Typeface Anatomy and Glossary
Here’s a glossary of common type terminology, which along with the
FAQs may answer many font related questions. If the information you need isn’t here, call us.
Abbreviations Many
fonts have abbreviations in their names. Some relate to
glyph sets and font formats, others to design traits and
foundries, and so on. A comprehensive list of these abbreviations and their explanation can be found in
The Abbreviated Typographer from Unzipped.
Adobe Type Manager (ATM) A font utility published by Adobe that allowed computers to use
PostScript Type 1 fonts. Since Microsoft Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Mac OS X natively support PostScript and thus do not require ATM, this PostScript font rasteriser has become obsolete on current computer systems. However,
ATM Light is required for previous versions of Mac OS, including Mac OS X Classic, and for previous versions of Windows, including Windows 95, 98, and NT 4.0.
ATM Light 4.61 for Mac (.hqx / 3.43 MB)
ATM Light 4.1 for Windows 95/98/ME/NT4 (.exe / 12.11 MB )
AFM (Adobe Font Metrics) A text file related to
PostScript fonts that stores font metrics information such as character widths and kerning pairs. This file is often not needed as long as there is a
PFM file (Windows format), so some fonts may come without an AFM file.
Anti-aliasing Blurring the edges of a
font on screen to soften the look of bitmapped type. Anti-aliasing is usually desirable at large
point sizes (16 points or above).
Antiqua, Antikva The common German and Scandinavian names for serif faces, as opposed to "Grotesk" which means sans serif.
Ascender Any part in a
lowercase letter that extends above the
x-height, found for example in b, d, f, h, k, etc. Some types of ascenders have specific names.
Balt (Baltic) (appended to a font or volume name) Language support; includes all necessary
accents and
characters for Estonian, Latvian, and Lithuanian (also included in
CE). The supported languages may vary a little depending on the
foundry.
Baseline The imaginary line upon which the letters in a font appear to rest.
Bitmaps The files contained in the Mac bitmap suitcase; part of the
PostScript font, used for screen display on older systems with no built-in rasterisation and not equipped with Adobe Type Manager. They are still necessary for display and printing. Also referred to as "screen fonts".
Body Originally the physical block on which each
character sat, in digital type it is the imaginary area that encompasses each character in a font. The height of the body equals the
point size; its width is related the width of the character.
BS (Basque) (appended to a font or volume name) Language support; includes all necessary
accents for Basque.
Bundle (appended to a font volume name) A discounted font volume.
Case-sensitive The position of a number of punctuation marks like hyphens, brackets, slashes etc. is centred on the
x-height of the
lowercase letters. Fonts with case-sensitive punctuation also have slightly raised
alternates of these
characters that are centred on the
cap height (the height of the
uppercase).
When case-sensitive forms are built-in as OpenType features, certain (older) operating systems and applications will not be able to access them.
CE (Central European) (appended to a font or volume name) Language support; includes all necessary
accents and
characters for Albanian, Croatian, Czech, Estonian, Finnish, Hungarian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Polish, Romanian, Slovak, Slovenian, and Sorbian (Lower & Upper).
The supported languages may vary a little depending on the
foundry.
Character Any letter, numeral, punctuation mark, and other sign included in a
font.
Collection (appended to a font volume name) A discounted font volume.
Com Linotype's "Communication" (or Com) fonts have been optimised for international communication and for use with Microsoft Office applications. They are TrueType-flavored
OpenType fonts and are compatible with Mac and Windows operating systems. Com fonts support all languages defined as
LEEC (Linotype Extended European Character set).
Complete (appended to a font volume name) A discounted font volume.
Contextual Feature-rich OpenType fonts can detect certain
characters or character combinations before and/or after specific characters and substitute them with
alternate glyphs or
ligatures according to the context.
Certain (older) operating systems and applications cannot access these OpenType features.
Cyr (Cyrillic) (appended to a font or volume name) Language support; includes the cyrillic alphabet and all necessary
accents for the cyrillic languages.
The supported languages may vary a little depending on the
foundry.
