Glossary
Every term below is set in a face and at a setting that performs its own definition. Read the word before you read the explanation, and most of them will have already told you.
How to read it
A glossary usually defines a typographic term in the same neutral setting as everything around it, which means the reader has to take the definition on trust. These do not. Tracking is set at 0.22em. Leading is set at 0.82. Small capitals are set in real small capitals, from one of the three faces here that has them. The demonstration is the definition, and the sentence underneath is only there to confirm what you already saw.
- TrackingSet at 0.22em — far past where words hold together.
- Uniform space added to or removed from every letter pair in a run of text. Distinct from kerning, which adjusts single pairs.
- KerningKerning switched off. Look at the gap after the K.
- An adjustment to the space between one specific pair of letters, drawn into the font by its designer. AV, To and Yo are the pairs that betray its absence.
- LeadingSet at 0.82, tight enough that the descenders would collide.
- The distance between baselines, named for the strips of lead a compositor laid between lines of metal type.
- MeasureConstrained to a six-character measure.
- The length of a line, counted in characters. Bringhurst puts a single column at 45 to 75, with 66 as the common target.
- x-heightInter, x-height 0.546 of the em — the tallest in this cast.
- The height of the lowercase x, and the single best predictor of how large a face looks at a given point size.
- Optical sizeThe 8-point drawing, shown large. Note the sturdy strokes.
- A variable axis that changes how a letter is drawn according to the size it will be read at: heavier and looser when small, finer and tighter when large.
- Small capitalsReal smcp glyphs from Source Serif 4, not scaled capitals.
- Capitals drawn at roughly x-height with the stroke weight corrected, as a separate set of glyphs. Only three faces on this site have real ones.
- DidoneBodoni Moda. The hairlines are the whole argument.
- A class of serif with extreme contrast between thick and thin strokes and flat, unbracketed serifs. Named for Didot and Bodoni.
- GrotesqueArchivo, at 700.
- The first sans serifs, from the nineteenth century. Closed apertures, slight irregularity, and an industrial rather than humanist temperament.
- MonospaceJetBrains Mono. The i and the m take equal room.
- A face in which every character occupies the same advance width, so columns align without tabs. Originally a mechanical constraint, now a signal.
- LigatureThe g and the a here are separate; in office and flag they are not.
- A single glyph replacing a sequence of letters whose shapes would otherwise collide — most commonly fi, fl and ffi.
- Oldstyle figuresCompare 1234567890 in oldstyle against the lining default.
- Numerals with ascenders and descenders, sized to sit in lowercase text without shouting. Also called text figures.
- Measure sweepTracked to -0.06em, where the letters begin to touch.
- The eye's return journey from the end of one line to the start of the next. The cost that a too-long measure imposes, and the reason leading and measure are one decision.
- ColophonSet in small caps, as a colophon usually is.
- A note at the end of a book recording how it was made: the types, the paper, the press, the people. The oldest form of technical documentation.
A term you can see working is a term you keep. The rest is vocabulary.