An upper or lower (horizontal or diagonal) stroke that is attached on one end
and free on the other.

Ascender – The part of a lowercase character (b, d, f, h, k, l, t) that extends above the x-
height.

Bar – The horizontal stroke in characters such as A, H, R, e, and f.

Bowl – A curved stroke which creates an enclosed space within a character (the space is
then called a counter).
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Cap Height – The height of capital letters from the baseline to the top of caps, most
accurately measured on a character with a flat bottom (E, H, I, etc.).

Counter – The partially or fully enclosed

space within a character.

Descender – The part of a character (g,

j, p, q, y, and sometimes J) that descends
below the baseline.

Ear – The small stroke that projects from

the top of the lowercase g.

Link – The stroke that connects the top

and bottom part (bowl and loop) of a two–
story lowercase g.

Loop – The lower portion of the lowercase g.

Serif – The projections extending off the main

strokes of the characters of serif typefaces. Serifs
come in two styles: bracketed and unbracketed.
Brackets are the supportive curves which connect
the serif to the stroke. Unbracketed serifs are
attached sharply, and usually at 90 degree angles.

Shoulder – The curved stroke of the h, m, n.

Spine – The main curved stroke of the S.

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Spur – A small projection off a main stroke found on many capital Gs.