Delta hinting Instructions added to a
TrueType font, allowing it to display nicely at any
point size on screen. Delta hinting does not affect printing, nor is it available for
PostScript fonts. Due to the time required to create delta hints, most fonts do not include them. Delta hinting is expensive, but makes for quality TrueType fonts.
Descender Any part in a
lowercase letter that extends below the
baseline, found for example in g, j, p, q, y, etc. Some types of descenders have specific names.
Diacritics A diacritic is a ancilliary mark or sign added to a letter. In the Latin alphabet their function is to change the sound value of the letters to which they are added; in other alphabetical systems like Arabic or Hebrew they may indicate sounds (vowels and tones) which are not conveyed by the basic alphabet.
Display (appended to a font or volume name) URW++ identify their Display fonts by adding the letter D after the font name.
Embedding Including
font information in a digital document, to ensure that the text is rendered with the font specified by the author. Some
EULAs restrict embedding.
EOT (Embeddable OpenType) File format developed by Microsoft to enable
TrueType and
OpenType fonts to be linked to web pages for download, to ensure that the text is rendered with the font specified by the author.
EULA (End User License Agreement) As with most software,
fonts are licensed to individuals and organisations. The EULA defines the terms and provisions for use of the font software. The EULA also indicates the number of CPUs the fonts may be installed on. The number of CPUs for which a font is initially licensed can vary depending on the
manufacturer.
See license agreements by foundry.
Expert set A
font that contains special
characters, such as
small caps, fractions,
ligatures, extra
accents, and alternate
glyphs. Because
TrueType and
PostScript only support a limited number of glyphs, some characters that are not used as frequently come in an expert font.
OpenType fonts on the other hand, have the capacity for thousands of glyphs, so one font can include all these extras plus other alphabets etc.
FA (Family) (appended to a font volume name) A discounted font volume.
Feature-rich The
OpenType font format offers numerous advanced typographic features. However it is up to the type designer or
foundry to decide how many and which ones to implement. Feature-rich or fully-featured OpenType fonts have a large number of those advanced functionalities built in.
Certain (older) operating systems and applications cannot access OpenType features. In those environments OpenType fonts behave like standard
PostScript or
TrueType fonts with a basic
character set.
Fett The common German name for the black
weight in a
type family; the bold weight is called "halbfett".
Font (also, fount) A collection of letters, numbers, punctuation, and other symbols used to set text (or related) matter. Although font and
typeface are often used interchangeably,
font refers to the physical embodiment (whether it's a case of metal pieces or a computer file) while
typeface refers to the design (the way it looks). A
font is what you use, and a
typeface is what you see.
See Font or Typeface? on The FontFeed.
Foundry A company that designs and/or distributes
typefaces; a type manufacturer. FontShop.com carries fonts from
over 80 foundries.
FR (Frühneuhochdeutsch) (appended to a font or volume name) Language support; includes all necessary
accents for Middle High German.
Glyph Every
character in a
typeface, (e.g: G, $, ?, and 7), is represented by a glyph. One single type design may contain more than one glyph for each character. These are usually referred to as
alternates.
Gr (Greek) (appended to a font or volume name) Language support; includes the greek alphabet and all necessary
accents for Greek.
Grotesk The common German name for sans serif faces, as opposed to "Antiqua" which means serif.
Halbfett The common German name for the bold
weight in a
type family; the black weight is called "fett".
Hinting Guidelines added to a font to help it print and display more consistently at small sizes. Most fonts contain some form of hinting, ranging from very cursory to very thorough.
See Delta hinting.
Hybrid figures An intermediary style between
oldstyle figures and
lining figures, hybrid figures are somewhat smaller than the capital letters and have a consistent body size, yet some parts extend slightly upwards and downwards.
When the different figure sets are built-in as OpenType features, certain (older) operating systems and applications will only be able to access the default figures.
IC (Icelandic/Faroese) (appended to a font or volume name) Language support; includes all necessary
accents and
characters for Icelandic/Faroese.
