Graphic designLesson 1 of 2 in the course Typography

Typography: Typeface Terminology, Styles, Production, and Design

5 flashcards · 5 quiz questions · 5 match pairs · 3 fill-in sentences · English

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Summary

This lesson introduces typefaces, fonts, and the parts of letterforms. Understanding these terms helps you choose and describe type accurately.

A typeface is a design for letters, numbers, and other symbols used in print or electronic display. A typeface can have variations in weight, slope, width, and size. Each particular variation or implementation is a font. For example, a family may have regular, bold, and italic fonts.

All flashcards

What is a typeface?
A design of letters, numbers, and other symbols made for printing or electronic display.
How does a font differ from a typeface?
A typeface is the underlying design. A font is a particular style or implementation of it, traditionally at a specific size and today commonly a digital software file.
What are glyphs and graphemes?
A grapheme is an individual character, such as a letter or punctuation mark; a glyph is the visual form used to represent it.
What do the baseline, x-height, cap height, ascenders, and descenders describe?
The baseline is where most letters sit; x-height measures lowercase x; cap height measures capitals; ascenders rise above the x-height; descenders extend below the baseline.
What is optical size?
The intended physical viewing size of a font. A design may need adjustments for small or large use rather than merely being scaled uniformly.

Quiz questions

  1. What does the term typeface describe?Answer: The visual design of letters, numerals, and symbols.
  2. What is a glyph?Answer: The visual form used to represent a grapheme.
  3. Which statement best distinguishes a type designer from a typographer?Answer: A type designer creates letterform designs; a typographer arranges type on a page.
  4. What is the x-height in Latin-script type?Answer: The height of a lowercase x, measured from the baseline.
  5. Why does 12-point type not mean every visible character is 12 points tall?Answer: Point size describes the em square, not the visible height of every glyph.

Based on the Wikipedia article Typeface, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Adapted into a summary, flashcards and quizzes.

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