Typography Vocabulary

adjusting the space between individual letter pairs

“Poor kerning made the logo look unprofessional.”

Origin: From kern 'part of a metal type projecting beyond the body'

the vertical space between lines of text

“Generous leading improved readability of the body text.”

Origin: From lead strips placed between lines of metal type

uniform adjustment of spacing across a range of characters

“Loose tracking gave the headline an elegant feel.”

Origin: English track 'path, course' applied to letter spacing

small decorative strokes at the ends of letters

“Serif fonts convey tradition and authority.”

Origin: Dutch schreef 'line, stroke' from schrijven 'to write'

typefaces without decorative strokes on letters

“Sans-serif fonts dominate digital interfaces.”

Origin: French sans 'without' + Dutch schreef 'stroke'

a set of fonts sharing common design features

“Helvetica is one of the most ubiquitous typefaces.”

Origin: English type 'printed letter' + face 'appearance'

the invisible line on which letters sit

“Aligning to the baseline creates visual harmony.”

Origin: English base 'foundation' + line

the height of lowercase letters like 'x'

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

Origin: From the letter x as the standard measure

two or more letters combined into a single glyph

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

Origin: Latin ligatura 'bond' from ligare 'to bind'

the visual organization of type by importance

“Typographic hierarchy guides readers through content.”

Origin: Greek hierarkhia 'rule of a high priest' from hieros 'sacred' + arkhein 'to rule'