Typography Vocabulary

adjusting the space between individual letter pairs

“Poor kerning made the logo look unprofessional.”

the vertical space between lines of text

“Generous leading improved readability of the body text.”

uniform adjustment of spacing across a range of characters

“Loose tracking gave the headline an elegant feel.”

small decorative strokes at the ends of letters

“Serif fonts convey tradition and authority.”

typefaces without decorative strokes on letters

“Sans-serif fonts dominate digital interfaces.”

a set of fonts sharing common design features

“Helvetica is one of the most ubiquitous typefaces.”

the invisible line on which letters sit

“Aligning to the baseline creates visual harmony.”

the height of lowercase letters like 'x'

“A generous x-height improves legibility at small sizes.”

two or more letters combined into a single glyph

“The 'fi' ligature prevents awkward letter collision.”

the visual organization of type by importance

“Typographic hierarchy guides readers through content.”