Italic A (mostly) slanted type style which takes its basic shapes from a stylised form of handwriting, and is usually narrower than its roman counterpart. Italics are commonly used for emphasis in text. They are primarily found in serif designs, while
obliques originally were associated with sans serifs.
See Styles, Weights, Widths - It's All in the (Type) Family on The FontFeed.
Kerning Kerning refers to the horizontal space between individual pairs of letters (a kerning pair), and is used to correct
spacing problems in specific letter combinations. Well-spaced
fonts need comparatively less kerning pairs. Fonts that are properly kerned appear evenly spaced without large open gaps of white space between any two characters.
Kursiv The common German name for
italic.
Leading The vertical space between lines of text (
baseline to baseline). Also known as linespacing.
LEEC (Linotype Extended European Character set) LEEC is a set of languages supported by Linotype's
Com fonts. The languages included in this set are: Afrikaans, Albanian, Basque, Bosnian, Breton, Catalan, Cornish, Croatian, Czech, Dutch, English, Estonian, Faroese, Finnish, French, Frisian/Eastern, Frisian/Western, Friulian, Gaelic/Irish, Gaelic/Manx, Gaelic/Scots, Gagauz (Latin), Galician, German, Hungarian, Icelandic, Italian, Karelian, Ladin, Latvian, Lithuanian, Maltese, Modavian (Latin), Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Rheto-Romance, Romanian, Saami/Lule, Saami/Southern, Slovak, Slovenian, Sorbian/Lower, Sorbian/Upper, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish, Turkmen/Latin.
Ligatures Special
characters that are actually two letters combined into one. In cases where two adjacent characters would normally bump into each other, a ligature allows the letters to flow together more gracefully. This usually makes word shapes more aesthetically pleasing. Some common ligatures are "fi", "fl", "ff", "ffl", etc.
When ligatures are built-in as OpenType features, certain (older) operating systems and applications will not be able to access them.
Lining figures (LF) Numbers that rest on the
baseline, and are usually the same height as capital letters. Lining figures are often
tabular.
When the different figure sets are built-in as OpenType features, certain (older) operating systems and applications will only be able to access the default figures.
See Figuring It Out: OSF, LF, and TF Explained on The Fontfeed.
Lowercase The small letters in a
typeface. The name refers to the days of metal type, as the small letters were kept in the lower part of the type case.
ML (Multiple Language) (appended to a font or volume name) Language support; includes all necessary
accents and
characters for additional languages (refer to the information provided by the
foundry).
Monospaced A
font in which every
character has the same width, and no
kerning pairs. This allows for neatly setting columns of text and tables, for example in programming code, accounting, etc.
Oblique A
font that is slanted. Oblique fonts are different from
italic fonts, in that they are mechanically sheared, then slightly adjusted. Italic fonts, on the other hand, are designed differently from upright or roman versions. They are usually narrower than their roman counterparts, and reflect more of a calligraphic sensibility than lowercase oblique fonts.
See Styles, Weights, Widths - It's All in the (Type) Family on The FontFeed.
Offc FontFont offers a TrueType-flavored
OpenType format called Offc (or Office).
Offc fonts are ideal for users of Microsoft Office and other word processing and spreadsheet applications. They are style-linked so as best to take advantage of the applications' style selection options. Offc fonts also offer full compatibility across platforms.
Offc fonts carry the .ttf extension.
Oldstyle figures (OSF) Numbers that have different heights, some aligning to the
baseline, some below. Oldstyle figures harmonize well with
lowercase letters. Using oldstyle figures helps keep the numbers from standing out too much and disturbing the overall flow of the typography on the page.
When the different figure sets are built-in as OpenType features, certain (older) operating systems and applications will only be able to access the default figures.
See Figuring It Out: OSF, LF, and TF Explained on The Fontfeed.
OpenType The most recent
font format emerged at the beginning of the new millennium. OpenType was initially developed by Microsoft, which were later joined by Adobe. In a few years time it has become the new standard format for digital fonts. The biggest advantages shared by all OpenType fonts are their single file structure, cross-platform compatibility, and advanced typographic functionality. This means any single OpenType font file will work on both Mac and Windows systems, and some OpenType fonts include expanded character sets and
special features like automatic
ligatures and
alternate glyphs. OpenType is the best format for most purposes. It comes in
PostScript flavour (OTF) and
TrueType flavour (TTF).
