ANATOMY

In this section, we will explain the concepts, rules, terminology, and other details that are important to know when working with type. Type design and typography have various rules that have been developed under technical constraints in order to make it look beautiful. Knowing these parts correctly will improve your overall perspective, so please refer to this section as often as you find it useful, even though it is mostly basic information.


BASIC TRMINOLOGY

  • Counter
  • Stem
  • Descender
  • Ascender
  • Tail
  • Terminal
  • Shoulder
  • Bowl
  • Serif

LETTER HEIGHT

This section describes the letter height rules for typefaces. The alphabet in a font is designed so that all letters line up within the same height convention. All alphabets and numbers are aligned around the baseline, and lines are handled with the baseline.CAP HEIGHT (capital letter height), X-HEIGHT (lowercase letter height), and bdhfk, which has ascenders extending well above the lowercase letters, are unified in height with ascender lines, while ygp and other letters that exit below the baseline are unified with descender lines.In Western writing, words and sentences are formed from right to left, so the horizontal length is variable, depending on the number of letters and the shape of the letters. Because uniform height is both aesthetically pleasing and functionally effective, a height convention has been established.

Cap height キャップハイト

Cap height is the height of the Capital (uppercase) letter. Also called Cap height or Uppercase Height.

X hight エックスハイト

X-height represents the height of a lowercase letter. It is based on the X height of lowercase letters from the baseline, not including ascender and descender.

Ascender アセンダー

The ascender line is the line of b, d, f, h, k, l, heights that are aligned above the X-height in the lowercase letters.

descender/ディセンダー

The descender line is the line where the bottom of the lowercase letters align with the portion of the lowercase letters that extends below the baseline. j,p,q,y


SERIFS

Serifs are explained here. Serifs are one of the most important aspects of font style. A serif is an ornament attached to the edge of a letter. It is thought that serifs originated from inscriptions and other engravings. Beginning with the early fonts that took over the stylization of calligraphy, the modern sans-serif fonts have become more streamlined and eventually eliminated serifs. Classification by serifs also has something in common with chronology and is considered important when considering font characteristics.

Bracket Serif ブラケットセリフ

Bracket serifs are the most traditional form in which the serif portion is triangular in shape and there is little contrast between the thickness of the vertical and horizontal lines. It is classified as an old face.

Hairline Serif ヘアラインセリフ

Hairline serifs are modern serifs with thin straight lines and a strong contrast between vertical and horizontal lines.

Slab Serif スラブセリフ

Slab serifs have thicker, straight serifs with less contrast between the vertical and horizontal sides and are darker. Also called Egyptian.

Sans Serif サンセリフ

Sans serif means ‘sans’ = ‘without’ serif in French, and refers to a typeface without serifs.


FONT FAMILY

Some fonts have multiple types of thickness and width while retaining their external characteristics. They are grouped together under the same font name family.For example, if you want to use a font that is used in a text for a distinctive feature that is separate from the main text, or if you want to use a thicker font for a title that has the same tone as the main text, you can use a font from the same family and have it differ from the main text while maintaining the same impression.

Italic イタリック

font that is more angular than the normal letterforms.

Bold ボールド

If there is a neutral size for body text, bold indicates a font that is thicker than the neutral size.

Condensed

If there is a neutral size for body text, this term refers to characters designed with a narrower width.

Extend

If there is a neutral size for body text, this term refers to characters designed with a broader width.