top 10 typography terms

Posted on February 13, 2017October 5, 2021 by graphicsgrrrl@gmail.com

top 10 typography terms

graphics grrrl

Whether you are new to design, a seasoned pro, or someone who works with copy, it’s good to familiarize yourself with the terms used to describe how copy gets formatted in your marketing materials.

Why?

Well, for the same reason it’s helpful to speak a little French when you’re in a French restaurant: if you’re able to speak the language, you’ll be more likely to get what you want…with better service!

So with that analogy, voilà, my top 10 typography terms are below.

But why wait? Download my FREE typography guide here and start sounding like a pro today!

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1. leading

Leading describes the vertical space between each line of type. The term stems from the ye olde days when strips of lead were used to separate lines of type in the days of metal typesetting.

2. kerning

Kerning is the space between two individual letters to optimize their visual appeal and readability. For example, where an uppercase ‘A’ meets an uppercase ‘V’, their diagonal strokes are usually kerned so that the top left of the ‘V’ sits above the bottom right of the ‘A’. This is the reason the icon for this has the letters ‘A’ and ‘V’.

To adjust the kern, you have to place your cursor between the two characters.

3. tracking

Tracking is the amount of space between multiple letters in a passage. To tighten or loosen the tracking, you highlight the words or select all the characters you want to adjust.

4. serif/sans serif font

Serifs are the semi-structural details on the ends of some strokes of letters and symbols; typefaces without these projections are known as sans serif.

In general, sans serif fonts are used onscreen because the extra “doo-dads” (serifs) make it harder to read copy on a screen. But in print, it’s not uncommon to see a sans serif heading paired with serif body copy or vice versa. There are no hard-fast rules anymore other than to say that you don’t want to introduce too many fonts in one layout.

5. font family

Fonts with a “full family” have variations of the typeface, not just one font. Examples can include options such as: bold, italic, oblique, condensed, bold italic, condensed bold, heavy, demi, etc. Designers never click the bold button when they can choose the true bold version of the font.

6. justified

Not just a great Justin Timberlake solo album, this is the paragraph alignment that allows for copy to begin flush left and finish flush right. It’s often used in layouts with columns of text so a perfect gutter (the space between columns) forms. Be careful to not have copy that’s too squished or too spaced out in your attempt to be “justified” in your decision to justify copy. (I know, groan!)

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do you know these top 10 typography terms?

~graphics grrrl

7. baseline grid

The baseline is the line upon which most letters sit and below which descenders (such as the lower loop of a ‘g’) extend. You can show the baseline grid in InDesign, for example, in order to line up copy from one side of a spread to the other.

8. ascenders/descenders

The part of a lowercase letterform that projects above the x-height of the font, ascenders are important for ease of prolonged reading, though the combination of too much ascender-height and not enough x-height can cause problems.

Descenders are the part of the letterform that falls below the baseline. In lowercase terms, this means ‘p’, ‘y’ and ‘q’, and sometimes applies to uppercase ‘J’ and ‘Q’.

9. em/en

Em is a horizontal space equal to the current point size of text. En is a horizontal measure one half the size of an Em. These terms are used in conjunction with space or dash to indicate how long each are to be.

But why wait? Download my FREE typography guide here and start sounding like a pro today!

10. widow/orphan

Kinda harsh language, I know, but in typographic terms, widows and orphans are lines at the beginning or end of a paragraph, which are left dangling at the top or bottom of a column, separated from the rest of the paragraph.

A paragraph-ending line that falls at the beginning of the following page or column, thus separated from the rest of the text is a widow.

A paragraph-opening line that appears by itself at the bottom of a page or column, thus separated from the rest of the text is an orphan.

A common mnemonic is “An orphan is alone from the beginning; a widow is alone at the end,” or “An orphan starts alone, a widow ends alone.” Another way to think is that orphaned lines appear at the “birth” (start) of paragraphs; widowed lines appear at the “death” (end) of paragraphs.