While OpenType fonts will work on a basic level in most any application, there are some in which the advanced features might not be accessible, including
Small Caps and
Lining Figures.
Please see our
OpenType page for more details.
Optical size Some type designs come in different versions optimized for use in specific
point sizes. Subtle variations in weight, contrast, and proportion make them as legible in small text as they are beautiful in big headlines.
OT/OTF/TTF (OpenType font) See OpenType.
Package (appended to a font volume name) A discounted font volume.
Petite caps Slightly smaller than
small caps, petite caps are capital letters that are exactly as high as the
x-height of the
lowercase letters.
PFM (Printer Font Metrics) The metrics file for a
PostScript font on the PC. The PFM contains
spacing and
kerning information that is required to use the font.
Pica A typographic unit of measure corresponding to 1/72nd of its respective foot, and therefore to 1/6th of an inch. The pica contains 12
points. The standard in contemporary printing (home computers and printers) is the computer pica (1/72nd of the Anglo-Saxon compromise foot of 1959, i.e. 4.233mm or 0.166in). At 100% zoom one computer pica corresponds to 12 image
pixels on a computer monitor display, thus one computer point corresponds with one image pixel.
Pixel Originally, this word was short for the term "picture element". A pixel is a single rectangular point in a larger graphic image composed of many rectangular points. Computer monitors can display pictures because the screen is divided into millions of pixels arranged in rows and columns. Pixels are so close together that from a distance they appear to be connected.
Pixel
fonts are modular type designs that take advantage of the pixel grid to render often very small type on screen. They are very popular in web design, but also became an aesthetic on their own.
Point Type sizes are generally expressed in points. The point is a typographic unit of measure corresponding to 1/12th of a
pica. At 100% zoom one computer point corresponds with one image
pixel on a computer monitor display.
Point size The point size of a
typeface refers to the size of the
body, the imaginary area that encompasses each
character in a
font. This is why a typeface with a large
x-height appears bigger than typeface with a small x-height at the same point size.
PostScript A technology developed and trade marked by Adobe Systems, Inc. On older systems, PostScript
fonts require
Adobe Type Manager. On the Mac, PostScript fonts consist of a
printer font and a
bitmap suitcase, which should always be kept together.
PostScript fonts are generally more difficult to maintain, and PostScript fonts can have compatibility issues with some operating systems like Windows Vista. We highly recommend purchasing
OpenType (or
TrueType) fonts whenever possible.
Printer font The
vector font that a printer uses to draw
character shapes. Printer fonts (sometimes called “outline†fonts) are also used by the operating system to draw letters on the screen.
Professional (appended to a font volume name) A discounted font volume.
Rasterization The process by which
vector information is converted into pixel information, which can then be displayed by a monitor or printed by a non-
PostScript printer.
Set (appended to a font volume name) A discounted font volume.
Small Caps (SC) Small caps are capital letters that are approximatively as high as the
x-height of the
lowercase letters. When properly designed small caps are absent in the selected font, many applications can create small caps by scaling down the capitals. However this makes these fake small caps too light and narrow, and they don't harmonise properly with the lowercase. Originally small caps were only available for the roman text
weight(s), but nowadays many
type families also have them for the italics and the bolder weights.
When small caps are built-in as OpenType features, certain (older) operating systems and applications will not be able to access them.
Spacing Spacing refers to the distribution of horizontal space on both sides of each
character in a
font to achieve a balanced and even texture. Spacing problems in difficult letter combinations (exceptions) are solved with
kerning. Well-spaced fonts need comparatively less kerning pairs.
Std/OT (OpenType Standard) (appended to a font or volume name) OpenType Standard fonts support the basic range of languages. Some
foundries use the
abbreviation Std, while others simply use OT. In the latter case OT identifies both the font format and the language support. Some foundries do include
Central European (CE) and
Turkish in their Opentype Standard fonts.
Style-linking Families of
fonts that are grouped together under a single item in the font menu. To access other styles in a style-linked family, use the style buttons in the application that you are using. Some applications like for example the Adobe Creative Suite don't support style-linking, yet still conveniently list the fonts by family.
Stylistic set In
OpenType fonts with
alternate glyph shapes for certain
characters, different character sets can be grouped in stylistic sets. Instead of having to manually switch individual characters, the user can select the appropriate stylistic set which has all the desired alternates.
Certain (older) operating systems and applications cannot access the stylistic sets, making only the default character set available.
Suite (appended to a font volume name) A discounted font volume.
Superset (appended to a font volume name) A discounted font volume.
Swash An elegant extension on a letter form, either a modification of an existing part or an added-on part.
When swash characters are built-in as OpenType features, certain (older) operating systems and applications will not be able to access them.
Tabular Figures (TF) Numbers that share identical character widths (that is, they are
monospaced). Using tabular figures enables you to set columns of numbers, and have them neatly line up vertically. This is especially useful for tables, thus "tabular". Tabular figures are often
lining.
When the different figure sets are built-in as OpenType features, certain (older) operating systems and applications will only be able to access the default figures.
See Figuring It Out: OSF, LF, and TF Explained on The Fontfeed.
Three-quarter caps Slightly taller than
small caps, three-quarter caps are capital letters that extend to about halfway between the
x-height and the
cap height.
Translit (Transliteration) (appended to a font or volume name) Language support; includes
accented Latin
characters for transliterating languages using non-Latin alphabets.
TrueType (TT/TTF) A
font format developed by Apple Systems, Inc. and licensed to Microsoft Corp. TrueType fonts are natively supported by the Windows and Mac operating Systems. On the Mac, both the printer and
screen fonts are combined in a single TrueType font suitcase file.
Type system Also called super families, type systems are collections of coordinated
type families that cross type classifications, and are designed to work together in perfect harmony. They can be sans and serif companions, text and display cuts, or any other combination. The different families in a type system or super family share common character architecture, proportions, x-height, weights, and pedigree, to name a few.
See this list of Sans/Serif Companions.
Typeface An artistic interpretation, or design, of a collection of alphanumeric symbols. A typeface may include letters, numerals, punctuation, various symbols, and more — often for multiple languages. A typeface is usually grouped together in a
family containing individual
fonts for italic, bold, and other variations of the primary design.
See Font or Typeface? and Styles, Weights, Widths - It's All in the (Type) Family on The FontFeed.
Uppercase The capitals in a
typeface. The name refers to the days of metal type, as the capitals were kept in the upper part of the type case.
Vector A mathematical equation that defines a curve or straight line. These lines define the shapes of the
character outlines in a
font. Vector information is used to
rasterize the characters for displaying on monitors or printing on non-
PostScript printers.
Volume Fonts can be purchased individually, but
packages or volumes always offer the best value and performance. A font volume is a collection of fonts that are sold as a unit. This can either be a
type family, part of a type family, or a collection of fonts that are stylistically or thematically related.
VP (Value Pack) (appended to a font volume name) A discounted font volume.
Weight A single
style or iteration of a typeface. Sometimes, the term “weight†is refers specifically to the heaviness of a typeface. However, it is often used as a general term for any style: Italic, Small Caps, Bold, Light Expert, etc.
See Styles, Weights, Widths - It's All in the (Type) Family on The FontFeed.
Western Language support; includes all necessary
accents and
characters for Albanian, Breton, Catalan, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Icelandic, Irish, Italian, Norwegian (+ Bokmål & Nynorsk Norwegian), Portuguese, Rhaeto-Romance, Spanish, and Swedish.
The supported languages may vary a little depending on the
foundry.
X-height The height of the
lowercase letters, disregarding
ascenders or
descenders, typically exemplified by the letter x. The relationship of the x-height to the
body defines the perceived
type size. A
typeface with a large x-height looks much bigger than a typeface with a small x-height at the same size.
Typeface: FF Clifford
